U.S. Senate Committee Approves Sanctions, Venezuela to Appeal to United Nations
by alethoBy Z.C. Dutka | Venezuelanalysis | May 20th 2014
Earlier
this afternoon in Washington, the Foreign Relations Committee of the
U.S. Senate approved 13 to 2 the “Venezuelan Human Rights and Democracy
Protection Act.” The bill includes sanctions on key individuals of the
Venezuelan government and at least $15 million to “defend human rights…
and strengthen the rule of law.”
The Menendez Bill
Committee
chair, Democrat Robert Menendez, who played a lead role in the writing
of the proposed legislation, plans to present the bill before the whole
Senate within the coming weeks.
The
legal measures proposed are in regards to recent anti-government
protests that have reached levels of extreme violence in certain
Venezuelan cities, resulting in 42 dead, 800 injured, and millions of
dollars of public property damaged, including the burning of multiple
universities.
Menendez
said the US can’t “play the role of bystander” while Venezuelan
president is going to “dangerous extremes to silence political dissent.”
"The
U.S. should always be on the side of human rights around the world,"
said another lead supporter, Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio.
Rubio
has prepared list of Venezuelan military and government officials who
would be targeted for sanctions if the bill were to pass. Among those
listed are attorney general Luisa Ortega Diaz and the head of operations
for the National Guard, Manuel Quevedo.
Earlier
this month another piece of similar legislation, the Venezuelan Liberty
and Democratic Solidarity Act, promoted by Florida congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, passed the corresponding foreign committee of the U.S.
Congress. It has yet to be addressed by Congress as a whole.
Roberta
Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs,
has attended the senate hearings and expressed concern on behalf of the
White House.
"This
is not a U.S.-Venezuela issue," she said. "We have strongly resisted
attempts to be used as a distraction from Venezuela's real problems."
She
has displayed equal unease that the bill might distract from the
important dialogue that is taking place between the Venezuelan
government and the opposition.
Appeal to the UN
Even
before the bill passed today’s Senate committee, Venezuelan foreign
minister Elias Jaua expressed outrage at what he considers repeated US
“interference” in Venezuelan affairs.
On Thursday
Jaua announced his plan to present a formal claim to the United
Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Union of South
American Nations (UNASUR), and the Community of Latin American and
Caribbean States (CELAC).
“We’ve had enough of the United States assuming a role that belongs to multilateral bodies, Jaua said Thursday.
“We must remember that as a free and independent nation we do not
recognize the United States parliament… as a legislative [force] over
Venezuela. There are basic principles of the United Nations Charter that
must be respected.”
The
minister has called a meeting with the UNASUR, to be held next week in
Ecuador. He plans to bring with him a “dossier of all the declarations
of interference posed by representatives of the United States, starting
with president Obama, Secretary [of State John] Kerry, and others…”
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