Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.</s>In what was viewed as a heavy diplomatic blow to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime, the Organization of American States (OAS) on Tuesday formally recognized the ambassador appointed by interim President Juan Guaidó as the legitimate representative of that nation.

The resolution, protested by the Maduro-appointed delegation and by representatives of some allied nations, was approved by the Permanent Council of the OAS with 18 votes in favor, nine against and six abstentions. Belize was not present for the vote.

The move means that Gustavo Tarre, the ambassador appointed by Venezuela’s National Assembly, of which Guaidó serves as president, will now serve as head of Venezuela’s diplomatic delegation to the OAS and will have full power to appoint the members of its mission.

The credentials issued to Maduro’s delegation will be revoked, barring them from entry into the OAS headquarters in Washington, and their diplomatic visas could eventually be canceled by the U.S. government, OAS ambassadors later told journalists.

“It is a historic day for the OAS because as of today Venezuela will have a representative who truly represents the Venezuelan people,” said Carlos Trujillo, U.S. ambassador to the organization.

“We are recognizing Ambassador Tarre as permanent representative, and he has the right, like any ambassador, to submit the people who are accredited to be part of his mission,” he added.

The vote was immediately rejected by Maduro’s Foreign Ministry in Caracas, which issued a statement saying that Venezuela had been the victim of a new plot orchestrated from Washington.

“This is one of the most unfortunate decisions taken in this organization’s long history of legal and political outrages, a vulgar manipulation of blackmail and pressure against member states to satisfy the wishes of Washington’s neo-Monroeist policy,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Headed by Maduro’s mission, the nine countries that voted against the resolution argued that the highly important issue being discussed should not be settled by a simple majority in the Permanent Council, but by a qualified majority (24 votes) in a General Assembly, the highest gathering of the OAS.

The motion was modified at the last minute by Jamaica to establish in writing that Tarre is accepted as “designated permanent representative of the National Assembly, pending the holding of new elections and the appointment of a democratically elected government.”

The original version declared Tarre as a representative of the Venezuelan state. The modified language led to speculation that the situation might lead to two different Venezuelan diplomatic missions at the OAS, with one of them tied to Maduro.

The ambassadors, however, rejected this possibility, saying that adding the National Assembly reference to a resolution does not make it a partial recognition because the legislative body is the only legitimately elected Venezuelan institution.

The OAS had already had declared that it did not recognize the legitimacy of Maduro’s second presidential term, claiming that his re-election last May was fraudulent. The organization also already recognizes Guaidó as the legitimate Venezuelan head of state, with a majority of the OAS members forming part of the more than 50 nations doing the same as individual nations.

Following the vote, Tarre told reporters that it was great news for the Venezuelan people, who he said are suffering under the Maduro regime.

“This means that the usurpation of the Venezuelan chair in the OAS ceased,” Tarre said. “Consequently, and in line with President Guaidó’s roadmap, this is another step to the end of the usurpation in Caracas, the establishment of a transition government and of free elections.”</s>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Wednesday it will block the Maduro regime in Venezuela from accessing $400 million in funds until a legitimate government is put in place.

According to reports, the IMF suspended the cash-strapped Venezuelan regime’s access to around $400 million of special drawing rights in January, after they recently reduced their total holdings down from $1 billion.

“Any IMF engagement with Venezuela, including responding to potential financial transaction requests, is predicated on the issue of government recognition being clarified,” an IMF spokesman told AFP. “We are guided by our membership on that issue, and at this point, this determination has not been made.”

The international community is currently divided over the issue of recognizing Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime as legitimate. The majority of Western democracies recognize Juan Guaidó, who took an oath of office in January, as President of Venezuela. However, Maduro still retains the backing of other leftist government in Latin America including Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Cuba, while other authoritarian regimes in Russia, China, Turkey, and Iran also support his leadership.

The move represents another defeat for the Maduro regime, which has desperately attempted to repatriate its foreign assets amid an economic crisis so severe that millions of Venezuelans have been forced to flee the country, often in need of humanitarian assistance. The government has also defaulted on over $10 billion in payments, mainly in the form of loans from China, Russia, and other lenders.

Much of the regime’s difficulty in accessing funds has been a result of U.S. economic sanctions, which ban Americans from dealing with the regime or its state-run companies in any financial capacity. The country currently holds around $6 billion worth of gold, amounting to two-thirds of its total foreign assets, although this has proved almost impossible to liquidate because of U.S. sanctions.

In January, the Bank of England refused to hand over around $1.2 billion of gold from its vaults, citing the regime’s flagrant degradation of democracy, while the U.S. has handed control of various Venezuelan bank accounts to Juan Guaidó and his advisers. One adviser to Guaidó, Harvard Professor Ricardo Hausmann, told Bloomberg that all the necessary funds “will be available when this usurpation ends.”

