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Lima Group Declaration

Monday, 23 September 2019
Information for the Press N°: 
364/19

The Governments of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela, members of the Lima Group, gathered in the city of New York:

 1-   Reject the repeated and successive deadlocks caused by Nicolás Maduro's illegitimate and dictatorial regime in the negotiation processes with democratic forces and the National Assembly of Venezuela towards a political solution to the severe crisis in that country, through the holding of free, fair and transparent elections with international observation.

 2-   Reiterate their support for Interim President Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly as legitimate and democratically elected authorities, and underscore their willingness to reach a peaceful solution led by the Venezuelans themselves. The members of the Lima Group are still committed to working closely with the international community and urge other countries to join in the efforts towards that goal. 

 3-   Express their willingness to impose new sanctions or other economic and political measures on Maduro's regime with a view to facilitating, without the use of force, the restoration of the rule of law and constitutional and democratic order in Venezuela.

 4-   Reject the growing bonds between Nicolás Maduro's regime and unlawful armed groups operating along with other terrorist organizations and illegal armed groups in Venezuela, which pose a clear threat to peace, stability and security in the region.

 5-   Promote the investigation, arrest and punishment, in accordance with the applicable national legal systems, of officials and front men of Maduro's illegitimate regime who support armed groups and terrorist organizations and are involved in corruption, drug trafficking, organized crime and human rights violations.

  6-  Urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an independent mechanism to investigate and follow up the systematic human rights violations in Venezuela, documented in the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as proposed by the Lima Group countries and other members of the international community.

  7-  Reject the candidacy announced by Maduro's illegitimate regime for a seat on said Council as contrary to the task of protecting and defending human rights undertaken by that intergovernmental organization, and urge the United Nations General Assembly not to support that candidacy.

  8-  Reiterate their concern over the serious humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and the magnitude of the migration exodus (more than 4.3 million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), which exceeds the resources available to deal with it, and underscore the need to increase international support, especially financial support, to facilitate the Venezuelan migration and help host countries to face this unprecedented situation in the region.