VENEZUELA protested to Argentina after security guards violently assaulted Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.

Ms Rodriguez was trying to attend a foreign minister’s meeting of regional trade bloc Mercosur at the Argentinian Foreign Ministry, despite Venezuela’s suspension last week.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he had lodged a formal letter of protest with the Argentinian government over its “cowardice” in the unprecedented incident earlier that day.

New right-wing governments of the so-called “Triple Alliance” of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay voted to suspend Caracas in support of US-backed opposition demands for the overthrow of Mr Maduro’s socialist government.

A video showed riot police trying to push back reporters crowded round the minister as she crossed the street to the ministry.

“She was thrown to the floor in the door of the Foreign Ministry, and … assaulted by the security chiefs.” Mr Maduro said.

It was an act “never before seen,” he added. “Violence has returned to the intolerant right.”

Venezuelan women’s minister Blanca Eekhout condemned the “misogynist violence of the Argentine political forces,” adding: “The fascist right fears Latin American unity.”

Telesur reported that Ms Rodriguez’s Bolivian counterpart David Choquehuanca, who accompanied her in solidarity, suffered a broken finger as he tried to defend her.

Bolivian President Evo Morales tweeted: “Aggression by imperialist interference unacceptable. We are not the backyard of the US.”

Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra justified the attack, saying: “You never go to a summit, to a multilateral meeting without authorisation.”