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Secretary General Presents Updated Report on Venezuela to the Permanent Council

The full report is available here.

OSG/128-17
His Excellency
Patrick Andrews
Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Belize to the Organization of American States

Your Excellency:

On May 30, 2016, I submitted my first detailed report outlining the crisis in Venezuela, focusing on the “alteration of the Constitutional order” and the “democratic order” in the country based on Article 20 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. In order to constructively contribute to the collective assessment by the Member States, the General Secretariat hereby presents an update of the report.

On June 23, 2016, the Permanent Council convened an urgent session under Article 20 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter to discuss the content of the report. The Secretary General’s report was the sole item on the meeting’s agenda.
For two and a half hours, Members States collectively evaluated the situation and what measures to undertake in order to promote the normalization of the situation and restore its democratic institutions.

While noting that the presentation was made, the outcome of the discussion was that no decision was reached.
Since that discussion, Members of the Permanent Council, citizens of the Americas and the international community have all witnessed Venezuela spiral further and further into its acute economic, social, political and humanitarian crisis.
The diplomatic efforts undertaken have resulted in no progress.

Repeated attempts at dialogue have failed and the citizens of
Venezuela further lose faith in their government and the democratic process. The lack of results from a dialogue is the first sign of failure in a political system, because democracy cannot exist if voices are not heard or if they have been silenced.

The facts have become clear. Venezuela is in violation of every article in the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Democracy and Human Rights are values that must be above politics and the task before us is to support Venezuela and restore the rights of the people.

Our efforts must focus on restoring the right to democracy for the people of Venezuela as set forth in Article 1 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter: “The peoples of the
Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.”

As Secretary General of the Organization of American States, it is with disappointment that I present this follow-up report detailing the further deterioration of the state of affairs in
Venezuela. In drafting this report, there are three certainties:

• the objectivity of the facts that have been written in these pages;
• the importance of the Inter-American principles; and,
• that democracy will, sooner or later, once again become the system of government in
Venezuela.

(...)

The full report is available here.

Reference: E-014/17