On Wednesday, the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, criticized the “failure” of the International Contact Group (ICG) on Venezuela to meet the deadline that had been set to promote elections, and asked to intervene to stop the violence in the South American country.
The GIC, formed by European and Latin American countries, was launched on February 7th in Montevideo with a period of 90 days to promote presidential elections as a peaceful solution to the political crisis in Venezuela. It met this week in Costa Rica.
The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), which promotes the departure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a dictator, recalled the date and stressed that the mediation efforts have not worked.
It is very important to remember that 90 days have already passed with total failure,”
said Almagro at a forum on Venezuela organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an influential think tank in Washington.
Since January, Maduro, clinging to power with support from Cuba, Russia and China, faces the challenge of Juan Guaidó, the head of the Legislative elected in 2015, recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries headed by the United States, who demands the cessation of the usurpation to organize new elections.
Almagro, who blames Maduro for the violence and repression in Venezuela, urged the use of available international public law instruments, such as humanitarian intervention under the responsibility to protect, to put an end to what he denounced as crimes against humanity.
The Secretary believes that without specific operation nobody will stop the Colombian guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela, nor the “collectives” (civil groups armed by the government according to the opposition), nor the Mexican cartels, nor the presence of Cubans and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.