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OAS Head Blasts Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro

By Anatoly Kurmanaev

"Patience with Venezuela is clearly waning," points out AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth on the scathing letter sent by OAS head Luis Almagro to President Nicolás Maduro.

CARACAS—The head of the Organization of American States said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is verging on becoming a “petty dictator” and called on the multilateral organization to consider an emergency meeting to address antidemocratic tendencies in the continent’s biggest oil producer.

Luis Almagro, a leftist who was Uruguay’s foreign minister until last year, said Mr. Maduro has a constitutional obligation to hold a referendum on his rule this year. The opposition has fulfilled the criteria to begin the process of recalling the president amid a crippling economic crisis, but Mr. Maduro said Tuesday the public vote “is optional” and that it may happen in 2017 at the earliest….

…Eric Farnsworth, the head of the Washington office of the Council of the Americas, said the harsh tone of Mr. Almagro’s letter was “extraordinary.”

“It’s clear that the Maduro regime is losing international allies,” he said. “Patience with Venezuela is clearly waning.”…

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