Latin America’s shameful silence on Venezuela

Judging from the shamefully weak response from Latin America’s regional organizations such as the OAS and UNASUR to the arbitrary arrest of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma and other opposition leaders in Venezuela, it’s hard not to conclude that they have become mutual protection societies for repressive regimes.

Instead of immediately requesting the unconditional release of Ledezma, as well as that of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and other political prisoners who according to the United Nations have been victims of “arbitrary arrests, ” the biggest regional organizations and virtually all Latin American leaders have largely looked the other way.

What’s the point of having these regional organizations, if they don’t even raise a finger to enforce their own charters calling for the respect and defense of democracy? And how to justify the absence of strong responses from Brazil and Mexico, the region’s biggest countries, whose presidents want to be seen as leaders of modern democracies?

Decades ago, when a Latin American country blatantly infringed democratic freedoms, such as Venezuela is doing now, the region’s most important democratic leaders condemned such events, and asked for urgent meetings of the Organization of American States (OAS) to press for corrective actions.

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