US, OAS Trying To Sabotage Venezuela Talks In Barbados - UN Envoy

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2019) The press conference at the Organization of American States (OAS) with the participation of US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams was organized to undermine the results of the Barbados talks, Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN Samuel Moncada told reporters.

On Friday, Abrams and OAS head Luis Almagro held the press conference in at the organization's headquarters in Washington to discuss the human rights situation in the Latin American country. The briefing came a day after Venezuelan government and opposition representatives agreed to engage in permanent peace dialogue as a result of a three-day round of talks in Barbados.

"The only purpose of that press conference is to undermine, to preclude, to prevent, to sabotage the dialogue process that is ongoing right now in Barbados," Moncada said on Friday.

The ambassador said the United States was trying to impose a "violent solution" in Venezuela.

"They are trying to tell the world that they are in charge of this dialogue process, that they do not agree with the dialogue process, that the dialogue process is bound to fail and that the only solution to the situation in Venezuela is foreign military intervention," he added.

After the briefing at the OAS in Washington, Abrams told Sputnik that he is not currently planning any talks on Venezuela with his Russian counterparts.

Venezuela is experiencing a political-economic crisis that intensified in January after the US-backed Guaido proclaimed himself interim president. The United States soon thereafter started imposing sanctions on Venezuela and froze billions of Dollars worth of Venezuelan assets.

Maduro has called Guaido a US puppet and accused the United States of orchestrating a coup in Venezuela to force a change of government and claim the country's vast natural resources.