'The use of force is not a solution for what's happening in Venezuela'

The Lima Group of nations says it will take Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to the International Criminal Court and that it was more resolved than ever to see a democratic transition in the country.

کد خبر: ۸۸۱۳۷۹

تاریخ: ۰۷ اسفند ۱۳۹۷ - ۰۸:۵۲

But the influential bloc of Latin American countries plus Canada has stopped short of imposing new sanctions or taking other steps that might rattle the regime in Caracas after weeks of unrest.

Monday's meeting of the Lima Group, its 11th, was attended by US Vice President Mike Pence and Venezuela's self-declared interim president Juan Guaido. And there were expectations that the bloc might come out swinging after Venezuela violently stopped aid convoys on the Colombia-Venezuela border over the weekend. The group condemned Maduro's actions and said its commitment to a democratic transition in the country was now "irreversible".

The group takes its name from the Peruvian capital where they first met and is made up of representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Canada.

Monday's meeting comes as some believed the Lima Group might accept the need for military force to unseat Maduro. But early in the day, Peru's Assistant Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela Martinez poured cold water on the notion.

"The use of force, in any of its forms, is unacceptable," he said. "The use of force is not a solution for what's happening in Venezuela."

Even so, Martinez said the weekend's events - and the burning aid truck - had put Maduro's brutality in plain view. "There's now no doubt that the dictatorship has no limits when it comes to the repression of its people," he said.

The group's communique, which was read by Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo, was likely to disappoint some in the Venezuelan opposition who were hoping for more forceful measures - and perhaps even tacit acknowledgment that diplomacy and sanctions aren't enough.

Earlier in the day, Pence addressed the group, asking it to seize Venezuela's oil assets and hand them over to Guaido's representatives. He also asked the region to revoke visas of Maduro officials. While Colombia, Canada and Panama have rolled out sanctions, others in the region have not.

Meanwhile, the group also said it had received credible reports that Guaido's life was in danger and warned Maduro's regime that there would be serious consequences if anything happened to him or his family.

Trujillo said Maduro would be "held responsible for any violent action against Guaido, against his wife or against his family, which would not be just another crime". He added that any violence against the interim president would force the Lima Group "to act collectively" in response.

While the Lima Group agreed to recognise Guaido's representatives according to each nation's "internal procedures" there were no concrete actions specified in the statement.

The United States has already slapped sanctions on more than 50 current and former Venezuelan officials, including Maduro. And in January, Washington essentially blocked Venezuelan oil exports, funneling most oil revenue to escrow accounts until Guaido effectively takes control. On Monday, the US Treasury Department imposed more sanctions on four governors who back Maduro.

The high-profile meeting comes after Maduro shocked many in the international community over the weekend by using force to stop the delivery of humanitarian aid from Colombia and Brazil. The ensuing clashes left hundreds injured and a handful dead, mainly in an indigenous community in southern Venezuela. Reports of up to 25 dead in a border town have not been confirmed.

Pence said Washington was undeterred and would continue positioning aid depots in the region for the day when the help could be delivered. He also pledged $US56 million ($78 million) - in addition to the estimated $140 million already spent - to support countries that have been receiving Venezuelan migrants.

Guaido, Maduro's 35-year-old political challenger, addressed the Lima Group for the first time on Monday. He asked for a minute of silence to honour the dead and then urged member states to take on Maduro, who he said represented a threat to the region.

"Today, the Maduro regime thinks that blocking humanitarian aid was a victory, they are dancing in Caracas on the graves of indigenous people," Guaido said. "They think that by normalising the crisis they can hold on to power."

Maduro has suggested the aid - much of it donated by the United States and transported to Colombia on US military aircraft - is part of a larger plot to topple his administration. He has also blamed the country's economic woes, including food and medicine shortages, on US sanctions and an "economic blockade".

Guaido said the weekend's events, where the world watched aid trucks blocked at the border and then torched, proved Maduro's lie.

"The world knows who's putting up the obstacles to a peaceful and democratic transition for Venezuela," he said.

He also accused the government of relying on paramilitary groups, Colombian guerrillas and gangs of convicts to repress the Venezuelan people, saying Maduro had turned the country into a "sanctuary" for terrorists.

In an impassioned speech that received a standing ovation, Guaido said the bloc needed to send a strong message, suggesting that if member nations had reacted more forcefully in 2015, when Maduro neutered the opposition-led congress, or in 2017, when negotiations broke down, that lives could have been saved this weekend.

Martinez said the group should keep pushing for a negotiated solution to the crisis - but that those negotiations must focus on Maduro stepping down and the calling of "free, fair and just elections."

"We don't want to waste our time with meetings that have no clear goals," he said.

Venezuela has been marred in political turmoil since January 23, when Guaido, as the head of congress, said it was his constitutional duty to assume the presidency after Maduro stayed in power through fraudulent elections. More than 50 countries, including most of Latin America and a large part of Europe, recognise Guaido as president. Russia, China and Cuba are among the countries that don't.

Maduro says the US and the Lima Group are engaged in an illegal attempt to topple his administration, and that he has the right to rule through 2025.

Pence and President Donald Trump have said that won't happen. On Monday, Pence once again, suggested that Maduro's days were numbered.

"What brings us together today is the recognition, by all the nations gathered here, that Nicolas Maduro is a usurper with no legitimate claim to power, and Nicolas Maduro must go," he said.

"I believe with all my heart: The day is coming soon when Venezuela's long nightmare will end, when Venezuela will once more be free, when her people will see a new birth of freedom, in a nation reborn to libertad," he said.

Guaido crossed into Colombia, defying a travel ban, to oversee the weekend aid effort. He's said he will be returning to Venezuela to continue leading the country, even as experts warn that he will likely be more vulnerable than ever to detention and other punitive measures.