Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro won a diplomatic victory by defeating a US-backed proposal at the 34-country Organization of American States that would have suggested an outside mediation to end that country’s political crisis, which has already left more than 25 dead and hundreds of wounded. But Maduro’s victory could be short-lived.
That’s the impression I got after interviewing OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza after Friday’s vote in which the regional group approved a resolution supporting the “national dialogue” conducted by the Maduro government in Venezuela, rather than a dialogue moderated by a third party respected by all sides.
The OAS resolution passed by 29 to 3 votes, with the United States, Canada and Panama voting against it. The Venezuelan opposition had