Q COSTARICA — Former president of Costa Rica, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, commented on the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States in a video posted on social media.
Rodríguez stated that he does not celebrate an invasion, but believes the action is justified given the prolonged breakdown of the democratic order in Venezuela.
“It is very difficult for me to congratulate or support the invasion, but I justify it,” the former president said at the beginning of his public statement on the Venezuelan situation.
He indicated that the justification is based on the violation of the human right to live in a democracy, recognized in the Carta Democrática Interamericana (CDI)—Inter-American Democratic Charter—a fundamental agreement of the OAS adopted in 2001 that defines democracy as a right of the people and a collective obligation of member states to strengthen it.
Rodríguez, who was Secretary General of the organization for a brief period in 2004, maintained that the region and the international community failed to support Venezuela against a narco-dictatorship that violated human rights for years.
“The organizations of the inter-American and global institutions were not able to provide the necessary support,” he stated in his reflection.
The former president lamented that military action was necessary after years of documented denunciations by continental and extra-continental human rights organizations.
“It’s heartbreaking that things have come to this!” Rodríguez exclaimed, recalling the failed attempts at international support since 2015.
He added that the focus now must be on restoring Venezuelan sovereignty, its productive capacity, and the country’s democratic reconstruction.
“What is needed now is for Venezuelans, united, to rebuild their democracy and their lives in their own sovereignty,” the former president stated.
Rodríguez concluded his message with a call for peace, unity, and respect for the election results in Venezuela.
“For Venezuela, my prayer is with God, that it may find peace and that those who won the elections may assume power,” he concluded.