Bolivia’s Evo Slams US for Using OAS as ‘Repressive Stick’ Against Venezuela

The General Assembly of the OAS is taking place in Washington between June 3 and 5 and Pence is expected to make the announcement then.  

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Bolivian President Evo Morales condemned U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s interventionist move of seeking to suspend Venezuela from the 35-member pan-American organization, the Organization of American States, OAS. 

“We condemn the interventionist intention of the U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who was defeated in his coup plan against Venezuela, and announced that he will ask the OAS assembly for the suspension of the sister nation,” the Bolivian president wrote on Twitter adding the United States intends to use the agency as a “repressive stick” against the sovereign nation.    

Pence said he would request the suspension of Venezuela from the organization before the OAS General Assembly on Monday, but for the motion to be accepted, 24 of the 35 member states must support it.   

The General Assembly of the OAS is taking place in Washington, between June 3 and 5 and Pence is expected to make the announcement then.  

The U.S.-backed OAS has continued to strike Venezuela even after the country has chosen its president through a democratic process. Earlier in May, before the Venezuelan elections on May 20,  Pence made calls urging the OAS  to suspend Venezuela from the association. 

Responding to his comments then the Bolivarian government of Venezuela reaffirmed its decision to renounce its membership at the organization, stressing again that the body has returned to “its original condition as a colonial body, at the service of Washington’s ambition for dominance in our region.”

Venezuela announced its withdrawal from the OAS last year and is currently in the two-year process of leaving the body.

The Venezuelan government decided to leave the OAS last year after its secretary general failed in passing a resolution to suspend Venezuelan membership at the organization over what he and other right wing governments in the region called a brutal crackdown on protesters last year as well as a “dictatorship” by Maduro. The resolution failed to pass after several governments in the Caribbean refused to back it and rejected the interventionist attempt by the U.S.-led body.