OAS nations weigh in on Venezuela crisis at Cancun meeting

Record ID: 896125

  • Title: OAS nations weigh in on Venezuela crisis at Cancun meeting
  • Date: 19th June 2017
  • Summary: FRIENDS OF MISSING 43 STUDENTS STANDING BEFORE OFFICERS PARENTS OF MISSING STUDENTS HOLDING PLACARDS WITH PHOTOS OF MISSING STUDENTS
  • Embargoed: 3rd July 2017 21:08
  • Keywords: Organization of American States General Assembly Nicolas Maduro Venezuela
  • Location: CANCUN, MEXICO
  • Reuters ID: LVA0026LY3RK3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Members of the Organisation of American States (OAS) are bracing for a stormy start to the body's General Assembly in Cancun on Monday (June 19) with a political and social crisis in Venezuela high on the agenda.
    The OPEC nation has been wracked by protests and widespread discontent amidst product shortages, a flailing economy and widespread crime.
    Some members of the OAS are seeking to censure Venezuelan for violating the group's democratic charter.
    President Nicolas Maduro has rebuffed calls for an early election. Instead, he has proposed a constituent assembly with the power to change the constitution.
    But critics fear the new body will be stacked with government supporters.
    As host, Mexico will seek support for a resolution on Venezuela at the Cancun meeting.
    But with talk on Venezuela expected to expose the deep left and right divides of Latin American nations, some foreign ministers have talked up inclusive dialogue as the only path to a resolution.
    Venezuela has previously rejected such overtures, and in April announced it will begin the process to withdraw from the OAS.
    At another site in Cancun, parents of Mexico's 43 missing students feared massacred also gathered to call for the return of their loved ones.
    More than two years after they went missing, the remains of the majority of the victims are still to be found. Mexico's government claims the bodies of the students were incinerated at a rubbish dump in the lawless state of Guerrero.
    But investigators from OAS member states have cast doubt on official investigations in Mexico.
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