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by James Tweedie at the Venezuelan embassy
INTERNATIONAL respect and dialogue are the only solution to Venezuela’s political crisis, ambassador Rocio Maneiro said yesterday in London.
At a press conference at the Venezuelan embassy in West London, Ms Maneiro vowed her country would never submit to being a “captive market” of the US despite months of opposition riots.
The ambassador said there were only two ways out of the crisis — internationally brokered talks or the new National Constituent Assembly which President Nicolas Maduro proposed earlier this year to amend the 1999 constitution.
National campaigning to elect delegates to the assembly started last week.
But opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition has boycotted both the campaign and talks.
In January the Mud pulled out of meetings mediated by regional bloc Unasur, the Vatican and ex-presidents of the Dominican Republic, Panama and Spain.
The past few months have seen Venezuela gripped by anti-government protests calling for Mr Maduro — who they blame for the country’s economic crisis — to step down.
Ms Maneiro said that the demonstrations have left more than 60 dead: “Not only from the opposition, and this we all grieve, but the security forces and those whose only crime is being Chavistas” — supporters of late socialist president Hugo Chavez.
The Supreme Court and other administrative buildings have also been attacked during the protests as well as public transport and food markets — deepening the crisis of food and medicine shortages.
But Ms Maneiro warned that the greatest threat came from abroad — particularly Washington.
She said Venezuela had been under “economic and political attack” that “must be considered a war” since Mr Maduro’s election four years ago.
The slump in oil prices has cut revenues from Venezuela’s dominant export from a peak of $100 billion (£79bn) in 2011 to $6bn (£4.7bn) last year.
Meanwhile former US president Barack Obama’s 2015 executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security remains in force.
“It is a threat,” Ms Maneiro said: “A threat of ideas. The Bolivarian Revolution is good, and can contribute to world peace.”
