Venezuela Defends Sovereignty Against Possible OAS Suspension

Venezuela protested this Tuesday's OAS extraordinary session set to debate the South American nation's expulsion from the body. 

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Los Angeles, March 28, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez addressed the Organization of American States (OAS) Monday in an effort to suspend Tuesday’s extraordinary session set to discuss the expulsion of the South American nation under article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Venezuela argues that the OAS session violates the regional body’s norms given it was scheduled without the Caracas’ consent.

During Monday’s meeting in Washington D.C., Rodríguez denounced OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro’s campaign against Venezuela, accusing the OAS head of attacking the Bolivarian Revolution and attempting to topple the elected Maduro government.  

“Almagro is a liar, dishonest, evildoer, and mercenary,” the top diplomat stated.

“Almagro is not acting alone, he is a conduit for the orders that are dictated to him by Washington,” she added, accusing the OAS chief of participating in a regional right-wing campaign against Venezuela.

Rodríguez noted that in his role as general secretary, Almagro has allegedly dedicated 21% of his social media tweets to defaming Venezuela’s Bolivarian government. Additionally, from March 14 to March 24, 2017, the former Uruguayan diplomat reportedly focused 73% of his tweets on Venezuela, including his celebration of US senators’ unanimous resolution for stronger sanctions against the South American nation. 

Rodríguez also presented information suggesting that within in the last year, Almagro has met with the Venezuelan opposition at least 26 times and thus calling into question the OAS head’s ability to act independently and without outside influence mandated by the international body’s charter.

Fifty-seven per cent of those meetings were with members of the far-right leaning Popular Will (VP) party, “one of our most extremist right-wing” opposition forces, Rordríguez stated. 

“We must make history, the people of the world must know this dark personality, the OAS Secretary General,” Rodríguez declared.

In her nearly hour long presentation, Rodríguez also denounced the OAS of serving US political and economic interests citing the regional body’s silence on nearly 50 coups across Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The OAS never condemned the coup attempt against Chavez,” said Rodriguez. “The OAS supported the [coup in] Guatemala and the failed invasion of Cuba.”

Eighteen OAS member countries supported Almagro’s call for Tuesday’s session including: Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, and Uruguay.

During Tuesday’s session, if two-thirds of the OAS’ 35 member countries vote to apply the “Democratic Charter,” this would automatically suspend Venezuela from the regional body. 

Almagro reintroduced his call for international intervention and Venezuela’s suspension in recent weeks claiming that the dialogue between the opposition and Bolivarian government has stalled and therefore, failed.

However, the UNASUR international mediation team headed by the former presidents of Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Panama – Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Leonel Fernandez and Martin Torrijos – issued a statement Monday expressing their support for the dialogue process.  

“We think that dialogue is possible and more necessary than ever in Venezuela,” the letter stated. “A dialogue based on the values of democracy, human rights and peace and managed with the only tools at our disposal: words, good faith and diplomacy.”