Uruguay withdraws from the OAS Assembly - MPPRE

Uruguay withdraws from the OAS Assembly

This Thursday, the Eastern Republic of Uruguay withdrew itself from the 49th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) that is being held in Medellin, Colombia, after ignoring the representative of Juan Guaidó – deputy of the National Assembly in contempt – sent to the meeting. “Venezuela left the OAS on April 27, after two years since its denunciation made in 2017, to the Organization’s Charter. Therefore, Uruguay understood that the presence of a delegation supposedly representing the government of a country that has withdrawn itself from the Organization – and that is not recognized by half of the OAS membership – lacks legitimacy, violates its legal regulations and sets a very grave precedent for the future of the Organization, seriously undermining the credibility of the Organization’s General Secretariat”, said a statement issued this afternoon by the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry. The document also notes that Uruguay “has been drawing attention in the Permanent Council of the OAS, to the continuous and progressive deterioration of the Organization’s institutional framework, whose regulations are being used in favor of interests that are alien to the principles established in the Charter of the Organization”. “The withdrawal of our country from this Assembly in no way compromises its commitment to the principles and fundamental values ​​of the OAS Charter, nor the renunciation of the bonds of friendship and brotherhood that unite Uruguay with each of the countries of the region”, sentence. Before this retreat, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, assured that the Organization of American States (OAS) complies with the agenda assigned by the Government of the United States, and neglects the problems of the citizens of the different countries that make up that hemispheric organism. “The General Assembly of the @OEA_oficial strictly complies with the agenda imposed by Washington. The most felt problems of the peoples of our America are not a matter of discussion. In good time the President @NicolasMaduro decided the withdrawal of that outdated organization”, the diplomat wrote from his Twitter account @jarreaza. Likewise, the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales, said that the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) should not make Venezuela one of its central issues, because this country no longer belongs to that continental organism. “#Venezuela is no longer part of the @OEA_oficial and should not be the axis of its debates; even more now when this agency has to focus on urgent issues that are of high regional interest, such as the serious crisis of migrants seeking to reach the north and die on that route”, he stressed from his Twitter account @evoespueblo. Officially at the end of April, Venezuela ceased to be part of the OAS, after denouncing, two years before, the interference by the agency. In the complaint filed in 2017, the Venezuelan government stated that the agency violates Article 1 of its own Charter, which establishes non-intervention in matters “of the internal jurisdiction of the member states”.