Despite growing pressure from within his own party, British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has refused to condemn the authoritarian leadership of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro.
Over the past decade, Mr Corbyn has been an openly enthusiastic supporter of Venezuela's socialist governments, previously supporting the leadership of former president Hugo Chavez and his successor, Mr Maduro.
But with the country in crisis, opposition leaders detained and more than 120 people dying during protests against the increasingly anti-democratic regime, Mr Corbyn has been under pressure to speak out against the leadership in Venezuela.
But on his first day back from summer holidays Mr Corbyn stopped short of personally holding him to account for the crisis in the South American nation.
"I'm very sad of the lives that have been lost in Venezuela, those who have died, either those on the streets or security forces that have been attacked by people on the streets," he said.
"All of those lives are terrible for the loss of them.
"There has to be a dialogue and a process that respects the independence of the judiciary and respects the human rights of all."
But when the inevitable question came from a journalist, asking whether he condemned Mr Maduro's actions, the Labour leader failed to give an answer.
"What I condemn is the violence that's been done by any side on all sides of this," Mr Corbyn said.
"Violence is not going to solve the issue."
Behaving like 'the dictator of an evil regime'
His comments fell well short of the kind of damning statements coming from the UK and US governments.
Last week, the White House issued direct financial sanctions against the Venezuelan President, citing what it called an "outrageous seizure of power".
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson accused Mr Maduro of behaving like "the dictator of an evil regime".
The leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable said the Labour Party, "needs to make it clear that they have ended their infatuation with the Venezuelan regime".
"I would hope he would first of all condemn completely the dictatorial tendencies of the regime and accept that what's seen 10-15 years ago as a kind of role model, has actually failed," he said
When Chavez died in 2013, Mr Corbyn described him as an inspiration.
"Chavez strode the world, spoke up for the Palestinians, spoke up for the poor around the world in inspiration to all of us," Mr Corbyn said.
"Fighting back against austerity and neoliberalism economics in Europe, showed us there is a different and better way of doing things."
But at that time Mr Corbyn was a humble backbencher.
Now he is Labour's leader, taking on Theresa May's minority government, and under increasing pressure to distance himself from the people and policies that have led Venezuela into a political and economic crisis.
