Latin America silent on Venezuela as US airs rights concerns
BY JOSHUA GOODMAN AND PETER ORSI ASSOCIATED PRESS
04/07/2015 5:34 PM 04/07/2015 5:34 PM
PANAMA CITY
From Mexico to Brazil, leaders in Latin America have largely kept
silent amid charges of human rights abuses in Venezuela and are unlikely
to speak out against their neighbor at this week's Summit of the Americas.
Many Latin American heads of state gathering in Panama City are bound to
oil-rich Venezuela by business dealings if not ideology, and are put off
by recent U.S. sanctions against some of the country's officials. Others
do not want to be seen as doing Washington's bidding, particularly as
they face protests and plunging approval ratings at home.
"Venezuela has successfully played the history of U.S. imperialism and
U.S. heavy-handedness cards, in a way that has made people want to back
away from public criticism," said Geoff Thale, an analyst at the
Washington Office on Latin America.
The Obama administration last month froze the U.S. assets and revoked
visas for seven senior officials accused of human rights violations
related to protests last year against President Nicolas Maduro's
socialist government. The unrest is blamed for more than 40 deaths and
triggered a crackdown on criticism that led to the jailing of several
opposition leaders, including February's surprise arrest of Caracas
Mayor Antonio Ledezma.
Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups issued a statement on
Tuesday asking the countries attending the summit to call Maduro's
administration to task for its alleged harassment of rights defenders.
But rather than highlight alleged abuses, the U.S. sanctions have drawn
widespread condemnation in Latin America, denying Obama a hoped-for
diplomatic victory lap at the summit for his decision to restore ties
with Cold War nemesis Cuba. A reference to Venezuela as a threat to U.S.
national security included in the sanctions declaration is standard
bureaucratic language for the United States, but disturbing to a region
with a long history of U.S. interference, from support for past military
regimes to efforts to topple leftist governments.
Host Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela said that while regional
leaders are concerned about the situation in Venezuela, both the
government and the opposition, which has been calling for Maduro's
resignation, bear responsibility. Safeguarding the results of
congressional elections later this year is the best way to resolve the
impasse, he said.
"As a democratic country, for sure, we defend human rights, we defend
the right of the Venezuelan opposition to participate in democratic
elections," he said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.
"But we also have to defend the right for President Maduro to finish his
term."
Ricardo Zuniga, the U.S. National Security Council's senior director for
Latin America, said Tuesday during a press briefing on Obama's upcoming
visit that the situation in Venezuela is a concern of all governments
around the region. But he played down the language labeling Venezuela a
national security threat.
"We don't have any hostile designs on Venezuela," he said. "We are
Venezuela's largest trading partner. We have an extensive and deep
history between our countries, including a lot of family connections."
The U.S. action has been breathing new life into Maduro's government
just as a plunge in oil prices looked set to deepen economic turmoil
marked by widespread shortages and soaring 68 percent inflation. He has
promised to deliver Obama a petition signed by 10 million Venezuelans
calling on the U.S. to repeal the sanctions.
The pushback from the region seems to have caught the U.S. off guard.
"I was a bit, I will confess, disappointed that there weren't more who
defended the fact that clearly this was not intended to hurt the
Venezuelan people or the Venezuelan government even as a whole," Roberta
Jacobson, the top State Department official for Latin America, said last
week about the sanctions.
It was no surprise that leftist allies such as the governments of
Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua would leap to defend Caracas. All have a
history of vocal opposition to Washington. But even more moderate
governments and traditional U.S. allies in the region have been
reluctant to criticize Maduro.
Some governments are protective of deep economic ties to Venezuela,
including Argentina and more than a dozen nations that have received
subsidized oil under the Venezuelan-led Petrocaribe alliance.
Others worry about instability spilling over. In Colombia, President
Juan Manuel Santos is trying to protect important trade with Venezuela,
repair relations that nearly collapsed under his combative conservative
predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, and retain Venezuelan support for complicated
peace talks with leftist rebels.
Meanwhile the presidents of regional heavyweights, Mexico, Brazil and
Chile are dealing with their own domestic crises brought on by slumping
economies and government corruption charges, so are reluctant to
antagonize left-wing constituents who still revere the late Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez.
Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto has been forced to slash spending and
partially rein in much-touted energy reforms due to plummeting oil
prices. He is also fighting scandals over alleged cronyism and the
disappearance of 43 students who authorities say were detained by
police, handed over to a drug gang and murdered last September.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's slumping approval ratings rival
those of Maduro, with just 12 percent of citizens saying in a recent
poll that they viewed her government's performance as "good" or
"excellent." Driving voters away are a sputtering economy and a
spreading corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras. While her
predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was a regional powerbroker,
Rousseff has not developed a clear foreign policy or a leadership role
beyond Brazil.
Both leaders have been the target of protests calling for their resignation.
Rousseff and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet are former political
prisoners who would seem natural candidates to speak out about human
rights concerns. But Bachelet's popularity also has dropped over
allegations her son used his influence to secure a bank loans — a
corruption scandal that threatens her agenda to combat inequality in Chile.
With the exception of comments this week by Uruguay's foreign minister
expressing concern over the jailing of opposition leaders and use of
force against protesters, Latin America's most public criticism of
Venezuela has come from those outside the halls of power.
In a letter released Monday, 19 former leaders from Latin America and
Spain called on Maduro's government to release jailed activists and
urged respect for "constitutional principles and international standards."
Latin diplomats like to say they can be more effective raising concerns
privately with Venezuelan officials rather than airing dirty laundry in
public. They point to mediation efforts by the South American regional
bloc Unasur, which last year briefly brought the government and
opposition to the negotiating table, and say they may exercise this
leverage again should things spin out of control around legislative
elections later this year.
Maduro has promised to deliver to Obama a petition signed by 10 million
Venezuelans calling for the U.S. sanctions to be revoked, but Panama's
president said regional leaders won't allow the tensions to dominate the
conference.
"The summit isn't about the bilateral relationship between the United
States and Venezuela," Varela said. "But if they (Obama and Maduro) have
to meet, Panama is a good place to meet, Panama is a good place to talk,
Panama is a good place to solve differences. That's the tradition of our
country."
---
Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman reported this story in Panama
City and Peter Orsi reported from Mexico City. AP writers Hannah Dreier
in Caracas, Venezuela, and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington contributed to
this report.
---
Joshua Goodman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APjoshgoodman
Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter-Orsi
Source: Latin America silent on Venezuela as US airs rights concerns |
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