PM Gonsalves defends Venezuela against statements from OAS Secretary-General

Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves has defended Venezuela against statements made by Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro.

The OAS Secretary-General, in a letter to Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, dated May 18, called Maduro a traitor.{{more}}

“You betray your people and your supposed ideology with your rambling tirades, you are a traitor to ethics in politics with your lies and you betray the most sacred principle in politics, which is to subject yourself to the scrutiny of your people.

“You should return the riches of those who have governed with you to your country, because they belong to the people, you should return justice to your people in all the senses of the word (including finding the true killers of the 43 and not the people you hold prisoner for their ideas, although they may not be yours nor mine). You should return the political prisoners to their families.

“You should give the National Assembly back its legitimate power, because this comes from the people, you should return to the people the decision about their future. You will never be able to give back the lives of the children who have died in hospitals because they did not have medicine, you will never be able to free your people from so much suffering, so much intimidation, so much misery, so much distress and anxiety.

“I hope that no one commits the folly of carrying out a coup d’état against you, but also that you yourself do not do so. It is your duty. You have an obligation to public decency to hold the recall referendum in 2016, because when politics are polarized the decision must go back to the people. That is what the Constitution says. To deny the people that vote, to deny them the possibility of deciding, would make you just another petty dictator, like so many this Hemisphere has had,” the release from Almagro, a citizen of Uruguay, said.

Gonsalves, while addressing the Unity Labour Party’s convention on Sunday at the Campden Park Secondary School stated that Almagro has played a wrong role in allowing himself and the OAS “to be manipulated as a battering ram against the Bolivarian Republic.

“He has overplayed his hand and he must stop it,” Gonsalves said.

“I am saying that he must be very measured in his approach and not be polemical and contentious. That is not his role as the Secretary- General of the OAS. I want to make those pronouncements very clear. St Vincent and the Grenadines, our government and people, we are not fair-weather friends. We are friends of the government and people of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” the Prime Minister added Gonsalves said, however, while he stands with his friends, he is not denouncing Almagro or saying that he is not a good and decent human being.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in response said Almagro had violated “the legal and constitutional order of Venezuela, giving himself supranational powers, and violating the OAS Charter, particularly Article 118.”

The release also stated that Venezuela denounced what it considered to be actions outside of the competence of the OAS and the “overreach of functions and abuse of power” by Almagro.

“Luis Almagro has been biased, without any qualm, nor ethic, with the violent and anti-democratic putschists sectors, with the support from international interfering factors, they promote the overthrow of the legitimate and constitutional Government of President Nicolas Maduro Moros.

“Almagro is the outstanding actor of sustained and systematic forgery and false assumptions that have risen up against Venezuela, by the imperial powers and their local operators, with the sole purpose of justifying foreign intervention, including military, to seize the immense natural resources in our Homeland.

“We alert the world that once again a coup that seeks to alter the sovereign will of our People is underway.

“We make a call on the Peoples and sovereign governments and particularly the countries of the South, to condemn this new attempt to destroy the Bolivarian constitutional democracy and its conquests on the subject of Human Rights, inaugurated by our Supreme Leader Hugo Chavez, and to express their support for our People at this crucial moment in history for independence and freedom.

“Venezuela is today an example of sovereignty and self-determination. The imperialists and their local agents aim to tear down this impenetrable wall of sovereign dignity, built on the historic invincible strength of our Liberators,” the release from Venezuela said.(CM)