In a 132-page letter to the president of the OAS Permanent Council, Almagro requested a meeting of the organization’s 34 member states from June 10 to 20.
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Luis Almagro on Tuesday said Venezuela had suffered an adjustment of constitutional order called for a vote on the matter in the coming weeks.
Under the OAS Charter, the Permanent Council may vote to suspend Venezuela’s membership with a two-thirds vote, on the grounds of preserving democracy.
Venezuela’s opposition learns on Thursday whether authorities will let them proceed with efforts to call a referendum on removing President Nicolas Maduro, whom they blame for the country’s fall from booming oil giant to basket case.
Almagro and Maduro have repeatedly butted heads in recent months, with the OAS head accusing the Venezuelan leader of being a “petty dictator”.
According to OAS chief Almagro’s spokesman Sergio Jellinek, Almagro submitted his proposal under the OAS Democratic Charter on May 31 after Argentina failed to show him a list of countries allegedly supporting a motion to give the Rodriguez Zapatero mediation mission a new chance.
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On Tuesday, Maduro said that Almagro was trying to foment foreign intervention in Venezuela. At a rally Wednesday, he called Almagro a “piece of trash” and accused him of partaking in an imperialist plot to pave the way for a foreign military invasion.
“I want to organize a historical process, which will demonstrate to the entire nation the usurpation of power [by the parliament] and treason, which the National Assembly fell into”, Maduro said as quoted by the Venezuelan news agency AVN. This could promote the vice president to finish the last two years of his term.
Maduro, who accuses the Washington-based OAS of being a tool of United States “imperialism”, responded by calling for a “national rebellion” and telling Uruguayan national Almagro to “shove it”. The Venezuela motion was supported by several OAS member countries including Bolivia and Nicaragua, calling on the body to respect Venezuela’s national sovereignty. However, one would think he would support Almagro’s multilateral efforts to rally the region to address Venezuela’s unrest before it grows more unsafe.
Political tensions, though, continue to rise as Venezuelans remain burdened by rampant inflation – estimated to come in at 720 percent this year – severe shortages of food, medicines and commodities and an economic recession excacerbated by the falling oil prices, which represents 96 percent of the country’s income through exports.
The OAS suspended communist-ruled Cuba between 1962-2009.
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Maduro’s opponents have gathered enough signatures for a referendum on his presidency.
