Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed, this Wednesday, April 19, before the Organization of American States (OAS), based in Washington, redo the founding charter of the organization and reinstate Venezuela in it.
(See: Clean energy, Petro’s call before U. Stanford).
In a speech before the OAS Permanent Council, the Colombian president assured that he is interested in and is “fighting” for reintegrate the government of Nicolás Maduro in the organization and considered that it is also necessary to speak with Cuba to return to the entity.
“I propose to redo the Democratic Charter“said the Colombian president and pointed out that actions have been taken on the continent that contradict the founding values of the OAS. As an example, he gave the case of Peru and criticized the removal and subsequent detention of former President Pedro Castillo, accused of attempting a self-coup.
“The Democratic Charter says that only a judicial sentence takes away political rights, so why are they taking away the political rights of the people without a sentence?”Petro pointed out.
(See: Petro’s response to parties that will not support the health reform).
During his speech, Petro recounted the history of the OAS, founded in 1948 in Bogotá, assuring that the organization’s founding principles responded at the time to values ”liberals” in response to “the cuban socialist revolution“.
Petro proposed to the member states of the organization “enrich” the Democratic Charter including rights as “women’s equality or the rights of nature” and thus “broaden it towards a livelier, richer democracy, which is no longer found in Western Europe or the US.”
The president also indicated that “he owes his presidency” to the inter-American system, in reference to a sentence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in 2020 that ruled in his favor and against the Colombian State after a attempt by the Attorney General’s Office to remove him when he was mayor of Bogotá.
(See: Colombia will invest US$150 million to protect the Amazon).
“I was the victim of a breach of this letter when my political rights were taken away and they were restored with a ruling from the IACHR“said the president.
Before entering the extraordinary session of the Permanent Council, Petro emphasized the message that he brings in his visit to the United States, which will continue on Thursday with a meeting with the president Joe Biden at the White House: “Zero sanctions, more diplomacy and peace“.
Petro’s speech at the OAS.
The Venezuelan situation
The Colombian expressed, on Monday, April 17, in the UN his interest in addressing with Biden the lifting of sanctions on Venezuela imposed by the US government.
(See: Petro insists: “Climate crisis is overcome without oil and coal”).
The situation of Venezuela in the OAS is complex, since, despite the fact that the government of Nicolás Maduro presented a formal request in 2017 to withdraw his country from the organization, from 2019 until a few months ago the country’s position was occupied by a envoy of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, assured at the OAS General Assembly in Peru, in October 2022, that the departure of Venezuela from the organization “it was never finalized“why Venezuela”you are not up to date with your obligationsbefore the organism.
(See: Reasons why ‘The Economist’ criticized Petro’s ‘total peace’).
The US has imposed a series of sanctions both officials and Venezuelan state companies, including the state oil company PDVSA in 2019.
The US government, the main financial contributor to the OAS, has been reluctant to allow Venezuela to rejoin the OAS before some new presidential elections in the country.
Colombia convened an international meeting on Venezuela for April 25, in which representatives of the United States and several European and Latin American countries are expected to participate.
EFE
