Venezuela’s government has acknowledged for the first time that members of the country’s opposition left the Argentine diplomatic compound where they had sheltered for over a year.

The politicians, who had been sheltering at the Argentinian embassy in Caracas for over a year to avoid arrest, are now on US soil.

Five Venezuelan opposition leaders who had been trapped inside the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas have been rescued and are now safely in the United States, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday night.