Lima Group joint statement

August 14, 2020

The governments of Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela, members of the Lima Group, committed to supporting the process of democratic transition in Venezuela:

1. reiterate their unity and firm commitment to interim president Juan Guaidó, to a democratic transition and to the institutional, economic and social reconstruction in Venezuela, a country that is experiencing an unprecedented multi-dimensional crisis that has caused growing suffering for the Venezuelan people and that has worsened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. reject the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro regime’s actions that threaten the exercise of the most basic civil and political rights, like the hijacking of institutions essential for the restoration of democracy such as the National Electoral Council and the Supreme Court of Justice, and the dismantling of political parties critical of the dictatorship.
3. express their firm rejection of the illegitimate regime’s announcement it would hold parliamentary elections without the minimum guarantees and without the participation of all political forces.
4. reiterate their condemnation of the systematic violations of human rights perpetrated by the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro, documented in the latest update of the report presented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights this past July, and call on the UN Human Rights Council to renew the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
5. support the “Joint Declaration of Support for the Democratic Transition in Venezuela,” made public today, by which 31 countries, including the majority of the members of the Lima Group, called upon all Venezuelans, their institutions and their political parties to put the interests of Venezuela above politics. The statement called on them to urgently commit to supporting a process, shaped and driven by themselves, to establish an inclusive transitional government that will lead the country to free and fair presidential elections as soon as possible, as the most effective and sustainable way to stability, recovery and prosperity in Venezuela.