Brazil strips off Maduro officials' diplomatic status in a show of support for Guaido

Brazil authorities have stripped off the diplomatic status of 29 Venezuelan officials in the country, calling them representatives of an "illegitimate" regime. The Brazilian government has declared the Venezuelan diplomats personae non-gratae, a legal term which means the foreign official representative is no longer welcome in the State concern. 

However, the Jair Bolsonaro-led government has not asked the officials to leave the country but stated that the envoys will lose all diplomatic privileges, including the immunity of being exempted from becoming subject to Brazilian law enforcement. This means that the 29 Venezuelan officials, who are believed to be President Nicolas Maduro's loyal aides, will be treated as ordinary foreign nationals and hence, will have to stop carrying out diplomatic duties or introducing themselves as such. 

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The move is a bid to push Maduro loyalists out of Brazil and Bolsonaro's show of support for Juan Guaido, Maduro's opponent, whom the Brazilian President had recognised as the legitimate leader of Venezuela last year, giving Guaido's envoy a full ambassador status.

Bolsonaro had withdrawn his officials and diplomats from Caracus earlier this year and set a deadline of May for Maduro to withdraw his officials from Brasilia. 

State of Affairs in Venezuela 

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, who is currently facing severe sanctions by several nations including the United States, last week pardoned over 100 opposition leaders ahead of the crucial December poll in a bid to portray the election as fair and free.

Maduro has pushed his country into Latin America's biggest economic crisis as the oil-rich country is struggling to put even basic goods in the market with prices skyrocketing and people fleeing to neighbouring nations for a better life. 

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