by Linda Straker
- Grenada did not vote on Venezuela government legitimacy
- New Ambassador to the OAS and USA Yolande Smith was in transition
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter David has explained that Grenada did not vote at last week’s Organisation of American States (OAS) session in which a resolution was presented to not recognise the legitimacy of Venezuela’s government.
Following the vote, some online news outlets said that Grenada was one of the countries which abstained, but on Monday David said that Grenada “was not even in attendance at the meeting.”
“We did not abstain from voting because we were not present at the session. We are in transition from one ambassador to another and our new ambassador is still awaiting her credentials, so we were unable to attend the session,” said David.
Grenada’s new Ambassador to the OAS and USA is Yolande Smith who formerly served in the Miami Consulate.
Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries remain divided on the political situation in Venezuela with the Bahamas, Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti and St Lucia supporting the OAS resolution on Thursday not recognising the legitimacy of Maduro’s second term. Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname voted against the measure. St Kitts-Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, and Belize abstained during the vote.
In the resolution, the OAS urged all member states and permanent observers to the hemispheric body to adopt, “in accordance with international law and their national legislation, diplomatic, political, economic and financial measures that they consider appropriate, to contribute to the prompt restoration of the democratic order of Venezuela.”
The OAS is calling “for new Presidential elections with all necessary guarantees of a free, fair, transparent, and legitimate process to be held at an early date attended by international observers.”
