By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Tension between the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Amalgro and group of Latin American countries, including Brazil, increased over the weekend with declarations by Amalgro that suggest that military intervention in Venezuela would be acceptable.
According to representatives from the Latin American countries, dubbed the Lima Group, a peaceful solution to the humanitarian crisis faced by the country should be sought, as opposed to an overthrow the President Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela.
“They [Lima Group country members] express their concern and their rejection of any course of action or declaration involving military intervention or the exercise of violence, threat or use of force in Venezuela,” said the statement released by the Brazilian Foreign Service (Itamaraty) over the weekend.
In the note, the countries reaffirm ‘their commitment to contribute to the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and to overcome the grave political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis that this country is experiencing through a peaceful and negotiated solution’. The Lima Group supports the adoption of actions based on international law.
The statement by the group was released after the OAS Secretary General stated that a military action could not be ruled out to remove Nicolas Maduro from power.
“As for the military intervention to overthrow the regime of Nicolás Maduro, I believe we should not rule out any option,” Almagro said in a news conference in Colombia a few meters from the border with Venezuela on Friday.
“I will not shut up nor leave,” said Almagro on his social media account on Sunday
after the Lima Group criticized the Secretary General’s statement.
“The leaders of the governments that wanted me to be quiet are accomplices [of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro] and they wanted me to leave, but I will not do it until the dictatorship falls,” added the official.
In addition to Brazil, the governments of Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Saint Lucia seek a diplomatic resolution to the current economic and political turmoil faced by Venezuela.
The Lima Group was created in August last year after the economic and political situation in Venezuela deteriorated. Fourteen countries within North, Central and South America make up the group which seek to find a peaceful solution to the Venezuelan crisis.