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OAS Permanent Council Received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today received the Minister of the People's Power for Foreign affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez Gomez, who presented to the representatives of the member countries the perspective and position of Venezuela in regards to the Executive Order issued on March 9 by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, declaring “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela,” establishing sanctions for seven Venezuelan officials.

Minister Rodriguez opened her speech by saying that "we are gathered due to the need to alert members of the Organization about the recent developments arising from the Executive Order that emanated from the Presidency of the United States considering Venezuela as an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States and its foreign policy." In this sense, she explained the need to "broaden the information beyond the media interpretations that may exist, and dedicate ourselves to reporting on the extent, nature and content of this Executive Order."

In her address to the members of the Permanent Council, the head of Venezuelan diplomacy said that the application of the law on sanctions by the U.S. government to Venezuela, "could lead to military interventions and aggression such as a financial and economic blockade." The Minister argued that the Executive Order "interferes and violates the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Charter of the OAS, because it seeks not only to ignore the President, but also weaken the role of our legal entities." From her perspective, the order of President Obama goes beyond the punishment of seven officials. She said that these citizens "have been judged in an abstract tribunal" and "are being punished because they defended democracy and peaceful stability in Venezuela, because they confronted situations of violence, and they preserved peace in Venezuela. It's like giving free rein to impunity in the world," she said.

She added that the order issued a week ago refers to "any individual or entity," and warned that "anyone can be subject to the implementation of this decree." In that sense, she expressly rejected the broad discretion that this instrument gives the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of State, "to consider who else can also be subject for the application of the Executive Order."

The Minister Rodriguez recalled that "historically it has been shown that these sanctions do not achieve more than violence, death and the violation of human rights" and that the decree "imposes sanctions that violate the fundamental principles of self-determination, of the principle of equal sovereign states, of independence and violates our sacred sovereignty." "The genesis of this Executive Order is in the violent events of last year in Venezuela, promoted by a sector that seeks to overthrow the democratically elected President," she said.

The Venezuelan Foreign Minister questioned that her country can be considered as a threat to other states "when everyone here knows that the Bolivarian diplomacy is one of peace; and when we go to a country it is to bring union, it is to bring friendship, it is to carry out cooperation and complementarity." In this line, and as a sign of the spirit of the Venezuelan government, she alluded to the economic, social and political progress that Venezuela has achieved recently in the areas of fight against corruption and drugs, meeting the Millennium Development Goals, poverty eradication and signing of international treaties on human rights, among other issues.

Finally, Minister Rodríguez stressed the willingness of the Venezuelan government to advocate for peace and mediation in its relationship with the U.S. government. She recalled that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been willing to dialogue "in conditions of respect and equality, based on cooperation and friendship between states." She said, however, that the response received "is the ongoing violation of international law, the violation of our sovereignty, repeated interference in our internal affairs, and a lack of respect for the principle of independence of our country."

In her conclusion, the head of the Venezuelan diplomacy said "we are warning that there is an intention to take our strategic natural resources, to take our main oil company, and we issue that warning based on historical facts and based on this legal instrument on which, I take this opportunity to disregard its international validity, to ignore its constitutionality in view of the constitutional legal regime of Venezuela." She further called for the derogation of the Executive Order "as it represent a violation of international rights." The Minister recalled that the request has the support of regional organizations to which Venezuela belongs.

The Interim Representative of the United States to the OAS, Michael J. Fitzpatrick, expressed his satisfaction at having the first opportunity at the OAS to hear firsthand from Venezuela’s Foreign Minister about the causes that precipitated the violence initiated a year ago in that country and the current situation, “to know how we, as a democratic hemispheric community, can support the Venezuelan government and its people to sit down in a constructive and respectful environment to work through their differences.” In that sense he said “the United States will continue to support regional efforts to promote reconciliation within Venezuela.”

