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Venezuela hails OAS setback as blow to foreign meddling

Xinhua, May 11, 2017 Adjust font size:

Venezuela on Wednesday welcomed the postponement of an Organization of American States (OAS) meeting as a blow to foreign meddling in the country's internal affairs.

Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Delcy Rodriguez said the decision marks a defeat for right-wing regional governments bent on using the political and economic crisis roiling the South American country to intervene for their own interests.

"The group of interventionist governments in the OAS was roundly defeated today by the Permanent Council of the hemispheric bloc," Rodriguez posted on Twitter.

The council decided to postpone a scheduled meeting of regional foreign affairs ministers, who were to discuss Venezuela's plight and how to proceed.

In April, Venezuela withdrew from the bloc, accusing OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro of doing the bidding for the bloc's conservative-led countries, such as the United States, Argentina and Brazil.

The OAS meeting aimed "to modify the rules for meetings of foreign ministers to manipulate the number of votes in favor of intervention in Venezuela and they were defeated," said Rodriguez.

Earlier motions to sanction Venezuela for alleged violations of democratic principle failed to garner the votes needed to pass.

OAS countries siding with Almagro wanted to vote on Wednesday to hold a meeting on May 22, but did not garner enough support.

Almagro's "illicit actions will lead to the destruction of the OAS," Rodriguez said. Enditem