{"id":130913,"date":"2017-11-13T22:39:33","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T03:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=130913"},"modified":"2017-11-13T22:39:33","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T03:39:33","slug":"us-calls-venezuela-a-global-threat-at-a-meeting-some-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/13\/us-calls-venezuela-a-global-threat-at-a-meeting-some-boycott\/","title":{"rendered":"US calls Venezuela a global threat at a meeting some boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley (Photo: Nikki Haley\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called Venezuela \u201can increasingly violent narco-state\u201d that threatens the world, speaking Monday at an informal Security Council meeting on the South American nation that was boycotted by Russia, China, Egypt and Bolivia.<\/p>\n

She accused Venezuela of using pressure to keep council members from attending, saying the fact that its government would go so far \u201cis guilt \u2014 \u00a0and that’s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador, Rafael Ramirez, denounced the session, telling reporters: \u201cThis is a hostile act from the United States and an interference that violates the sovereignty principles of a country that is a member of the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation in Venezuela is not on the Security Council’s official agenda \u2014 \u00a0a point stressed by Ramirez and Bolivia’s U.N. ambassador \u2014 \u00a0but Haley said she will continue \u201cto use the convening power of the United Nations to draw attention to this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The informal meeting sharply divided the 15 members on the U.N.’s most powerful body. In addition to the four countries that boycotted, diplomats noted that Ethiopia and Uruguay indicated the meeting shouldn’t have been held and Senegal didn’t speak.<\/p>\n

The United States and Italy organized the meeting, saying in a note circulated to council members that they would hear first-hand accounts of the deteriorating political, economic and social situation in oil-rich Venezuela and the humanitarian impact on the region. They said it would also provide a chance to discuss the role the international community can play in seeking political solutions and humanitarian access.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation unfolding in Venezuela is more than a human tragedy,\u201d Haley said. \u201cThe crisis in Venezuela today poses a direct threat to international peace and security. Venezuela is an increasingly violent narco-state that threatens the region, the hemisphere and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the Venezuelan people, who not long ago had the highest GDP per capita in the region, are suffering sky high inflation as a result of actions by President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government, which \u201ccares only for preserving its own power, rather than promoting the freedom and welfare of its people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, families struggle to live on just about eight dollars a month,\u201d Haley said. \u201cThe result is that Venezuela’s neighbours are paying the bill for the violence and poverty the corrupt Maduro regime has inflicted on its people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luis Almagro, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, which Maduro has withdrawn from, told the meeting that Venezuela is being run by \u201ca tyrannical dictatorship.\u201d It is led by \u201ca criminal system with official links to drug trafficking and the use of state tools for drug trafficking and money laundering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the opposition are put in jail,\u201d Almagro added, and demonstrations seeking basic freedoms \u201cended with more than 120 people killed by security forces and more than 15,000 injured.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said a report from his office in late August documents \u201cextensive and serious violations of human rights by national authorities aimed at curbing anti-government protests.\u201d<\/p>\n

It concluded that Venezuela’s government has \u201ca policy to systematically repress political dissent and instil fear in the population,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the human rights situation since August \u201cremains critical,\u201d Zeid said, protests have decreased dramatically as have related deaths and arbitrary detentions. But he said his office continues to receive reports of harassment, arbitrary detentions, torture and ill treatment of government opponents.<\/p>\n

He said Venezuelan security forces have continued a pattern of excessive force since at least 2014, with security forces responsible for 357 extrajudicial killings between July 2015 and March 2017, according to the attorney general’s office.<\/p>\n

Zeid said his office found 5,051 arbitrary detentions of protesters, a number \u201csimply unprecedented in the recent history of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called Venezuela \u201can increasingly violent narco-state\u201d that threatens the world, speaking Monday at an informal Security …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":102961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,16],"tags":[32888,32887,319],"class_list":["post-130913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news","tag-rafael-ramirez","tag-u-s-ambassador-nikki-haley","tag-venezuela","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}