Paris, France. The new Macron government is taking its first baby steps calling for a multi-nation intervention in the Venezuelan crisis. Meanwhile in Caracas, the city burns as the government clashes with its citizens.
France’s new Macron administration called on Thursday for a regional or international mediation to be set up between the Venezuelan government and opposition groups to end the worsening violence in the oil producing nation.
Hundreds of thousands of people have come onto the streets across Venezuela since early April to demand elections, freedom for jailed activists, foreign aid and autonomy for the opposition-led legislature.
On Wednesday, the Maduro government said it was sending 2,000 soldiers to a border state that is a hotspot of anti-government radicalism after looting that killed a 15-year-old in the latest unrest roiling the nation.
“For France, alongside its European partners, the priority is the immediate end of violence through the support of a credible regional or international mediation that has the trust of both parties – government and opposition – to help restore dialogue and stability,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters in a daily briefing.
The American ambassador to the United Nations Nimrat Randhawa “Nikki Haley” warned on Wednesday that if the situation was left to escalate it could lead to a major international crisis like in Syria.
“What we are trying to say is the international community needs to say ‘respect the human rights of your people’ or this is going to go in the direction we’ve seen so many others go,”
“We’ve been down this road – with Syria, with North Korea, with South Sudan, with Burundi, with Burma. We’ve been down this road,” Haley said. “Why not get in front of this? Why not try to stop a problem before it starts?”
The United States requested the closed-door consultations on Venezuela despite objections from some council members who insisted the crisis was not a threat to international security.