by Carlos Aznarez

(Originally published in Spanish at “Resúmen Latinoamericano”, Argentina. 24 June 2016. Translated by VSC.)

It has been a long time, ever since those years when Cuba was still participating in the OAS, that we had not heard words so clear and emphatic as those spoken these days by Bolivarian Chancellor Delcy Rodríguez. It was a real hurricane of fresh air blowing in that tribune, which has always officiated as a tentacle of US foreign policy in Latin America.

Forceful, rebelious and necessarily disrespectful (for those who think in terms of “political correctedness”) Delcy Rodriguez put on their rightful place those who deserve it, each reactionary dinosaur who sought sanctions for Venezuela. First she pointed to that nefarious character named Luis Almagro, placed in that position by José Mujica and Tabare Vazquez. Almagro now uses his office with bias against the struggle of peoples. Embarrassed by the behavior of their protege Mujica and Tabare make efforts to distance themselves from him now. Delcy was emphatic in repudiating the maneuvers orchestrated by Almagro and in confronting his humiliating words against the Bolivarian revolutionary process and President Nicolas Maduro. But she was even clearer in denouncing the true intentions of the Uruguayan pawn of Washington: “The secretary general is executing a coup on this organization and is promoting, together with the Venezuelan opposition, a coup in Venezuela”.

With incendiary verb and exercising her role of people communicator in the style of Commander Hugo Chavez, Delcy generated with his words (in two successive interventions) a clear polarization on where each of the members of the pan-American organization placed themselves. On one side were historical friends of the Bolivarian Revolution, on the other loyal fanatics to the “Almagrista” felony and his employers in the U.S. Republican Party. For the latter, Rodriguez spared no concepts: “We are living times of shame where all the rules are broken, burying us in a muddy situation. They are trying to judge a member state. They want to judge us and condemn us at the same time. ”

Looking on either side as she spoke, fixing her eyes on each of the people challenged, the Chancellor of the dignity put in a box, among others, to his Paraguayan counterpart, who had dared to point to Venezuela for its “violations of human rights”, making reference to the terrorist in prison Leopoldo Lopez, who these days seems to be a permanent columnist of the Spanish newspaper “El Pais.” Without mincing words, Rodriguez reminded the son of Horacio Cartes (and probably of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner) that there is no country that attacks human rights in the continent more than Paraguay, when their prisons are full of peasant prisoners and has perpetrated massacres against the poor (as happened in Curuguaty) as a tool to overthrow governments.

Impeccable in her onslaught, Rodriguez did not give breathing room to those who harbored the idea of pushing through the Inter-American Charter to sanction Venezuela. Then she returned to give his due to the Secretary of the OAS for having the audacity to want to include in the meeting a fanatic as Ramos Allup, considered a “traitor to the Motherland” for much of the Venezuelan people.

The end result of this diplomatic victory is that Almagro and his associates had to put the “Charter” in their pockets and recognize that one woman, with guts and revolutionary ideology succeeded in that nest of machismo, in stopping them, revealing them for who they are, as never before. But also she defined a slogan which is becoming increasingly necessary: “With the OAS or without it we are going to defend our country and our institutions.” Thus she left the door open to a claim already made by some governments and popular organizations: we have to definitely leave an organization that does not serve the people and not coincidentally is based in the heart of the monster.

Thanks compañera Delcy Rodríguez for representing us so well and those who continue to defend the anti-imperialist ideas on the continent.

Video of full intervention of Venezuela at the OAS 6/23/2016 session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbVTZsHkxYY