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Venezuela: Rodriguez slams right-wing push for early elections

VENEZUELAN Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez has slammed right-wing regional governments for siding with the US against her country.

Ms Rodriguez accused the members of the Washingtonbased Organisation of American States (OAS) of signing up for a “new Washington consensus.

“These declarations expose who is driving an interventionist communique against Venezuela at the OAS,” she said.

“This sufficiently demonstrates the accord between the US State Department and the regional right to insult and attack Venezuela. “We will not accept any aggression against our sacred homeland.”

That was after a dozen Central and South American states joined the US and Canada in demanding an unconstitutional early presidential election.

They also called for the release of “political prisoners” including far-right Popular Will party leader Leopoldo Lopez.

Mr Lopez was convicted in 2015 of inciting the previous year’s “Guarimba” regime change riots that left 43 dead and more than 800 injured.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner claimed the US was not pushing for Venezuela’s expulsion from the OAS — as secretary general Luis Almagro of Uruguay demanded earlier this month.

But he said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “should permit the democratically elected national assembly to perform its constitutional functions and should hold elections as soon as possible.”

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition won a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly in the December 2015 legislative elections.

But the Supreme Justice Tribunal — Venezuela’s highest court — has ruled the parliament is sitting unconstitutionally after it swore in three deputies suspended over ballot fraud claims.

The assembly in turn declared Mr Maduro in breach of the constitution — after Mud failed to meet the independent National Electoral Council’s conditions for a presidential recall referendum.

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray said his and other nations would soon propose a plan “to reach a solution and restore first, a dialogue and second, full democracy in the sister nation of Venezuela.”

Ms Rodriguez called Mr Videgaray “servile,” saying: “He attacks Venezuela to ingratiate himself with his imperial masters.”

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