Guyana on Wednesday voted with 20 other members of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) to strongly condemn “the grave and systematic violations of human rights in Venezuela” and call for an investigation.
These violations include the use of torture, illegal and arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and the denial of the most basic rights and necessities, especially those related to health, food and education.
The Resolution on the Human Rights Situation in Venezuela was passed with 21 votes in favour, three votes against and seven abstentions. Three countries Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and Uruguay were absent. Notably Venezuela is recorded as having voted in favour of the resolution, a reflection of the recognition of Juan Guaido, President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, as the Venezuelan leader.
Guyana, The Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica and Saint Lucia voted in favour of the resolution while two members of the Caribbean Community (Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) voted against and Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname as well as Trinidad and Tobago abstained.
The resolution specifically demands “an independent exhaustive and credible investigation that makes it possible to bring the perpetrators and masterminds of the human rights violations to justice.”
The document also resolves “to demand immediate and unhindered access for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Venezuela,” and “to foster the strengthening of cooperation between the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor the human rights situation in Venezuela.”
According to a press statement from the OAS, Secretary General, Luis Almagro, during the meeting affirmed that “the OAS General Secretariat does not find it possible to ignore the denunciations and testimonies presented by Venezuelans who suffer the persecution of the regime. We understand the legal and moral obligation to criminally investigate these cases.”
He also recalled the importance of opening an international criminal investigation within the framework of the Inter-national Criminal Court to determine individual res-ponsibility for the crimes that have been committed in the country.
