Luis Almagro urged the Lima group to sanction Maduro's "criminal dictatorship"

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, urged Wednesday the countries of the Lima group to sanction the "criminal dictatorship" by Nicolás Maduro, to prevent its financing with "Stolen funds".

"All countries of Latin America, the whole Lima group (…) must apply sanctions"Almagro said at a debate in a university in Washington.

About, Almagro recalled that, in May 2018, the Lima group was committed to strengthening cooperation between countries to know which people and companies in Venezuela could be involved in corruption in order to initiate legal proceedings and "the application of financial restrictions".

Until now, Panama is the only country in Latin America to impose sanctions on the Maduro circle, as did Canada, the European Union (EU) and the United States.

Washington imposed restrictions on the gold trade and sanctioned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), actions that have been used to reduce the revenues of state coffers.

"We need more sanctions, not less said Almagro.- There seems to be confusion or ideological bias when we talk about the need to punish Venezuelan dictators. Some people think that the sanctions against the corrupt and criminal dictatorship will lead children to be hungry. "

He added that "the children were already hungry before the sanctions. The lack of food is the result of the actions of Maduro's diet, much earlier. "

The Secretary General of the OAS, one of the most critical international voices with Maduro, stressed the Cuban regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel responsible for what is happening in Venezuela and considered that the Cuban "regime" was revealed more cruel than the dictatorships of the southern cone of the United States in the 70s and 80s.

In his opinion, Havana has always depended on other powers for its survival: He first took advantage of the Soviet Union to do the same with Venezuela.

"They sucked the blood of Venezuela, Venezuela is a corpse today and they continue to suck it, it is a supreme case of parasitism.", he said.

The General Secretariat of the OAS, led by Almagro, held several thematic conferences on Cuba in which they participated, among others, Cuban dissident Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late Oswaldo Payá.

Cuba, member of the OAS since its creation in 1948, suspended in 1962 after the triumph of the revolution led by Fidel Castro because of its adherence to Marxism-Leninism as part of the Cold War between the capitalist bloc led by the United States. and the Communist led by the Soviet Union.

After decades of confrontation, in 2009, the OAS lifted the suspension in Cuba, but the island refused to return to the agency.

(With information from AFP)