Venezuela's chief prosecutor broke with the government on Friday and rebuked a Supreme Court decision stripping Congress of its last vestiges of power, showing a crack in the unity of the embattled populist government of President Nicolas Maduro as it came under a torrent of international condemnation over what many decried as a major step toward dictatorship.
The Organization of American States Secretary-General Luis Almagro said Wednesday that the Cuban government denied him permission to enter the island to receive a human rights prize created to honor late dissident Oswaldo Paya. Mexican ex-President Felipe Calderon and former Chilean Education Minister Maria Aylwin were denied entry to the island the day before.
Uruguay became the first member state of the Organization of American States (OAS) to deposit the instrument of ratification of the Inter-American Convention on the Protection of the Human Rights of Elderly Persons. The Permanent Representative of Uruguay, Hugo Cayrús, recalled that the legislature of his country ratified the Convention in September.
Despite objections from Brazil and Paraguay, Uruguay next Saturday 30 July will transfer to Venezuela the rotating chair of Mercosur for the second half of the year, as indicated in the “group's rules and regulations”.
Veteran U.S. diplomat Tom Shannon spoke for nearly two hours with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday to re-start relations between the ideologically opposed governments amid a punishing economic crisis in the oil rich country.
Addressing the OAS Permanent Council, former Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said that reconciliation is an indispensable and essential challenge to overcome the current confrontation situation in Venezuela, and although it will be a long, difficult process, he recommends dialogue efforts should continue.
Argentine foreign minister Susana Malcorra will be absent from the debate on the Venezuelan situation scheduled for next Thursday in Washington, since that same day she will be attending the UN Special Decolonization Committee when the Falklands/Malvinas issue is to be addressed.
This Monday evening the Organization of American States 46th General Assembly will officially open in Santo Domingo and this year's convening agenda refers to Institutional Strengthening for Sustainable Development in the Americas. The two day gathering is also expected to focus on the Venezuela, Haiti and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission situations, and as is the norm, the Falklands-Malvinas issue will be addressed or included in the final declaration.
After directing criticism at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and urging that Caracas be considered for suspension from the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro has accused Argentine President Mauricio Macri of impeding those efforts and of reversing his campaign promises of taking a hard line against Maduro.
Uruguay will hand over the chair of Mercosur to Venezuela at the end of July, as indicated by the organization's calendar, and does not support the implementation of the Democratic clause against the government of president Nicolas Maduro, as sponsored by OAS secretary general, Luis Almagro a former Uruguayan foreign minister.