OAS spent a year promoting interventionism in Venezuela

AVN.- The withdrawal of Venezuela from the Organization of American States (OAS), a process that will begin on Thursday, was decided after a year of actions aimed at invoking the Democratic Charter against the country through discussions that were not endorsed by the South American nation, where there is no rupture of the constitutional order, an indispensable condition to apply the instrument.

On April 28, 2016, OAS secretary general, Luis Almagro, received a group of parliamentarians from Venezuela's opposition coalition MUD, who insisted on the Executive to pass legal instruments such as the law –declared unconstitutional– to forgive crimes against humanity committed since 1999 to the present. After that meeting, he said he would invoke the Inter-American Democratic Charter against the country, without fulfilling the established conditions.

Such move was rejected by Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez, who spoke at an extraordinary meeting of the OAS Permanent Council on May 5 to repudiate Almagro's petition, who requested to activate the charter against the country on May 31 with a report based on data from press releases.

On June 21, Rodriguez attended a permanent council meeting with Spanish former president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who is supporting the dialogue process promoted by President Nicolas Maduro, to explain the scope of the government-opposition talks.

Two days later, the Almagro report was debated with the aim of invoking the letter, but the proposal received 12 votes against, one abstention and two absences, not enough to apply the instrument against Venezuela.

"This is a historic decision the one taken today, 19 votes in favor says a lot about how countries have matured and moved forward, and ratified their sovereignty and independence," she said at the time.

The scenario is repeated in 2017

On February 7, Almagro said he would rule out attempting to apply the democratic charter while the Vatican served as mediator of dialogues initiated in October between the executive and the opposition, which decided to abandon the process under allegations of non-compliance of the accords.

Three days later, the OAS Secretary General met again with a group of MUD lawmakers to the National Assembly (AN), which was held in contempt in July 2016 for non-compliance with court rulings, and announced he would initiate the process to apply the charter, although Pope Francis expressed his willingness to accompany the conversations that began three months earlier.

On March 14, Almagro presented another report on Venezuela and requested without the government's consent to discuss the internal situation of the country. Two weeks later, the issue was addressed at the request of Belize, Guyana, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, USA, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Barbados, Bahamas, Saint Lucia and Jamaica.

These 20 countries presented a document that, like the Almagro report, was intended to open the way to apply the letter. The text "rather represents a violation of international law, so we can not recognize them as participants of goodwill, because you with that document are promoting a coup in the country," said the Venezuelan ambassador to the OAS, Samuel Moncada, after delivery of the document.

Following the debate, the Chair of the Permanent Council at that time, the Belizean Patrick Andrews, said all delegations' speeches would be included in the final act. Then the session was adjourned, which ended without approval of the procedures for the application of the letter.

On April 1, opposition deputy Julio Borges –elected head of Venezuelan parliament while remaining in contempt of court– handed Almagro another report on the country's situation, as part of the international campaign pointing out that in Venezuela there is a rupture of the constitutional order.

That day, Bolivia's pro tempore presidency began in front of the permanent council, and this country suspended the session called on April 3 to once again discuss about Venezuela, on the basis that agenda of discussion was not clear. Despite the decision, 21 countries decided to ignore it and opened the discussion, rejected by the Venezuelan and Bolivian delegations for contravening the rules of the organization.

During the meeting, which took place the same day that MUD deputies William Davila and Luis Florido were at the OAS, 17 countries were in favor of approving resolution to activate the letter, when 18 votes were needed, the simple majority.

On Wednesday, another discussion was held to approve a meeting of foreign ministers on Venezuela again without the country's endorsement. Given the precedents, the South American nation finally decided to withdraw from the hemispheric organization, a process that will take two years.

"The withdrawal of this organization has to do with the dignity of our people, of the Bolivarian doctrine that defends multilateralism," said Rodriguez, stressing that Secretary General Luis Almagro, has reedited the interventionist file the OAS has carried out since its foundation, to support coups d'etat in sovereign nations and military invasions.