The U.S. delegate said the purpose of his speech was to explain “what the March Executive Order does and what it does not do,” saying that its language has been "misunderstood or misinterpreted." He explained the background of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), its creation and purpose, and said that the words “unusual and extraordinary threat” included in the Executive Order are part of the language of the statute that the President is required to employ “in order to implement the actions mandated by the law.”

As examples, Fitzpatrick cited some cases in which this language has been used in the past, related to Colombia and Mexico. “The March 9 decision must be read in its entirety to fully appreciate that he is exercising a sovereign right to protect U.S. immigration prerogatives at home, and to protect the U.S. financial system from unwanted investors and their money, at home,” he said.

The U.S. diplomat insisted that “there is no extraterritorial component to this executive order,” and that it is domestic legislation. ”Every country has the same sovereign right and exercises it routinely,” and added that the IEEPA language has been taken out of context. He continued by saying the government of his country is not preparing military actions against Venezuela. “We are not seeking to destabilize the Maduro government in a coup d’état, we are not participating in an international conspiracy to hurt the Venezuelan economy, we are Venezuela’s largest trading partner.”

He continued, saying “we simply want to prevent individual Venezuelans who we believe have abused the human rights of other Venezuelans from traveling to the United States or parking their money in our financial system.” From his country’s perspective “we do not believe that speaking in defense of human rights equates to subversion or intervention in the sovereign affairs of another state.”

Finally Fitzpatrick reiterated the U.S. government’s willingness to clarify the situation and “to continuing our dialogue in a respectful fashion in the days and weeks to come” and said that "we have bilateral diplomatic channels with Venezuela to conduct our relations and we have always been willing to utilize them, we stand ready to do so now.” Fitzpatrick concluded his remarks by saying that “the role of a respectful international community mindful of the principles of sovereignty can be to facilitate dialogue among Venezuelans.”

The OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, made a new and fervent call on Venezuela to begin an internal dialogue to overcome the conflict it is experiencing, and called on the OAS community of member states to facilitate a rapprochement between the country and the government of the United States to prevent an escalation of accusations and threats, which are not consistent with the way the relations between the countries of the hemisphere are developing.

"There were statements of greater volume on one side, the decision of the government of Venezuela to request the removal of a significant amount of U.S. officials and finally the declaration of threat to the national security of the United States, which certainly perplexes us. I accept the explanation of the origin of the decree, but there is no doubt that in a region like ours, it is uncommon for a country to be declared a 'threat' to the safety of another," said the leader of the OAS.

Secretary General Insulza recalled that the Summit of the Americas to be held in Panama on April 10 and 11 will be the first in history that brings together all the Heads of State and Government of the independent nations of the hemisphere in "its most important forum for dialogue.” “That is what we need to care for, we have the obligation to protect that, and certainly we don´t safeguard it with increased confrontation, nor with condemnations that can be decisive, but simply by calling, as has been done here, for prudence, dialogue between countries and for a search to resolve their problems together," he said.

In addition, he highlighted the general consensus among countries in recognizing the sovereign right of Venezuela to solve its own problems. "Of course, with the support of the whole community of the Americas, which they will request when the deem appropriate. Since the first citizen demonstrations took place last year, I said that through dialogue a way could be found so that there are no winners or losers, something that is fundamental. The division of people leads-I experienced it in my country several decades ago-to protracted suffering and violation of the rights of one other. The division of countries is not the way to find a solution, the solution lies in dialogue," he said.

Finally, the hemispheric leader urged representatives of member states to "remember this day as the day when two sister nations of the Americas sought understanding over conflict, putting aside attitudes that cause harm to others, and that is why I call for this to happen in this forum, in this place that was created for that purpose more than a century ago."

The meeting, chaired by the Permanent Representative of Suriname, Ambassador Niermala Badrising, included speeches by the representatives of Nicaragua, Panama, Bolivia, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Canada, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Peru, Costa Rica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Dominica, Brazil, Guatemala, Saint Lucia, Belize and Honduras.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video news of the event will be available here.

The full video of the event will be available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-091/15