Press. voanews.com
As the Organization of American States weighs how to address a political
and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, the United States on Tuesday said it was
seeking the South American country's cooperation rather than its
"immediate suspension" from the hemispheric group.
Representatives of the OAS Permanent Council gathered at the
organization's Washington headquarters, near the White House, to consider how
to deal with Venezuela. Its socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, has jailed
political opponents, ignored the results of regional elections and commandeered
the judiciary branch as the country has spiraled into poverty and chaos.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro released a report this month
detailing the violations and urging Venezuela's suspension from OAS unless its
government acted quickly to improve conditions there.
In a news briefing Tuesday, a senior official said the U.S. State
Department shared Almagro's "concern about the state of democracy in
Venezuela." But, the official continued, "we urge Venezuela to
participate in a productive discussion on how to resolve the economic and
humanitarian crisis in that country. Our objective in this session is not an immediate
suspension."
Call for elections
The official said Maduro's administration should respect the Venezuelan
constitution, "allow the democratically elected National Assembly to
perform its constitutional functions, and must call for elections as soon as
possible."
The official also called for "the immediate release of political
prisoners in Venezuela," including one of Maduro's chief opponents,
Leopoldo Lopez.
The Permanent Council's most extreme corrective measure would be to
suspend Venezuela's OAS membership, requiring a two-thirds vote, meaning
support of 22 of the body's 34 member states. The measure would trigger
monitoring by observers from around the region.
Anticipating a possible OAS vote, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Monday
said Haiti, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador should be prepared to cast
ballots for suspension to protect Venezuela's democracy — and their own U.S.
aid.
"We have a very difficult situation in Washington, where massive
cuts in foreign aid are under consideration," the Florida Republican said
in an interview with the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald. "And it will be very
difficult for us to justify assistance to those countries if they, at the end
of the day, are countries that do not cooperate in the defense of democracy in
the region."
Surprised by positions
The senator told the newspaper he had been surprised that the three
countries — dependent on U.S. foreign aid but also benefiting from discounted
oil from Venezuela — were undecided about how they might vote. In the
interview, Rubio said he thought the U.S. government would support Almagro's
proposal.
Last week, 14 OAS member states — including the United States and Brazil
— signed a declaration demanding that Venezuela promptly schedule elections,
release political prisoners and recognize its constitution's separation of
powers, among other measures.
The United States already has imposed sanctions against Venezuela. In
2015, the Obama administration ordered sanctions against seven officials on the
ground that they threatened U.S. national security. Last month, the Trump
administration imposed sanctions against Venezuela's new vice president, Tareck
El Aissami, accusing him of involvement in sending large drug shipments to the
United States while serving as Venezuela's interior minister.
Almagro proposed possible suspension for Venezuela in mid-March,
accusing its government of violating the standards of the Inter-American
Democratic Charter, to which it is a signatory. Mark Weisbrot, co-director of
the liberal, Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, sees the
OAS leader's mediating strategy as purely political.
"Both the USA and Almagro are playing a very destructive role,
because they seek the overthrow of the government rather than dialogue and
negotiation, which is really the only way out of this crisis," Weisbrot
told VOA. He was speaking early in the day, before the State Department's
recommendation for Venezuela to engage in talks with OAS to improve conditions
there.
U.S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida, indicated
he would encourage suspending Venezuela from the OAS.
"We are talking about a regime that has close contacts with
terrorist groups throughout the world, and whose top officials are among the
world's largest drug traffickers and, therefore, a danger to the world, to U.S.
national security," Diaz-Balart told VOA.
In December, the South American regional economic bloc Mercosur
suspended Venezuela for failing to address human rights and trade standards. Vero
Balderas of VOA Spanish contributed to this report.