With the Peruvian President, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK), leaving office, a massive void of legitimacy is created in the so-called Lima Group. This Group was created to ensure that Venezuela’s right to self-determination was not realized. This is part of the war that the United States is waging to destroy sovereignty, a war which sees every possible measure being harnessed.

The Lima Group is made up of at least half the countries that are members of the Organization for American States (OAS). However, the resignation of Peru’s President, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, charged with corruption, shakes the foundations of the VIII Summit of the Americas (to be held on 13 and 14 April 2018), which now are crumbling like a sandcastle. Somewhat paradoxically, the theme of the Summit was, “democratic governance and corruption”. Its host was the Peruvian leader.

If the United States was claiming to use the Eighth Summit of the Americas to increase its resource base for going into Venezuela (the US banned the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from entering the Summit), then the hegemon experienced a double failure. PPK is absent both from the Presidency of Peru and the VIII Summit. This lays bare the democratic fragility and moral and political orphancy of several of its dining partners (Peru, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Panama, just to mention some), which have stood out for similar or greater corruption than that which buried Kuczynski and can be qualified as Failed States, according to US South Command’s latest dictionary of the.

From the time it was formed, pursuing unlawful objectives, the Lima Group violated the OAS Charter and International Public law- which enshrines the duty not to intervene, not to threaten and not to attack. The Lima Group was expressly formed from the declared, public intentions of the United States to invade Venezuela by the use of force. For this reason its members are clearly complicit with its aggression.

Colombia is the US’s pet in Latin America. It has already received from Washington fabulous sums to rent out its territory to destabilize, attack and to serve as a launching pad for the invasion against Venezuela. Will Colombia be able to say no to the US?

The Declaration that created the Lima Group, in August 2017, loses its raison d’etre on account of the binding report of the independent investigator of the UN Human Rights Council, the US jurist and historian, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas. He was removed from sight and cursed by Western media scaffolding for declaring that “there is no humanitarian crisis” which could justify a “humanitarian intervention” (read armed intervention”) [1].

According to Zayas, a Harvard graduate, yes, Venezuela is suffering from “lack of supplies and shortages, naturally occasioned by economic and trade war”. This is the product of a violent opposition against its people, propped up from abroad, and not internal oppression [2].

Apart from an artificial “humanitarian crisis”, the United States has recently applied “sanctions” (a clear misnomer), both on high officials and the state of Venezuela. But such “sanctions” are in actual fact restrictive and coercive measures that constitute crimes injurious to humanity (embargoes, financial sieges, economic and trade asphyxiation, boycotting the Petro [3]) and are substitute measures or complementary to the illegitimate use of force under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

The United States, speaking through its President Trump, has threatened Venezuela with an imminent armed invasion [4] if it does not submit to US orders. Submission implies Venezuela gifting US transnational corporations its resources and riches. But these “sanctions”, which do not deny the Venezuelan people its right to exist, can form the basis of claims before the International Criminal Court, regardless of the fact that this tribunal, with all due respect, has lost much of its marble(s).

Because there is no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, it is impossible to apply the Democratic Charter of the OAS. This is the principal aim of the Lima Group. The serious stumbling block of the Eighth Summit of the Americas leaves the United States without the essential regional curtain (read complicity) that is required to destroy the Bolivarian Republic.

If the Lima Group does not represent the OAS which lacks a Security Council to authorize its actions; if the Lima Group does not represent the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) nor any other regional group; if the Lima Group cannot take action by itself to further its interest, in violation of the OAS’s Charter, without risking being expelled from this organization; if the Lima Group violates the UN Charter, then what is this group, who does it serve and what is the legal foundation of its action?

The Lima Group is a band of delinquent states – bandits and mercenaries. The Group is opposed to the Peace Zone declared in the region, which serves the US South Command. It lacks legality. Indeed this frustrated banquet of vultures, could be more appropriately, the funeral of forgotten national dignity.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa

[1«Una aspiración verdadera a la paz y la justicia», por Alfred de Zayas, Zeit Fragen (Suiza), Red Voltaire, 27 de enero de 2018.

[2“Intervención sin crisis humanitaria”, por Julio Yao, La Estrella de Panamá, 12 de marzo de 2018.

[3The Petro is the cryptocurrency created by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. It is supported by verified reserves of oil and gold from Venezuela. Its pre-sale period began on 20 February 2018 – with almost 39 million available tokens, at an initial value of 60 US dollars to 1 Petro, culminated last 19 March with a report on intended purchases climbing up to to around 6 000 million dollars. This was despite Washington announcing its decision to impose sanctions on businesses or individuals who buy this Venezuelan cryptocurrency. Note by Voltaire Net.