A group of a dozen Latin American nations, with the support of the Trump administration, are calling on Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro to cancel next week’s planned inauguration for a new term in office and to give up power until new, fairer elections can be organized.
The remarkable request, issued Friday by the so-called “Lima Group” of countries dealing with the crisis in Venezuela, where the policies of the increasingly authoritarian Mr. Maduro are blamed for creating an economic implosion inside the country and massive refugee and humanitarian crises that have rocked the region.
The group, which includes such regional powers as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico as well as Canada, has joined with opposition parties inside Venezuela in rejecting the results of last May’s presidential election, charging that Mr. Maduro’s win was tainted by voting irregularities and practices they said prevented a fair campaign.
Caracas quickly condemned the Lima Group move as an interference in its internal affairs, claiming its critics in the region were acting at the behest of the Trump administration.
“What a display of humiliating subordination!” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Twitter.
The Lima Group resolution called on Mr. Maduro, a protege of the late anti-U.S. populist President Hugo Chavez, to cancel the Jan. 10 inauguration, temporarily cede power to the national parliament and allow new elections to be organized. Mr. Maduro is set to begin a new six-year term in office.
The parliament is controlled by opposition parties, making it even more unlikely that Mr. Maduro would agree to the request.
The Trump administration has been sharply critical of Venezuela’s leftist government, sanctioning a number of top government officials and state-connected enterprises. The U.S. is not a member of the Lima Group, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Brazil this week meeting with several regional allies on the crisis in Caracas.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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