Venezuela at OAS: If US Really Wants to Help, Stop Attacking Us

Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada scolded the U.S. government Tuesday, saying the White House should stop attacking his country if they are serious about “helping” its people at an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of American States, OAS, called in an attempt to suspend Venezuela from the organization.

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“If the U.S. really wants to help Venezuela, it must repeal (former President Barack) Obama’s decree against our country,” Moncada said at the meeting.

In March 2015, Obama issued an executive order labeling the Bolivarian country “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy. Obama also issued sanctions against several Venezuelan politicians and businesses, which have ramped up under President Donald Trump’s administration.

“Today it was demonstrated in the OAS that there is an act of interventionism being planned against Venezuela that is in violation of international law,” Moncada said at the meeting. “We strongly reject the crude acts of the group of countries that signed to support an intervention in Venezuela.”

The OAS meeting was organized by Secretary-General Luis Almagro, who aimed to suspend Venezuela from the regional organization for alleged “human rights abuses.” Almagro called the meeting with the hope of invoking the group's Democratic Charter against the South American country that would lead to its suspension.

Nicaragua’s representative denounced the meeting as “illegal” and as a “destructive campaign.” He stated that the OAS does not have the right to intervene in the internal affairs of any country.

Prior to the meeting, both Nicaragua and Bolivia, along with Venezuela, called on the OAS to suspend it, arguing that it would violate Venezuela’s sovereignty.

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The Dominican Republic’s representative said that the meeting was “hypocritical,” given that the OAS did not take action in 1965 when U.S. troops invaded his country. The Caribbean country, along with Haiti and El Salvador, also defended Venezuela against the suspension attempts.

A third of the 35 member countries would need to vote on applying the charter to trigger the suspension, however, the vote did not take place.

The meeting was supported by 18 countries: Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia and Uruguay, with the assault led by the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Paraguay and Argentina.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio threatened dissenting countries that if they did not vote in favor of invoking the Democratic Charter, it would be difficult to defend the continuation of U.S. aid to their people.