TIAR member countries approve convening a consultation body to activate the treaty

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(CNN Spanish) - The call to a consultation body that will consider the appropriate measures for the installation of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance in the case of Venezuela was approved this Wednesday at the Organization of American States.

Only the 19 member countries of the TIAR participated in the vote that resulted in 12 votes in favor, 5 abstentions and 1 absence.

Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, the United States, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic voted to convene the consultation body.

MIRA: What is the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty, TIAR?

For its part, Costa Rica, whose representative submitted an amendment to the call to avoid a military response that was rejected, refrained from voting. The same thing was decided by the states of Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay and Peru.

The representative of Bahamas was not present at the vote.

The consultation body should meet to discuss the activation of the treaty.

Juan Guaidó's ambassador to the OAS, Gustavo Tarre, celebrated the approval of the call.

“We are talking and talking with a regime that does not want dialogue, that does not want negotiated exit. This forces us to meet and exchange opinions on what should be done. We are not linking the consultation body meeting to any kind of solution. We are open to all proposals, all ideas that may arise and all approaches that may be offered as long as they have as objective the exit of an oprobious, dictatorial and murderous regime. That is why we invoke the TIAR, ”said Tarre.

This agreement, signed in 1947 after World War II, subscribes to a commitment of mutual defense between countries of the Americas against armed attacks, under the doctrine that an attack on a member state is an attack on all members. Although the Cold War era treaty does not require signatories to offer each other military assistance, many in the Venezuelan opposition see TIAR as a possible legal framework for future foreign intervention.

Venezuela was one of the founding countries, but abandoned the treaty in 2013 during the Government of Hugo Chávez. However, last July, unanimously, the Venezuelan National Assembly led by the opposition approved the reinstatement of the country to the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance.

OAS