The position taken by the foreign ministers of the four Mercosur founding member countries to suspend Venezuela from the bloc deserves all repudiation. It is a clear demonstration of interference coming even from a completely illegitimate government, the post-coup d'Etat government of Brazil.

Shortly after we celebrated the installation of the sovereign National Constituent Assembly of Venezuela as a result of a democratic, legitimate and popular process, the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, instead of condemning the violence caused by the opposition, which included terrorist acts, have decided to violate the right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination.

Interference in the internal affairs of nations, especially when so blatantly done with the intention of overthrowing a legitimate, popular and progressive government that confronts and exerts valiant resistance to the excesses of US imperialism in the region, is constantly denounced by the forces of peace and justice throughout the world, as is the offensive against Latin American integration based on solidarity and sovereignty, which the progressive governments and the peoples of the region struggle to build, resisting the conservative forces, the empire's servants.

The World Peace Council has expressed strong condemnation of the coup plot in Venezuela and the actions of the US-sponsored violent and armed opposition, such as the ones denounced by the Venezuelan Army on Sunday, August 6th, when a paramilitary group carried out an attack against the Bolivarian forces in Valencia, in the state of Carabobo.

We demand the end of foreign interference in Venezuela and welcome the government's quest for a democratic, peaceful and sovereign exit which is in turn fought against by the reactionary opposition forces who feel assured by foreign and imperialist support to the antidemocratic and unpatriotic national oligarchy.

We reaffirm our solidarity with the Venezuelan people in defending their democracy, self-determination and peace, against foreign interference!

Socorro Gomes
President of the World Peace Council