Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro`s socialist government said on Wednesday a move by the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) to censure the country for breaching democratic norms is an ”imperialist” scheme to take the OPEC member`s oil, according to Reuters.
Under increasing international pressure and facing an internal opposition push for a referendum to recall Maduro, the government reacted with fury to OAS chief Luis Almagro`s request for an emergency meeting this month on Venezuela, as reported by Reuters.
”The empire has decided that it`s time to take our resources,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told reporters, casting Almagro as a tool of U.S. policy.
”We know that what`s coming is an intervention.”
Almagro, a former Uruguayan foreign minister, has described Maduro as a ”petty dictator” who has disrupted democracy in Venezuela by sidelining the opposition-led congress and stuffing the supreme court with loyalists.
This week, Almagro asked the hemispheric body`s permanent council to hold a meeting on Venezuela, starting a process that could end in the country`s suspension from OAS.
At its Washington headquarters, the regional group debated a draft declaration urging talks to end the Venezuelan crisis. The special session appeared to be a bid by some nations, including Mexico and Argentina, to avoid the next more dramatic step proposed by Almagro.
The meeting, punctuated by debates over language and procedure, adopted a consensus declaration that sought to ”identify, by common accord, a course of action that will assist the search for solutions through open and inclusive dialogue.”
It also backed crisis-mediation efforts by former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and former presidents Martin Torrijos of Panama and Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic.
Venezuela`s problems could not be resolved by ”importing a solution” from the outside, said Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra.
”Solutions come from within and the Venezuelans have to find that mechanism and I`m convinced that is possible,” she told reporters in Buenos Aires.
OAS spokesman Gonzalo Espariz said the mid-June meeting could only be averted if Almagro withdrew his call.
Though Venezuela has lost heavyweight diplomatic support with Argentina and Brazil`s recent moves to the right, it can still count on the loyalty of leftist governments in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.
The South American nation of 30 million people is suffering a deep recession, the world`s highest inflation, shortages of basic supplies and high crime levels.
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