BUENOS AIRES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2019) Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has condemned the decision of the countries of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR, or Rio Pact/Treaty) to prohibit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and multiple high-ranking Venezuelan officials and ministers from traveling within TIAR borders.
"Washington and its satellite countries don't know what else to invent. While they suffer a crisis of governability, popular anti-neo-liberal rebellions and their imaginary para-government crumbles in Venezuela ... They create useless lists to attack our country," Arreaza wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Rio Treaty countries adopted new travel restrictions against 29 Venezuelans, including Maduro and his wife, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
The Tuesday meeting was held in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and was attended by representatives from the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia.
The TIAR agreement, commonly known as the Rio Pact, was signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1947. Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela withdrew their participation in the mutual defense treaty in 2012.
In September, the United States and its allies in the Western hemisphere invoked the Rio Treaty to facilitate further collective action to confront the alleged threat posed by Maduro's government. In his turn, the Venezuelan leader has accused the United States of trying to launch a military coup to topple his government.
