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Colombia requests emergency Lima Group meeting over Venezuelan crisis

11:30 | Bogota (Colombia), Apr. 30.

Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo has on Tuesday called for an urgent meeting of the Lima Group to discuss the situation in Venezuela.

Juan Guaido, who has been recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries, announced at dawn on Tuesday that "the military family took a step" to join him and get "the definitive cessation of the usurpation".

A group of soldiers have sided with the self-proclaimed president, who has said he will restore democracy in the country.

Reacting to the events on Twitter, Trujillo said: "I call on all the member countries of the Lima Group so that today we continue our task of supporting the return of democracy and freedom to Venezuela and we define by mutual agreement an emergency meeting."


The Colombian minister added in another message that on instructions from President Ivan Duque he has sent communications to the member countries of the Lima Group to "convene an emergency meeting in order to continue supporting decisively the return of democracy and freedom to Venezuela."

The Lima Group, of which Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Guyana and Saint Lucia are members, was created in the Peruvian capital in August 2017 with the purpose of finding a solution to the crisis in Venezuela.

However, Mexico has stayed away from the initiative since the arrival of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

At its last meeting, held on April 15 in Santiago, Chile, the group urged the international community to take measures to isolate Maduro's government, and on Monday it asked the United Nations to mobilize in response to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela

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Published: 4/30/2019