Organization of American States Calls Venezuela Meeting for Tuesday

"The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, 9 April, at 12:00 EDT (16:00 GMT)… to consider ‘the situation in Venezuela’", it said in a statement.

The meeting was requested by Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, all of which had recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s president.

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The gathering will take place at the organization’s headquarters in Washington and will be chaired by the head of its Permanent Council, Carlos Trujillo, who also serves as the US envoy.

Venezuela has been in turmoil since Guaido declared himself interim president and promised a new election following Nicolas Maduro’s inauguration in January. Russia, China, Mexico and several other countries continue to back constitutionally elected Maduro. Maduro has, in turn, accused the United States of trying to orchestrate a coup in order to install Guaido as a US puppet.

The United States has imposed numerous rounds of sanctions against Venezuela in response to the political developments in the country. On 28 January, the United States announced the imposition of sanctions on Venezuela’s PDVSA, blocking the company's assets worth $7 billion remaining under the US jurisdiction.

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In February, the governments of Mexico, Uruguay and CARICOM proposed the Montevideo mechanism to resolve the crisis, which envisages four phases: creating conditions for a direct dialogue between the conflicting sides in Venezuela, negotiations process, drafting of an agreement and implementation of the deal.