Venezuela quitting OAS as protest death toll hits 32
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela will withdraw from the Organization of American States, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said Wednesday, amid a row over the regional diplomatic body’s plans to meet over the ongoing crisis there.
Ms. Rodriguez said President Nicolas Maduro had ordered the unprecedented move in response to its convocation of an emergency meeting of foreign ministers to discuss their “deepening concern” about Venezuela.
Seventeen member countries including the United States, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil voted Wednesday for the extraordinary meeting, to take place at a date yet to be determined.
Venezuela had threatened to withdraw from the OAS if it called the meeting of ministers.
“The withdrawal of Venezuela from the OAS is not conditional. It has to do with the dignity of our people and Bolivaran doctrine,” Ms. Rodriguez said in a broadcast on VTV television, referring to Venezuela’s name for its socialist political and economic model.
Julio Borges, president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, called the announcement “proof of the self- inflicted coup d’etat.”
“It is the proof of fear of a vote,” he said.
Venezuela has been a member of the 35-nation OAS since 1951. Ms. Rodriguez said Venezuela would begin the 24-month process of withdrawal Thursday.
The row erupted as the death toll from three weeks of anti-government protests rose to 32, as the National Guard used tear gas to shut down a demonstration in the capital, Caracas.
A 20-year-old man died after being hit in the head with a tear gas canister fired by troops at the protest, the opposition mayor of the capital’s Chacao district said.
His death followed that of a 22-year-old man injured in street protests in the central city of Valencia on Tuesday night, the attorney general’s office said.
The violence in Caracas was the latest skirmish in weeks of protests as demonstrators trying to march on the city center were again met by forces who fired tear gas.
The military was also deployed against possible demonstrations at the National Electoral Council and the Supreme Court.
Opposition protesters have been trying in vain for weeks to march to the office of the country’s human rights ombudsman, Tarek William Saab.
Police and military units have turned them back repeatedly, leading to violent clashes on the eastern outskirts of the city.
The opposition wants Mr. Saab to open a case against justices in the country’s Supreme Court who in March attempted to strip power from the National Assembly.
The ruling was later withdrawn amid international condemnation. But it set off protests that have continued for weeks and highlighted growing popular rage at the socialist government of Mr. Maduro.
The swell of protests is the most violent in economically struggling Venezuela since two months of antigovernment demonstrations in 2014 that resulted in dozens of deaths.
Mr. Maduro has called for renewed dialogue, but opposition leaders have discarded that as an option after earlier talks collapsed in December.
Venezuela’s political crisis has escalated in recent months alongside an economic crisis that has caused widespread shortages of food and medicines.