Suriname expresses disapproval

PARAMARIBO/ LIMA - Suriname is not happy about the fact that Venezuela was barred from attending the Summit of the Americas that was held in Peru during the weekend. Suriname’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yldiz Pollack-Beighle who represented President Desi Bouterse made it clear that the boycott against Venezuela would not do any good for the integration in the region. Representatives from 9 other countries also expressed their disapproval regarding the boycott. Most of the 34 countries that were present had made it clear that they would not attend if Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro would attend the regional summit. Washington and its hemispheric allies on Saturday took turns hammering Venezuela over its human rights record — urging the region to reject the country’s “sham” May 20 presidential elections and agitating for more sanctions. Meeting in Lima, Peru for the eighth Summit of the Americas, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence — who was filling in for President Donald Trump — said the United States would not stand by as Venezuela devolved into “dictatorship.” According to The Miami Herald, VP Pence called on the region to ramp up sanctions. Pence’s speech drew an angry response from Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, who argued that it was ‘completely undemocratic’ to attack President Maduro when he’d been excluded from the meeting and couldn’t defend himself. The United States’ “moral vacuum cannot be, is not, a reference for Latin America and the Caribbean,” Rodríguez said, as the U.S. delegation walked out. But Washington also had plenty of backing, as the leaders of Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Brazil, among others, questioned Maduro’s attempts to cling to power. On Saturday, summit attendees signed ‘The Lima Commitment,’ a 56-point document that outlines anti-corruption efforts, like more crossborder cooperation and tightening of anti-graft laws. The region has been increasingly alarmed by Venezuela’s collapse and the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the country — particularly to neighboring Colombia and Brazil. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his nation was the one that “had most suffered due to the desperate situation that Venezuelans are going through.” The government estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 have entered the country in recent years. Brazil’s President Michel Temer also associated the exodus with Venezuela’s political breakdown. “There is no space in our region for alternatives to democracy,” he said. On Friday, the United States said it was earmarking an additional $16 million to help Colombia and Brazil deal with the influx. And Pence demanded that Venezuela allow aid organizations to deliver life-saving medicine and food.