The Lima Group is calling on the UN Security Council to discuss a recent report on human rights violations in Venezuela as a way to pressure the international community into ending support for President Nicolas Maduro.
The Lima Group, whose members include large Latin American countries and Canada, met today in Buenos Aires to reiterate its support for opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom the group recognizes as Venezuela's interim president. In all, more than 50 countries recognize Guaido rather than Maduro as the nation's head.
The report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet "does not leave a margin for some countries to continue supporting the illegitimate Maduro regime," the Lima Group said in a statement signed by the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru.
The report by Bachelet, Chile's former president, noted almost 7,000 extrajudicial killings in Venezuela since 2015 and asserted that torture had become commonplace to target members of the opposition.
"There is a huge number of political prisoners in Venezuela and lots of people being tortured," Jorge Faurie, Argentina's foreign minister said at the Lima Group meeting today.
The gathering took place as Guaido addressed supporters in eastern Caracas, where he pledged greater engagement at the UN to promote his campaign to remove Maduro, establish a transition government and hold free elections. Today is the six-month anniversary of his proclamation as interim president, a period marked by a number of setbacks, including a failed aid program in February and a botched military uprising in April. In recent weeks, Guaido has been appointing exiles to what amounts to an emerging shadow government.
The UN Security Council, led by the five permanent members — the US, UK, France, China and Russia — is unlikely to reach a consensus on Venezuela. The US, UK and France recognize Guaido as interim president, while China and Russia are Maduro's main international patrons. But a debate could elevate the profile of the Venezuelan crisis, and possibly lead to proposals to ease US-led sanctions with an oil-for-aid program.
At the meeting in Argentina today, the Lima Group also called for a wide-ranging investigation to determine the support the Venezuelan government received from other nations and political groups in the region "through transnational schemes of corruption, narcotrafficking and terrorism."
Despite its pressure for change in Venezuela, the Lima Group reiterated that "the solution to the Venezuelan crisis belongs to the Venezuelans."
If the Venezuelan government decides to call early elections, it would mark "a clear red line that we would not want to see crossed," Faurie said.
The opposition is currently holding talks with the Maduro government in Barbados, under the auspices of the Norwegian government. A tentative plan to hold presidential elections in April 2020 has run into resistance from Maduro. The government is offering to hold legislative elections instead, a non-starter for the opposition which controls the National Assembly.
