The United States said on Tuesday it will provide US$52 million in funding to Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, an escalation of support even as his push to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro stalls.
In a meeting convened by the Organization of American States, 16 of the 19 states party to the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, a 1947 pact known as the Rio Treaty, backed using the pact to collaborate on law-enforcement operations and economic sanctions against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and associates, accusing his regime of criminal activity including drug trafficking and money laundering.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, denounced that her figure is misunderstood in Venezuela’s case. The Chilean president, who published a severe report in July denouncing human rights violations in Venezuela, said that many in that country mistakenly see her as the virgin Mary, who can work miracles and solve the humanitarian drama.
The United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Saturday she felt “sorry for Brazil,” after President Jair Bolsonaro publicly expressed his support for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Venezuela's government said on Monday it was evaluating sending some of its lawmakers back to the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which President Nicolas Maduro has called an illegal institution, as part of new talks with one opposition faction.
Venezuela's state prosecutor's office said on Friday it would open an investigation into Juan Guaido after the interior minister presented photos on state television showing the opposition leader in the company of two suspected members of a Colombian drug-trafficking group.
The government of Venezuela has denounced the US invocation of a Cold War-era mutual defense treaty on behalf of the opposition in Caracas, a move which clears the way for military intervention in the Latin American country.
Venezuelan prosecutors said Friday they would charge opposition leader Juan Guaido with “high treason” for planning to renounce the country's claim to a disputed border area controlled by Guyana.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday ordered the armed forces to be on alert for a potential attack by Colombia's government and announced military exercises on the border amid the rearmament of a group of former guerrilla commanders.
The United States is not seeking a military intervention as a solution to the economic and political crisis in Venezuela, the U.S. envoy to the troubled South American nation said in an interview published by a Venezuelan online news site on Sunday.