Ecuador objects to U.S. refusal to remove Venezuela from national security threat list

Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Relations has sent a message to the U.S. protesting the inclusion of Venezuela on a list of countries considered a
“threat to U.S. national security.”

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro

The list was sent out last week as an executive order from U.S. President Barack Obama. Venezuela has appeared on the same list for the past six years but Venezuelan officials had hoped for removal based on recent changes in the government, in particular the recent election of an opposition majority in the country’s congress.

Ecuador called the continued listing “unjust and unacceptable political pressure that violates international principles of non-interference.” It also called the action “an unacceptable interference in a sovereign country creates a serious risk to peace and democracy in the region,” adding that the international community needs to be vigilant “about the attempt to destabilize Venezuela’s democratic order as well as its internal and external order,”

The written objection, delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Quito, expresses Ecuador’s “fraternal solidarity with the people and the government of Venezuela.”

Ecuador joins two dozen other Latin American countries in condemning the U.S. action against Venezuela.