Venezuela’s socialist regime has long had a contentious relationship with the Washington-based IMF, whose rules state that a government must be recognized by a majority of member countries in order to access their reserves. In 2007, the late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez pledged to cut all ties with the fund, but he never carried through on the plan because of fears it would send the country into default. “They will wear away — the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and all those institutions,” Chavez said at the time.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.</s>Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday sought to ratchet up international pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, chastising the United Nations Security Council for being slow to act against that government as a humanitarian crisis unfolds on Maduro’s watch.

Pence said that America is preparing a new resolution recognizing the legitimacy of Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela, and he urged the U.N. Security Council to pass it.





“Up to this point, while other international bodies have acted, the United Nations and this security council have refused to act,” Pence said, seated in the Security Council chamber. “But now that nations across this hemisphere have spoken, the time has come for the United Nations to recognize interim president Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela and seat his representative in this body.”

Pence also urged the U.N. to revoke the credential of Venezuela’s representative to the United Nations.

“With all due respect, Mr. Ambassador, you shouldn’t be here,” Pence said, as Venezuela’s representative seated at the Security Council table could be seen raising his eyebrows and vigorously shaking his head. “You should return to Venezuela. Tell Nicolás Maduro his time is up. It’s time for him to go.”

Those remarks come as U.S. officials worry about what they see as growing Chinese and Russian involvement in Venezuela. China and Russia—permanent members of the U.N. Security Council—along with Cuba continue to support Maduro, who has maintained power despite mounting sanctions and international condemnation, amid an economic collapse and humanitarian crisis in his country. China and Russia have stymied previous American efforts to rebuke Maduro at the U.N. and could do so again.

“Soon at President Trump’s direction the United States will announce additional action to hold Cuba accountable for its malign influence in Venezuela,” Pence said, as he also blasted Russian and Chinese efforts to “obstruct” at the Security Council.





Maduro’s government has been accused of using the prospects of food and even medical care as political instruments, turning basic necessities into bargaining chips for votes. More than three million Venezuelans have fled the country in the past several years.





The White House, meanwhile, recognized Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela in January, and more than 50 other countries have followed suit. The United States has also applied sanctions on more than 150 officials and organizations affiliated with Maduro, as well as sanctioning the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, and vessels owned or operated by that company. On Wednesday, Pence announced an additional $60 million in humanitarian aid.

The Trump administration has not ruled out military action in the region, even as Pence on Wednesday reiterated a commitment to diplomatic and economic pressure first.

“Nations across the world have spoken,” he said. “It’s time for the United Nations to speak.”

Pence’s comments come as some activists, including the organization Human Rights Watch, call for the U.N. Security Council to take emergency measures to combat the crisis in Venezuela. The Organization of American States on Tuesday acknowledged Guaidó’s appointed ambassador to that body.

But efforts to ramp up U.N. involvement in Venezuela may meet continued resistance on the Security Council. In February, Russia and China opposed a U.S. resolution at the U.N. calling for unimpeded access to humanitarian aid and new elections in Venezuela. Pence urged the Security Council to rally against Maduro this time around as he outlined a new resolution recognizing Guaidó’s legitimacy.

“Today we urge every member of the Security Council, all United Nations member states, to support this resolution, to stand with the Venezuelan people as they rise up to restore … democracy and libertad to their nation,” he said.

Pence has been an especially visible champion of the administration’s Venezuela policy, frequently signaling that combating the crisis there remains a priority for the United States even as Maduro holds on. He traveled to Colombia to meet with Guaidó in February, where he reiterated the administration’s commitment to a diplomatic solution despite aggressive tweets from Trump.

“I made it clear to President Guaidó that we’re going to continue to call on allies to join with us,” Pence said. “We’re going to continue to isolate Maduro economically and diplomatically until democracy is restored.”

More recently, he has met with Guaidó’s wife. He has also stayed connected with members of the Venezuelan exile community in the United States, attending a roundtable in Miami and last week addressing members of the Venezuelan community in Houston.</s>Newly installed World Bank President David Malpass said Thursday that bank shareholders would decide when and how to engage with crisis-stricken Venezuela.

“The bank will be involved as the situation evolves and the bank is preparing for that,” Malpass told reporters during bank’s spring meetings with the International Monetary Fund.

He said Venezuela was of “deep concern” and was facing a “humanitarian crisis.”

“As far as the political side, we will be guided by the international community and the views of our shareholders,” he added.

“This is something that is not chosen by the bank but by the shareholders of the bank.”

Malpass’s views echoed those of the IMF, which said Wednesday it would have no contact with Caracas, and would not allow the country access to its IMF-held reserves, until the international community recognized a government there.

Venezuela’s national assembly leader Juan Guaido in January challenged the legitimacy of embattled leader Nicolas Maduro as the country’s acute economic crisis worsened.

The United States is among about four dozen countries to recognize Guaido.

Malpass took office on Tuesday as the World Bank’s 13th president, having previously served as a top US Treasury official for international affairs.
The International Monetary Fund denies Venezuela access to its money as there is no majority of member states recognizing either Maduro or Guaidó, describing the situation as "political chaos" and asking for debate between its members on the nation.