Some twenty countries, some under pressure, others with a clear posture of neoliberalism and surrender, attempted to violate our sovereignty in a Machiavellianly calculated meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS). Another 11 countries with a strong sovereign spirit of anti-imperialist integration opposed the agenda set out by the United States and the exiled Venezuelan bourgeoisie that attempted to declare us a dictatorial and anti-democratic FAILED STATE, on the basis of a manipulated report drawn up by the General Secretary of this organization, Luis Almagro.  Almagro was originally proposed for that organization by the polemical ex-president of Uruguay, Pepe Mujica, who repented last year of having proposed him and today, in the face of the situation in Venezuela, Pepe washes his hands like Pilate.

Our sovereignty is not in discussion

Our foreign minister, Delcy Rodríguez, was very clear in her intervention, a day before the illegal installation of the Permanent Council, expressing that they were violating the rules of the organization, by convening a permanent council meeting of the OAS with the purpose of analyzing our internal situation without our consent, converting this act into a form of intervention in our internal affairs.

With figures in hand, the Venezuelan minister indicted how the whole report manipulated by Almagro was part of an agenda that was being developed since last year. In the report presented by Almagro on March 14, he even dared to fix deadlines for calling for elections in our country and for the liberation of prisoners; but these common prisoners who, as was demonstrated by Venezuelan lawyer Larry Lavoe, were condemned for having committed crimes of murder, or for trafficking, or for having incited violence that left more than fifty people assassinated and set fire to schools, hospitals and universities.

In the meeting of the Permanent Manipulated Council (PMC), our representative to this body, the doctor and historian Samuel Moncada, indicated to the general secretary and the vice president of the OAS that they were violating the first Article of the OAS Charter, that states that "The Organization of American States has no powers other than those expressly conferred upon it by this Charter, none of whose provisions authorizes it to intervene in matters that are within the internal jurisdiction of the Member States.".

Our diplomat Samuel demanded that the legal Adviser of the OAS give an explication of why he was violating Article 1.  He responded that Article 1 was supported by Article 9 that says that a member will show, if it is violating Article 1, that another article justifies the convening of this council without consulting our country.  The legal adviser stated that this was in article 9.  But Article 9, read to him by Moncada, says textually: " A Member of the Organization whose democratically constituted government has been overthrown by force may be suspended from the exercise of the right to participate in the sessions of the General Assembly, the Meeting of Consultation, the Councils of the Organization and the Specialized Conferences as well as in the commissions, working groups and any other bodies established."

Samuel Moncada retorted "...how is this, in our country our government has not been overthrown by any force...we are a democratically elected government".

Definitely the 20 countries that signed to evaluate our country in the PMC (Permanently Manipulated Council) did not have any argument to justify analyzing our internal situation, in spite of the gross expressions of Mexico (where recently a common grave was found with over forty assassinated persons) as well as the position of Brazil, whose representative before the OAS is indeed the product of a coup d'état perpetrated against ex-president Dilma Rousseff, or Columbia, for which Venezuela has never requested a permanent council meeting in the face of a half century of conflict that caused over two hundred and fifty thousand deaths, or Paraguay that owes us three hundred million dollars for oil.

Evidently we are facing the kind of intervention that led to the coup d'état against Juan Bosch (Dominican Republic), against Allende in Chile, against Maurice Bishop (Grenada), against Aristides (Haiti) or Manuel Zelaya (Honduras). This script has been studied and the representatives of the puppet governments in the OAS will continue to insist until they reach their objective, but for the moment the defeat of Almagro is evident.

Last minute: Almagro returns to the charge

Following this defeat suffered last week by Almagro in his home field at the OAS, the ultra-right, alongside the United States and Almagro, declared that there was a COUP D'ÉTAT in Venezuela, on the basis of the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice relating to [the parliament] disrespecting legal order and violating national sovereignty by requesting the intervention of other states in our internal affairs. They therefore called for a meeting of the PMC to demand the application of the Democratic Charter and the expulsion of Venezuela from the body. This council, under the presidency of Belize, has been called with a character of urgency; however a week later, Bolivia will take over the presidency for three months; and with Bolivia at the head it will not be easy to continue manipulating the council at their whim.

3/4/2017

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop)