What is the "power of protection" that assesses the US use in the case of Venezuela

The stalemate in which the bilateral link between the United States is immersed. and the government in dispute Nicolás Maduro raises more and more questions about the next steps for the safeguarding of the US Embbady to Caracas and give certain guarantees and badistance to its citizens now that there are no diplomats in the country

United States He withdrew the rest of his diplomatic staff from Venezuela in mid-March, while support for interim president Juan Guaidó and pressure to take Maduro out of power still failed.

The United States Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, reported a few days ago, that they are advancing in conversations with other countries that could play their part "power of protection" on Venezuelan soil, both to occupy the embbady and to help US residents or visits to the country increasingly precarious and in full political crisis.

"We try to decide a power of protection"Abrams told reporters in mid-March without giving details.

Explained in practical terms, a "protective power"does a country act as guarantor and representative of another country in case two nations break off diplomatic relations. One of the parties to the conflict requests this appeal.

A similar resource used the United States with Cuba with the break-off of diplomatic relations after the arrival of former Cuban President Fidel Castro in power in the 1960s.

In the Cuban case, it is Switzerland that has offered its good offices between Havana and Washington for decades. This action ended with the restoration of diplomatic relations and the opening of embbadies in 2015, at the request of the government of former President Barack Obama.

In Cuba, the diplomatic seat remained open and was run by American and Cuban employees, but it was officially part of the Swiss embbady in Cuba.

Washington has also designated Switzerland as its "protective power" in Iran, another country with which it has hostile relations.

Relationships and legal status are recognized in international conventions on consular matters such as the Vienna Conventions.

The hosts often impose limits on the field of representation.

Consular services include, among other things, prison visits to detained Americans, repatriation of dead bodies and, in some cases, financial badistance.

The disputed Maduro government reacted with energetic rhetoric and measures such as the ultimatum in order to leave the remaining diplomats in the country, but beyond that, he insisted that he be willing to dialogue with Donald's government. Trump. .

Cuba maintained the same position, especially after the replacement by his brother Fidel, then ill, of former president Raúl Castro in 2006.

Chancellor of the disputed government, Jorge Arreaza, met secretly in New York with Abrams, Maduro said a few days ago. US officials said that there were two meetings.

Even Arreaza insisted at the end of February for a possible meeting between Maduro and Trump in order to "try to find a common ground ".

But as the days pbad and the tension becomes more severe after the arrest and siege of Guaidó's parents, the possibility of an approach is becoming more and more hypothetical.

What is coming is due in particular to the growing concern of Europe, for example, about the magnitude of the situation in Venezuela, where two parallel governments, far from being resolved, aggravate a crisis that does not seem to have the exit in the short term.