Venezuela isolation grows as Europe condemns ‘repression’

Venezuela’s isolation grew Thursday as the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the “brutal repression” of protesters by state security forces, saying more than 20 people had been killed in demonstrations over the past month.

“Venezuela’s government must ensure the full restoration of the democratic order and immediately release all political prisoners,” the Parliament said in a statement posted on its website. Lawmakers called on the government to establish an electoral calendar that would allow “free and transparent electoral processes and to stop side-lining opposition leaders by depriving them of their political rights.”

The call came just a day after Venezuela’s foreign minister, Delcy Rodriguez, said the South American country would start a process to withdraw from the Organization of American States after the Washington-based body scheduled a special meeting to discuss Venezuela’s political crisis.

Speaking on state television on Wednesday evening, she said President Nicolas Maduro had ordered Venezuela’s withdrawal and that a letter would to sent to the OAS on Thursday.

While largely symbolic as a formal withdrawal can only occur after a two-year waiting period, the move will increase Venezuela’s isolation in the region. The OAS, founded in 1948, promotes democracy, human rights, security and development, and all 35 independent states of the Americas have signed its charter, according to its website.

“Behind this conclave, this coalition of a group of governments in this region, is a threat to the sovereignty of our country, a pretense to intervene,” Rodriguez said. He called the organization’s actions “intrusive, arbitrary, illicit, misplaced, and vulgar.”

U.S. President Donald Trump called the situation in Venezuela “a mess” and “very sad,” when he met with his Argentine counterpart Mauricio Macri Thursday.

OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro has criticized the Maduro administration after the Venezuelan leader stripped powers from the opposition-controlled National Assembly and more than 28 people died in the protests, according to Venezuela’s public prosecutor.