ALBA Countries Reject Peru's Interventionist Call over Venezuela

ALBA countries have rejected Peru's interventionist call and instead, will convene to discuss strategies to strengthen political dialogue.

Countries from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, ALBA, will attend the "Sixth Extraordinary Meeting of the Political Council" in Venezuela on Tuesday as an act of solidarity with Venezuela.

The ALBA meet coincides with another meeting in Lima called by Peru to discuss Maduro's democratically-elected government and the situation in Venezuela. Fourteen foreign ministers from Latin America including representatives from Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Costa Rica are expected to join Peru. The ministers aim to create "a permanent group" to monitor the situation in Venezuela, Heraldo Muñoz, Chile's foreign minister said on Monday.

The ALBA countries have rejected Peru's interventionist call and instead, will convene to discuss strategies to strengthen and deepen the "political dialogue between the member countries," Ecuador's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Some of the participating ALBA countries include Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua.

The ALBA trade treaty TCP is a platform for the integration of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, "which emphasizes solidarity, complementarity, justice and cooperation and whose purpose is to unite the capacities and strengths of the countries that integrate it to achieve integral development as sovereign and just nations," the document stated.

The members of the Venezuelan opposition have thanked Peru for calling the meeting.

"We hope that diplomatic decisions will be made, that they will be reduced only to a consular relationship and that the Venezuelan ambassadors will be withdrawn in the countries where they still remain, we hope that the problems will be solved in my country," Paulina Facchin, an opposition representative said.

This is not the first time Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has interfered in the domestic affairs of Venezuela. In August 2016, Kuczynski met with Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles before meeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. At the time, Capriles requested the Peruvian government support to bring down Maduro's government.