Almagro announces the creation of a Working Group in the OAS on the Venezuelan exodus
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, announced on Wednesday the creation of a Working Group dedicated to the migration of Venezuela, which will be led by former Venezuelan Mayor David Smolansky.
Almagro described a Smolansky, of the opposition Popular Will, as “a person absolutely committed to the cause of Venezuelan migrants” and who “definitely has an impotence of closeness, because he has visited the camps and has been close to the people both in Brazil and In colombia “.
The Working Group has two main missions: to prepare a report on the migration of Venezuelans and to raise funds.
Its creation is an initiative of the General Secretariat of the OAS and, therefore, the member countries of the organization are not part of this entity.
33 years old, Smolansky was mayor of the Caracas municipality of El Hatillo from December 2013 until September 2017, when he fled Venezuela was sentenced to 15 years in prison and politically disqualified for allowing the installation of barricades in his locality.
Smolansky, who escaped to Brazil from Venezuela and has traveled to Colombia, has intensified his defense of Venezuelan immigrants and refugees over the past few months.
His political career began in 2007 in the student movement that opposed the constitutional reform required by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013).
Almagro made the announcement about the creation of the Working Group in statements to the press after an extraordinary session of the Permanent Council of the OAS to address the crisis of Venezuelan migrants.
The UN estimates that up to June of this year, 2.3 million Venezuelans have left their country, mainly in the direction of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Chile.
(EFE)
