(CNN Spanish) – The political crisis that deepened in Venezuela after the controversial elections of July 28 was addressed this Thursday during a meeting organized by the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, in parallel to the sessions of the UN General Assembly.
“Maintaining collective pressure in the months prior to the presidential inauguration in January is crucial,” Blinken urged during the meeting this Thursday to address the situation in Venezuela, within the framework of his trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. .
Blinken recalled that after the elections in July, in which President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner without evidence and amid accusations of fraud, several countries have called on the government to stop human rights violations and seek dialogue to restore normalcy. democratic elections and said that maintaining pressure is the only way to change the behavior of the Venezuelan president.
The US official also stressed the need to call for “the Maduro regime to stop its repression against those who peacefully protested, against its political opponents, and to immediately and unconditionally release those who have been arbitrarily imprisoned, including minors.” .
He added that pressure should be applied to allow the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Independent Mission to return to Venezuela, and called for using all tools to demand accountability for those responsible for human rights abuses. “We cannot be satisfied with just adhering to statements,” he stated.
Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, co-sponsor of the meeting, also expressed her country’s concern because “the system of destabilization that Venezuela has imposed on other Latin American countries is enormous.”
Mondino pointed out that “the problem is that Venezuela, under the Maduro government, does not need Venezuelans. They don’t care at all,” and assured that, if we don’t act now, the consequences will reverberate for years in other countries.
The chancellor said that millions of people have left Venezuela, and that the majority go to other Latin American countries that cannot always be put to work in the countries that receive them. Nearly 8 million people have left Venezuela since 2014, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most of them are distributed between Colombia, Peru, the United States and Brazil.
“Of course, there are many other problems in the world, we have wars in various areas, we have countries that have their own problems, but there is a big difference: this is a country that has probably been affected by its own government,” Mondino warned.
CNN has requested comments from the Ministry of Communication on these statements and is awaiting a response.
