Today the Venezuelan society suffers multiple types of violence. The violence from the repressive bodies trying to suffocate the peaceful protest. The violence hidden behind hunger, a consequence of food shortages and a high rate of inflation that prevents citizens from covering their daily needs. The violence of a health crisis reflected in the dismantling of the public health service and the lack of medicines. And the institutional violence exerted from the top, which is now promoting a Constitutional Assembly to –as declared by their promoters– «annihilate» the opposition, close down the Parliament and remove the general prosecutor, Luisa Ortega Diaz. In this way, President Maduro seeks to «impose peace,» after noting that Venezuela has only one alternative: «Constitutional Assembly or war.»

In the middle of the fight to recover full constitutional rights, Venezuelans express their gratitude for the support of those governments that have taken a courageous stand to protect democracy in the country and the hemisphere. Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Belize, Barbados, Bahamas, Argentina, Uruguay, Saint Lucia, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Mexico, Jamaica, Honduras, Guyana, Guatemala and the United States ratified their commitment with peace and democratic principles, while demonstrating their solidarity with the Venezuelan people.

Unfortunately, a minority decided to turn its back to Venezuela. The Governments of Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Bolivia, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda wrote their names down in one of the darkest pages in the history of the Continent. With their votes and abstentions, they have supported the establishment of a dictatorship that violates human rights and threatens the stability of the region.

While the Chancellor Delcy Rodriguez celebrated the «triumph» of the Bolivarian diplomacy at the OAS, a humble Venezuelan family mourned the death of one of their sons. In contradiction to the discourse of the government of President Nicolás Maduro, who calls himself promoter of peace, National Guard troops fired their guns at a demonstration on Monday and killed Fabian Urbina, a 17-year-old boy.

Forced by the abundant evidence gathered in videos and photographs, Interior Minister Néstor Luis Reverol Torres and the commander of the Bolivarian National Guard, Antonio Benavides Torres, publicly acknowledged that Urbina died victim to «the undue and disproportionate use of force «. The death of this boy represents the 75^th casualty registered as a result of the repression of popular mobilizations  demanding democracy and respect for the Venezuelan Constitution.

The repressors who crushed the dreams of young Fabian Urbina have blood on their hands and those who support the perpetrators of these abominable acts must know that the same blood also splashes and marks them before the eyes of the Venezuelan people and of those all over the continent who demand more and better democracy for all.

Signatories:

Transparencia Venezuela
Cedice Libertad
Sin Mordaza
Red Latinoamericana y el Caribe por la Democracia – Redlac
Generación Activa
Acceso a la Justicia
Consorcio Desarrollo y Justicia
Chile Transparente
Asociación Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil – Sinergia
Fundefir, La Escuela de Ciudadanos, Una Ventana a la Libertad
Fundación Aguaclara
Provea
Espacio Público
La Fondation PATRIMONIO POUR HAITÍ

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