He government of Nicholas Ripe summoned the Dominican Republic to immediately withdraw its diplomatic staff, reduced to a minimum and without an ambassador for years. Spontaneously, Venezuela ordered the withdrawal of its diplomats in Santo Domingo.
Venezuela’s decision affects six other Latin American countries: Argentina, Chile, Panama, Uruguay, Peru and Costa Rica. All have called for transparency in the results of Sunday’s elections. The European Union, the United States, Spain, Brazil and the United Nations have also expressed doubts about the cleanliness of the elections. elections Venezuelans.
As soon as the proclamation of Ripe as the winner by the National Electoral Council, a wave of protests at various points in Venezuelasome of them violent. Three deaths have been recorded and four statues of Hugo Chavez have been torn down.
The decision of Ripe to break relations with the Dominican Republic caught Dominican President Luis Abinader off guard.
When asked by journalists, he said the situation was evolving but that he would withdraw the diplomats. Dominicans.
He said that no Dominican has asked for assistance to leave that country, but that, if so, it will be provided. He also said that they are evaluating the possibility of sanctions commercials as a result of the breakup.
- “We will never give up our principles, our principles of fighting for democracy. I will leave this National Palace, but I will remain as the guardian of democracy,” he stressed.
In a release made known last night, the dictatorship in Venezuela cancels air connections with the Dominican Republic Starting tomorrow. Also flights between Venezuela and Panama.
Meeting of the OAS
At the request of 12 countries in the region, the Dominican Republic included, there will be a meeting emergency of the Organization of American States (OAS) tomorrow, in Washington, to learn about the crisis in Venezuela.
He Caribbeanwith 15 votes in the regional body, has not yet issued a statement as a bloc on the events.
Countries bordering with Venezuela They fear that political unrest in that country will trigger a wave of emigrants that destabilizes the region. There are already eight million Venezuelans abroad, at least two million of them in Colombia, whose foreign minister has demanded transparency in the counting of votes.
“In case Dominicans need to leave Venezuela, we are willing to help them,” has been President Abinader’s statement in this crisis process. However, the Dominican ruler expressed that there has not yet been a decision regarding trade sanctions against Venezuela. According to the report of the Sociodemographic Registry of Dominicans Residing Abroad for 2023, as of March of that year, there were approximately 11,399 Dominicans in Venezuela. For the 2018 elections, when several countries in the region described the elections of that year as fraudulent, then-President Danilo Medina ordered the withdrawal of the Dominican ambassador, at that time, Eusebio Carlino.
