Venezuelan diplomats with assignments in the United States are facing conflicting orders: one issued by the internationally condemned President Nicolas Maduro calling them home; the other, by self-declared interim President Juan Guaido telling them to remain at their posts.
Their decision whether to stay or go will affect the thousands of Venezuelans who need consular services such as obtaining or renewing passports. News agencies reported that the Venezuelan consulate in Washington posted a sign Friday saying it was closed "until further notice."
At a rally in Caracas Friday, Guaido urged Venezuelan diplomats overseas to disobey Maduro's orders to leave the United States and close the embassy in Washington and the consulates in Miami, New York, Houston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Chicago and Puerto Rico.
"To those officials, I say: Reject the usurper [of the presidency] and continue carrying out your function. Stay to take care of your people," he said in a speech in the Chacao sector of Caracas.
Guaido dismissed Maduro's order to leave as an act of "arrogance" and said it would leave unprotected the more than 1 million Venezuelans who live in the United States.
Diego Arria, a former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, said Maduro's orders to close the diplomatic missions prove he cares little for Venezuelans who live in the United States.
"He's done this because he doesn't care about Venezuelans. He considers Venezuelans living abroad to be his enemies," Arria said. The order to close the diplomatic missions will affect all Venezuelans as well as entrepreneurs who import and export between the two countries, he said.
Venezuelan diplomatic properties in the United States are not in jeopardy because the U.S. government will protect them, he said.
Some of the properties are valuable. Arria estimated that the Venezuelan consulate near New York City's Fifth Avenue alone is worth around $100 million.
The residence of the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations has been valued at about $30 million. And the country also owns a building in Washington that houses its missions to the United States and the Organization of American States, and a consulate.
