By RIEL MAJOR

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party chairman and Senator Fred Mitchell has criticised the country’s decision to vote against the recognition of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro’s second term.

The Permanent Council of the Organisation of American States approved the resolution against the legitimacy of Mr Maduro’s new term on January 10, following a vote supported by 19 member states.

Mr Mitchell, former foreign affairs minister, said The Bahamas typically abstained from this type of resolution as it is generally viewed as interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.

According to the OAS, six members voted against, and there were eight abstentions and one member was absent.

“Typically, The Bahamas would abstain from such a vote,” said Mr Mitchell, “because the arguments in the past has been that this will be seen as an interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela, not withstanding the issues connected with the elections and the protest in the country.”

He continued: “The elections did take place and there is a de facto regime in charge in Venezuela. The Bahamas has now voted with other countries to say we do not recognise the election which took place and we do not recognise the second term of Maduro in Venezuela.”

In June last year, the OAS General Assembly declared Venezuela’s May 20 election lacked legitimacy and failed to comply with international standards.

Its January 10 resolution highlighted the alleged illegitimate electoral process, and deep concerns about the “worsening political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela resulting from the breakdown of democratic order and serious human rights violations in that state.”

It called for national dialogue on a new presidential elections that had the participation of all political actors, and guaranteed a free, fair, transparent, and legitimate process with international observers.

This week, Mr Mitchell said: “The Bahamas needs an explanation from our government as to why they thought it was important enough to do this, as supposed to joining what would be the usual position of our country in positions like this which is either to abstain, or to be absent from the vote, or to vote against. So we are asking from the PLP side for the foreign minister to give us an explanation as to why this vote took place.”

He said: “It is a very serious thing when you say you don’t recognise a country’s internal dealings and does it now mean that the next step is that we are going to break diplomatic relations with Venezuela because that seems to be the logical step given what has happened.”