Boric appoints new Chilean ambassador to Venezuela after years of estrangement

By Maolis Castro

Chilean President Gabriel Boric appointed socialist Jaime Gazmuri Mujica as Chile’s ambassador to Venezuela.

The appointment took place Thursday (25), after five years of a vacant position due to the political divorce between both countries.

With the appointment, La Moneda Palace is trying to normalize diplomatic relations with Miraflores, especially to approach solutions to the migratory crisis, mostly led by Venezuelans, which affects Chile and has been generating tensions with neighboring countries such as Bolivia and Peru for some months.

The return of an ambassador to Caracas comes months after the arrival of Alberto van Klaveren to the Chilean Foreign Ministry, who in April participated in the International Conference on the Political Process in Venezuela, convened by the government of Colombia.

In that instance, the participating delegations stressed the importance of holding transparent elections in Venezuela by 2024, and van Klaveren said that international support could help Chile solve the “migratory flow” issue.

The leftist Boric, who took office in March 2022, has been critical of Nicolás Maduro’s government, receiving harsh responses from Caracas.

“It angers me when you are a leftist, and you can’t talk about Venezuela or Nicaragua,” he said last year.

Gazmuri’s appointment is an attempt at a rapprochement after a rift between the two South American countries, whose breaking point was generated when Maduro pushed for a constituent assembly to hinder the main opposition parliament in 2017.

The last Chilean ambassador to Venezuela was Felipe Ramirez Ceballos, appointed by former President Michelle Bachelet.

Relations cooled further during the government of Sebastián Piñera, who supported the Venezuelan opposition.

From then on, there was only one chargé d’affaires as diplomatic representative in Caracas.

WHO IS JAIME GAZMURI?

Gazmuri, 79, was Chile’s ambassador to Brazil between 2014 and 2018, appointed by former President Bachelet.

An agricultural engineer, the diplomat has an extensive career as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Organization of American States (OAS).

He is currently a member of the Election Qualifying Tribunal, the Advisory Council of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and vice-president of the Permanent Foreign Policy Forum.

Previously, Gazmuri was a senator between 1990 and 2010, a member of the Foreign Affairs, Finance, Agriculture and Labor, Economy, Housing, and Defense committees.

He was also a member of the National Television Council between 2011 and 2013 and director of the National Television of Chile, in 2019, among other positions in public administration.

He is the author of articles and essays on political issues such as defense and security, foreign relations, development, and indigenous affairs.

With information from Bloomberg

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