Malcorra on Venezuela: “We cannot ignore this issue”

“We have to get the parties in Venezuela to find a solution through mediation, because dialogue has clearly not worked,” said the Argentine Foreign Minister, Susana Malcorra, today in Washington after participating in the OAS Permanent Council meeting. This afternoon, the Council agreed to convene a Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs to consider the situation in Venezuela.

“It is our collective responsibility to respond to a situation that even Venezuela itself at the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) considered serious. It is a situation that has an impact inside Venezuela, but which is also slowly having an impact on neighbouring countries and countries of the region, as many Venezuelans are migrating to them,” said Malcorra.

“This concerns OAS member states. Venezuela insisted that the OAS Secretary General was generating a division. This is not the opinion of the Secretary General; this is the opinion of a number of member states, which was reflected in the final outcome,” said Malcorra this afternoon after the OAS approved a resolution to convene the meeting by 19 affirmative votes.

In this regard, the Argentine Foreign Minister said: “We have come a long way. We have just approved a resolution to convene the Foreign Ministers. Now the Foreign Ministers have to hold this meeting. We cannot ignore this issue and say we do not care. It is our duty and responsibility.”

Malcorra added: “We understand that, as States of the region, we are bound by the OAS Charter to be responsible and participate in finding solutions. This is what we are stating.”

In press statements, Malcorra explained: “All this leads us to finding a solution, together with Venezuela, not without it. I want to be very clear: a solution does not mean overthrowing the government, as was suggested, but rather finding a way out through democratic mechanisms. There are democratic mechanisms: an elections calendar has to be set up; such calendar has rules; there have to be guarantees on such mechanism. There is work to do to find a solution for the Venezuelan people in an institutional manner: we are not in favour of an overthrow, let alone Argentina, which has been through it many times.”

“President Macri adopted a position on Venezuela a long time ago. None of the things we are doing are related to the visit to the United States, as has been suggested. This is the view held by Argentina, which has been through a similar situation to the one faced by Venezuela, and so I have declared not only conscientiously but from the bottom of my heart. We have been through that and we understand what it means,” Malcorra concluded.

Press Release No. 148/17
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