Worldwide solidarity with Venezuela against U.S. statement and sanctions
Worldwide solidarity with Venezuela against U.S. statement and sanctions
by: Emile Schepers
April 15 2015
The massive international outpouring of petition signatures and other public acts in response to, and rejection of, U.S. President Barack Obama's executive declaration of an emergency on March 9, in which the situation in Venezuela was characterized as an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. interests and foreign policy, and which was accompanied by economic sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials, has reached unprecedented proportions.
On Friday, Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro announced that more than 10 million people in his country, whose total population is 30 million, had signed the main petition. Up to three million people signed in other countries.
At the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama, organized by the venerable Organization of American States (OAS) over the weekend, speaker after speaker rose to denounce the Obama statement and demand its retraction. Previously, most of the national governments in the Western Hemisphere, including major U.S. allies, had expressed themselves similarly, as had China, Russia and many poorer countries around the world. Regional organizations including the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of our America (ALBA), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) which includes all Western Hemisphere states except the United States and Canada, voted to condemn the March 9 statement and call for its retraction.
Although many speakers also praised President Obama's opening to Cuba and the celebrated handshake at the summit between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, the controversy about the statement of Venezuela as a threat undercut what could have ended on a very upbeat note for the United States. From 1962 on the United States had kept Cuba out of the OAS and prevented it from attending previous Summits of the Americas, but in 2012 the Latin American states, including key U.S. ally Colombia, had flatly stated that if Cuba continued to be excluded, there would be no more summits.
More:
http://peoplesworld.org/worldwide-solidarity-with-venezuela-against-u-s-statement-and-sanctions/