On Friday, experts of the OAS warned it will take time to hold new elections in Venezuela and, to that end, it is essential that Nicolás Maduro leaves office.
The Organization of American States (OAS) assured that the organism can guarantee transparent elections in Venezuela, a country shaken for more than three weeks by a power struggle between Maduro and opposition parliamentarian Juan Guaidó, recognized by more than 50 countries as interim president.
Francisco Guerrero, Secretary of Strengthening Democracy of the OAS, said that
holding elections with the electoral system under the current conditions is not possible and repairing it will take time.”
Brenda Santamaría, head of the Electoral Observation Section of the OAS, said that once new elections have been called within the framework of a transitional government, it is possible to deploy a mission in Venezuela that “follows up on the entire process.”
This proposal was welcomed by the delegations of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Peru, which already recognized Guaidó.
Nicaragua and Venezuela denounced a “coup d’état” and called for the principle of non-intervention to be respected. The vice chancellor of Maduro, Samuel Moncada, went further with an enraged speech about the “nightmare” that Venezuela is living.
A mountain of lies, falsehoods, manipulations, slander, a whole parallel world has been built,”
said Moncada, attacking US President Donald Trump, whom he accused of “suffocating” Venezuela with sanctions to loot the riches of the country.
He also questioned the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, who was among the first to back Guaidó. According to a letter read by Warren Everson Alarick Hull, representative of Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) asked Almagro to publicly clarify he was not speaking on behalf of the OAS.
The secretary general replied that, on his relationship with the “legitimate governments” of the member states, he is only accountable to the General Assembly of the OAS, the highest authority of the organization.