Lima Group supports constitutional, popular process led by Venezuelans

Below is the joint statement released by the regional bloc after Venezuela's Interim President Juan Guaido called for uprising against the Government of Nicolas Maduro.

The governments of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela —members of the Lima Group— express the following:

1. Express their full support for the constitutional and popular process undertaken by the Venezuelan people, under the leadership of Interim President Juan Guaido, to restore democracy in Venezuela, and reject the qualification of this process as a coup d'état.

2. Demand full respect for the life, integrity and freedom of all Venezuelans, and in particular all members of the National Assembly and all leaders of the Venezuelan democratic political forces, and also demand the immediate release of political prisoners.

3. Renew their call on the National Armed Forces of Venezuela to demonstrate their loyalty to the interim president, Juan Guaido, in his constitutional role as commander in chief, and that, faithful to their constitutional mandate of being at the exclusive service of the nation and not that of a person, they cease to serve as instruments of the illegitimate regime for the oppression of the Venezuelan people and the systematic violation of their human rights.

4. Demand that Nicolas Maduro cease his usurpation so that the democratic transition return to constitutional norms and the economic and social reconstruction of Venezuela can begin.

5. Underscore the direct responsibility of Nicolas Maduro, as well as the armed and intelligence forces in the service of his illegitimate regime, in the indiscriminate use of violence to repress the process of democratic transition and the restoration of the rule of law in Venezuela.

6. Urge the international community to closely follow the evolution of events and to offer its political and diplomatic support to the legitimate aspirations of the Venezuelan people to return to live in democracy and freedom, without the oppression of the illegitimate and dictatorial regime of Nicolas Maduro.

7. Declare themselves permanently in session and have decided to meet in person this Friday, May 3, in the city of Lima, Peru.

(END) NDP/RMB