Venezuela's Maduro entreats Latin America not to isolate him

Venezuela's Maduro entreats Latin America not to isolate him
June 4, 2016
By Sarah Marsh and Nelson Acosta

HAVANA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called upon Latin
America on Saturday not to give in to "brutal pressure" from the United
States to isolate his government, which is battling intensifying
opposition at home and abroad.

The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), that Venezuela
views as a pawn of U.S. policy, this week called for an emergency
meeting to discuss a possible censure of the country for violating
democratic norms.

Meanwhile on Thursday a senior Brazilian official said Brazil may help
block Venezuela from taking the rotating presidency of the Mercosur
trade group this month, in a bid to prevent Maduro from strengthening
his power.

"I call upon the governments of the continent to maintain solidarity,
cooperation and understanding and not to submit to ... brutal pressure
to isolate Venezuela," Maduro entreated other Caribbean leaders gathered
for a summit in Havana.

As Venezuela falls deeper into an economic crisis that includes food and
medicine shortages, spiraling inflation and sporadic looting, opposition
protests for a recall referendum against Maduro are also growing.

Maduro has denounced this as part of an undercover U.S.-backed coup
against his socialist government.

"Venezuela will not give in, it will not kneel down, we will fight with
the same force we have fought against coups and any type of
interventionism these last 17 years," he said.

In the speech opening the summit, Cuban President Raul Castro gave
Maduro his "robust and unconditional support" and denounced the
"imperialist counteroffensive" against progressive governments
throughout Latin America.

A generation of leftist leaders took power in the region around 2000,
leveraging a boom in commodity exports to pursue ambitious and
transformative social policies.

Venezuela also used its oil to wield influence abroad. A majority of the
25 states that are members of the Association of Caribbean States, or
ACS, receive subsidized Venezuelan fuel.

But commodity prices have plunged in recent years and support for these
leftists governments has crumbled.

Argentina's Peronists lost the presidency in elections last November
after 12 years in power, while the 13-year rule of the Workers Party in
Brasil ended dramatically with the suspension of President Dilma
Rousseff in May.

Castro, who was part of the revolutionary group that overthrew a
U.S.-backed dictator in Cuba in 1959, expressed his support for Rousseff
who was facing a "parliamentary coup promoted by the oligarchic and
neoliberal right-wing".

He also underscored that Cuba would never return to the OAS, which it
deemed "an instrument of imperialist domination".

(Additional reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Source: Venezuela's Maduro entreats Latin America not to isolate him -
https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuelas-maduro-entreats-latin-america-not-isolate-him-184020861--business.html?ref=gs