The Organization of American States (OAS) held a special meeting on the crisis in Venezuela yesterday, triggering a furious reaction from the Venezuelan government and its staunchest regional allies.
The meeting is the international community’s latest effort to get to grips with an economic and political unravelling in the once-booming oil producer, whose skid to the brink of collapse has the rest of Latin America increasingly worried.
It comes after 14 countries in the OAS, including the United States, urged Venezuela’s leftist government last week to release political prisoners and “re-establish democracy” by holding elections.
In a sign that Venezuela is increasingly cornered, a total of 20 countries voted to open yesterday’s special session of the OAS Permanent Council in Washington. Eleven countries voted against, two abstained and one was absent.
Venezuela protested that the organization was interfering in the country’s internal affairs, in “flagrant violation of its principles.”
