The political crisis in Venezuela seems to deepen daily. As we have reported opposition leader, Juan Guaido - backed by the US and the European Union has declared himself President. He is pushing for the overthrow of President Nicholas Maduro.
While the US is pushing for regime change, Belize - which has a long history of friendly relations with Venezuela - has consistently advocated for a more moderate approach and this country has remained neutral.
Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington went to Uruguay last week along with CARICOM leaders to advance an approach based on dialogue. They called it the Montevideo Mechanism. But, the summit ended on Friday with one of the co-sponsors, Uruguay calling for election in Venezuela, leaving, Mexico, Caricom and Bolivia with their moderate stance.
And while all this is done in the context of a political and humanitarian crisis, today the Venezuelan Ambassador told us there is no crisis - that's only the word the western media is using:..
H.E. Gerardo Argote, Venezuelan Ambassador to Belize
"I could not talk about a humanitarian crisis. Why? because humanitarian crisis could happen right now in Syria, right now it could happen maybe in Somalia. In other countries that, you can say, they are starving, under war, under attack, and right now if I talk about the truth in Venezuela, I can tell you that the boys and the girls go to school, the people go to work. There is no war, no civil war right now. You can find some strikes, that is true, but it is normal because we are living in a democratic system."
Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"But would you agree that there are shortages of food and medicine, there is hyperinflation, there is unemployment, there is hunger ambassador."
H.E. Gerardo Argote, Venezuelan Ambassador to Belize
"Yes, that is true but when you see the situation you can't only see the problem. We have to find, we have to search inside the situation and the whole situation. We can't only see the trees, we have to see the forest. I could say that we have problems with some medicines, with food. It is so easy to find some images of Venezuela, to read a little bit of CNN, ABC or whatever and then say, 'Oh, okay, the Venezuelan situation is so hard, the people don't have food, don't have medicine,' yes of course. But if we can't use our money, what should we do? They have $1,400 million in gold. This is the gold of my people. $7 thousand million of assets in the USA and $1 thousand million oil exports to the USA. So, they block our money and they block the money for my children, for the milk of my children, for the medicine of my people or for the food of my people. Just imagine what could happen in Venezuela if we could use $35 thousand million. The situation could be different. And it is not the fault of Madura, it is not by the fault of the government of Madura; no. It is an economic problem and it is because we are living in a coup d'état but in a different way."
We'll have more of our conversation with Ambassador Argote in tomorrow's news…
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