OAS Head Offers to Quit if Venezuela's Maduro Holds Elections, Frees Political Prisoners (VIDEO) Latin American Herald Tribune By Carlos Camacho June 24 2017
Message from the Secretary General on Venezuela - June 24, 2017 from OAS/OEA TV on Vimeo.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro offers to resign if Maduro allows free elections, frees political prisoners, halts plans to rewrite the Constitution and a few other things.
CARACAS -- Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), offered Saturday morning to resign his post if embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro allows among other things, free elections, the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the opening of a humanitarian aid channel into the oil-rich country.
Almagro’s list (about 10) reveals a deep knowledge of and concern for, the Venezuelan situation, a zeal the government has derided as mere “interventionism” (injerencismo) backed by the U.S.
Almagro recognizes that the list is long. “Regrettably, there are many things that are necessary for the freedom of Venezuela. In exchange for the freedom of Venezuela, I offer my post. Because we will never resign, we will not resign, until we have in our hands the freedom of Venezuela,” he says near the end of the video.
ALMAGRO’S LIST
In a video posted Saturday morning, Almagro says he has received a strong-arm proposal from Venezuela, who is offering to rejoin the organization if he quits his post, only to deliver later his dramatic counterproposal.
“I have publicly received a negotiation proposal, my resignation in exchange for the return of Venezuela to the OAS. Here is my response: I will resign the OAS Secretariat General when free national and transparent elections are carried out in Venezuela, with international observers and nobody barred from running before-hand. When political prisoners listed by Venezuela’s Foro Penal are freed and exiles receive an amnesty, when the full powers of the National Assembly are recognized, when a humanitarian channel is opened for aliments and medication aimed at the most needy Venezuelans and when all of the murderers of each demonstrator are tried as well as their chain of command. Also, when there is an independent Supreme Court, an independent electoral board and the unconstitutional Constituent Assembly process is halted.”
In short, Almagro is asking Maduro to overturn all the wrongs the Maduro regime has committed on its way to dictatorship over the last two years, which includes halting or delaying every election, heavy-handed repression to the tune of 75 demonstrators and security forces killed in just the last 84 days, barring political opponents from running for office for 15 years, placing the Supreme Court under the executive AND forcing it to encircle and diminish the National Assembly.
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