Brazil Declares Top Venezuelan Diplomat Persona Non-Grata

Brazil’s government will declare Venezuela’s chargé d‘affaires persona non-grata, stripping him of his diplomatic status, Brazil’s foreign affairs ministry told Reuters on Tuesday.

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The move to cease official recognition of Gerardo Antonio Delgado Maldonado follows Venezuela’s expulsion of Brazil’s diplomatic envoy over the weekend.

Brazilian Ambassador to Caracas Ruy Pereira has been expelled from Venezuela by a decision by the National Constituent Assembly (ANC).

Venezuela accused Brazil of violating the rule of law: "We have decided to declare persona non grata the Brazilian ambassador until such a time as the constitutional order is restored in the neighboring country," ANC President Delcy Rodriguez told journalists this weekend.

Her remarks were a direct rebuke of Brazil's Senate-imposed President Michel Temer, who last week said that Venezuela would be welcomed back into regional trading bloc Mercosur if the country returned to democracy.

"Pluralism is the very essence of democracy," Temer said, explaining that the Mercosur promise existed to foster "concreteness to this pledge, during times when fundamental rights are put in question."

Back in May, just as Brazil's political crisis seemed like it couldn't get any worse, Temer was caught on tape giving his blessing to bribes paid to judges, prosecutors, a police task-force member, and Eduardo Cunha, the former president of Brazil's lower house of representatives and a powerful witness in the government's corruption investigation.