Secretary of the Campaign of Solidarity with Venezuela rejects interference of the Lima Group against the government of Nicolás Maduro

The Secretary of the Campaign of Solidarity with Venezuela, Francisco Domínguez, rejected the statement issued by the Lima Group, which he described as a serious interference in the internal affairs of the Caribbean nation, which in his opinion demonstrates the clear intention of the United States to promote a destabilization by urging the countries of the region to ignore the mandate of Nicolás Maduro, who will take office on January 10, before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ). Below the full statement: Respect Venezuela’s national sovereignty Statement by Dr Francisco Dominguez, Secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (VSC) On 4th January 2019, the so-called “Lima Group” (12 Latin American governments and Canada) issued a statement which represents a gross interference in the internal affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In it they neither accept the decision made by the people of Venezuela on 20th May 2018, when they re-elected Nicolas Maduro as their President with 68% of the votes cast, nor the election’s constitutional bases (Arts. 347,348 and 349 of the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution). The Lima Group statement goes as far as to demand President Maduro does not take possession on 10th January 2019 to begin his second mandate for the period 2019-2025 and even urge him to resign. The Lima Group statement is abjectly in line with the US aim of ‘regime change’, a key objective of US foreign policy towards Bolivarian Venezuela since 1999 now massively intensified under Donald Trump and ex CIA director, Mike Pompeo, current US State Secretary. The Lima Group statement goes on to announce a series of punitive sanctions – in line with US sanctions against Bolivarian Venezuela – aimed et financially strangle and politically isolate this South American nation. The US intention behind it is to bring about maximum instability so as to create the conditions for ‘regime change’ for which the US might be prepared to resort to military means as has been threatened on several occasions by high US officials including Donald Trump himself. The Lima Group represents the region’s extreme right wing (within which Brazil’s Bolsonaro administration is now playing a central role) that, by hook or by crook, seek to eradicate all forms of progressive politics in the region as the scandalously wrongful imprisonment of former President Lula so eloquently demonstrates. The US does not formally belong to the Lima Group but it clearly directs it, guides it and above all it determines its policy. For example, the Lima Group welcomed Mike Pompeo by videoconferencing into their meeting before they issued their abhorrent statement. The statement violates every principle which multilateral bodies such as the Organization of American States and the UN are based upon, since they are premised on the sacrosanct right to self-determination and national sovereignty. With the gross interference contained in their 4th January 2019 statement, aimed at carrying out the empire’s objectives, the US-led Lima Group has performed probably one of the most shameful acts of abject political servility to Uncle Sam committed by the region’s oligarchies. The Lima Group statement must be unequivocally rejected and squarely opposed, Venezuela’s national sovereignty and the will of the people fully respected. This is the approach of Mexico’s whose new President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who refused to support the Lima Group statement and whose Minister for Latin American and the Caribbean affairs, Maximiliano Reyes, issued a declaration advocating peace, dialogue and diplomacy as the best way to solve the problems that beset Venezuela. Trump, hands off Venezuela! No pasarán!