In late spring of 2008, the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations published a report titled “US-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality.” Timed to influence the foreign policy agenda of the next US administration, the report asserted: “the era of the US as the dominant influence in Latin America is over.” At the Summit of the Americas in April the following year, President Barack Obama appeared to be on the same page as the report’s authors, promising Latin American leaders a “new era” of “equal partnership” and “mutual respect.” Four years later, Obama’s second secretary of state, John Kerry, went a step further, solemnly declaring before his regional counterparts at the Organization of American States (OAS) that the “era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”

The National Lawyers Guild, the largest and oldest human rights bar association in the United States, has been a vocal supporter of the Bolivarian Project and its fraud-proof electoral process since we sent our first delegation to Venezuela in 2006.  We have steadfastly opposed the longstanding drumbeat of illegal intervention by the United States in Venezuela, as well as the U.S.-supported attacks against Venezuela’s sovereignty by Luis Almagro, in violation of his current role as Secretary General of the Organization of American States.  We have strongly supported mediation efforts between the Venezuelan government and the non-violent segments of the opposition, and are well aware of the toxic nature of the extreme right-wing and anti-democratic opposition that has plagued the country since the birth of the Bolivarian Project.

However, in recent months we have become alarmed and dismayed by your government’s disregard of international law and human rights in its increasing repression of dissenters long associated with the Bolivarian project, and your refusal to allow opposition candidates to run in the upcoming presidential election.