The OAS prepares a treaty to besiege the …

From Caracas

The United States and eleven countries of Latin America have spoken out in favor of a possible military intervention against the Venezuelan government. They did it by activating in an badembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), a 1947 agreement that subscribed to the 39, mutual defense commitment between the American nations, that is, forming an armed coalition.

"It is recognized by this decision the fact that the magnitude of the Venezuelan crisis forces us to call on all the mechanisms," said Luis Almagro, OAS Secretary General's chief of staff, defender since last year the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela.

Mexico, one of the countries that opposed it, issued a statement in which it declared "that it categorically rejects the invocation of the TIAR for it to intervene". in the internal affairs of States for having found it unacceptable to use a mechanism providing for the use of military force ". He also noted that with this step "we are getting dangerously close to a point of no return."

The Venezuelan government has condemned those who, within the Organization of American States (OAS), had taken the initiative to activate the TIAR, including the governments of Argentina, to Colombia and Brazil. In his statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said: "It is necessary to recall that the TIAR was imposed on our region by the United States in the context of the Cold War and that it was intended to legitimize interventions Latin America for ideological reasons. This happened in Guatemala in 1954, in Cuba in 1961, in the Dominican Republic in 1965, in Grenada in 1983 and in Panama in 1989. "

"The threat of the use of TIAR, the use of force implied in the convening of the TIAR, is completely absurd, it contradicts all the principles of coexistence and peaceful settlement of the controversy and the 39, self-determination of peoples, "said Celso Amorín, former Chancellor of Brazil.

Part of the agreement between the 12 countries is to meet at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September to decide what action to take. They also agreed to report the decision taken to the UN Security Council.

Activation of this mechanism has been demanded for several months by the Venezuelan opposition sectors who argue that the only way to achieve political power is a foreign military intervention, an army of mercenaries infiltrated from outside or a coup d'état. Internal state. a sector of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB). Among them, for example, Maria Corina Machado, Antonio Ledezma and the right-wing fan in Miami.

Juan Guaidó, on the other hand, had tried to maintain a position of balance between the parties, baderting that all options were possible, from the dialogue to the TIAR, as long as it achieved its objectives, summarized in the following formula: cessation of usurpation, transitional government, free elections.

Guaidó's problem is that he never decided what to do: leadership always came from the United States and, to a lesser extent, from his party of the popular will, of which he was not a leader when he he proclaimed himself president.

And the addresses given in the United States were marked by a question mark after the dismissal of John Bolton as a security advisor. His departure occurred amidst disagreements with Donald Trump over several conflicts, such as North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, and especially Venezuela, where the president said that Bolton had "exceeded the limits".

The dismissal of Bolton was at the time of the greatest tensions between Venezuela and Colombia, in a scenario where Nicolás Maduro said that, from the government of Iván Duque, he was seeking to activate "a false positive for create an armed conflict "between the two countries. Bolton, and as he expressed it in various open geopolitical conflicts, was in favor of an exit by force in the case of Venezuela and was charged with publicly attacking the Barbados dialogues under the mediation of Norway.

The escalation of tension between the two countries has been denounced by Maduro as a main route taken by the United States and the right of Colombia and Venezuela to visit the scene of a military shock. Was this the line that Bolton pbaded? Trump did not specify it, just as he did not respond to the possibility of meeting the Venezuelan president.

The policy against Venezuela will continue to govern men like Elliot Abrams, Mike Pompeo, as well as the new security advisor, Charles Kupperman, advisor to former president Ronald Regan between 1981 and 1989 and second in command of Bolton. .

Federica Mogherini, head of the European Union's foreign policy, spoke on her visit to Cuba, Mexico and Colombia, in favor of the resumption of dialogue between the government and the opposition. His statements were made while the TIAR was activated, in a photograph of the two lines of force: one that insists on a reversal by a military action and one that relies on a dialogue with an agreement.

The UN General Assembly will be the next ground where siege diplomacy against Venezuela will play its cards. Both in the framework of the TIAR, as the positions of Duque and Maduro who will accuse each other: the first to affirm that Venezuela protects the Colombian guerillas, the second to emphasize that Colombia seeks to manufacture a war from which underground actions already exist and which mobilized the FANB in ​​exercises at the border.