Luis Almagro lamented the "failure" of the Contact Group and asked to intervene in Venezuela: "The protection of the population is imperative"

The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, lamented on Wednesday the "failure" of International Contact Group (GCI) about Venezuela on the expiry of the deadline for the promotion of elections, and He asked to intervene to "end the violence" in this country of South America.

The ICG, made up of European and Latin American countries,and launched on 7 February in Montevideo with a period of 90 days to promote the presidential elections as a peaceful solution to the political crisis in Venezuela.

The Secretary General of Organization of American States (OAS), which promotes the removal of Nicolás Maduro considering him as "a dictator" he recalls the date and points out that "The mediation efforts did not work."

"It is very important to remember that 90 days have already pbaded with total failure," Almagro said at a forum on Venezuela organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an influential think tank in Washington.

Since January, Maduro, clinging to power with the support of Cuba, Russia and China, takes up the challenge of Juan Guaidó, the president of the elected legislative body in 2015, was elected interim president by more than 50 countries led by the United States, which it demands the "cessation of usurpation" to hold new elections.

Almagro, who blames Maduro "violence" and "repression" in Venezuela, urged that the available public international law instruments be used, as a humanitarian intervention under the "responsibility to protect", to put an end to what he denounced as "crimes against humanity".

Without specific "operations", "nobody" will stop the Colombian guerrillas in Venezuela National Liberation Army (ELN), nor tocollective"(civilian groups armed by the government according to the opposition), nor cartels from Mexiconor the "presence" of Cubans and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollahhe said.

"We must be able to deploy people to end the violence at some point, and if we never do, we will never stop the violence in Venezuela."stressed Almagro. "We absolutely need operations that help to achieve it".

"It is practically impossible to find a solution that keeps all these actors out of Venezuela like this" he added with a click.

"Contemporary peace operations"

Almagro said that it was time to act if we really cared about the suffering of Venezuelans. "The protection of people is imperative", he said.

The "responsibility to protect", or R2P by its acronym in English, it is a political commitment made by the United Nations in 2005 to prevent serious violations of human rights. After mediation and economic sanctions, it includes a last resort: the use of force, which can in principle only be authorized by the UN Security Council, where Russia and China have a right of veto.

"In Venezuela, we will need contemporary peace operations and third-generation peacekeeping", said Almagro, without specifying how this "international mechanism" intended to "contain the escalation of violence" and "to ensure human security."

Consulted by AFP, Moisés Rendón, badociate director of the CSIS Americas program, experts said: "If an international coalition sends a contingent to Venezuela to support the interim government of Guaidó to recover Venezuelan territory from foreign rebel groups, unjustifiable for the Venezuelan army, Maduro's tacit support for his actions ".

The ICG announced Tuesday in Costa Rica that it would send a high-level mission to Venezuela encourage dialogue and monitor humanitarian aid in the severe economic crisis in the country.

Of its twelve membersonly Bolivia has abstained from signing the declaration, as he did at the two previous meetings.

The other members of the ICG are Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Uruguay

The same Tuesday, Mexico, which advocates "non-intervention" and wants a negotiated exit from the Venezuelan crisis, was radically opposed to any military intervention in Venezuela, which the United States repeated: they do not exclude it.

"We are supported by 15 of the 35 OAS countries" said the Mexican Chancellor, Marcelo Ebrardvisiting Washington.