Washington, Apr 24 (EFE).- Several NGOs defending human rights asked this Monday in an open letter to the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, that the summit on Venezuela that the president plans to host this week focus on the State of law and situation of political prisoners in the country.
“We consider it essential that the Bogotá talks ensure that Venezuela follows the path towards the restoration of the rule of law as an essential element to overcome the human rights crisis that it has been going through for years,” said the organizations, including Amnesty International.
Specifically, the groups asked that the Venezuelan authorities commit to fighting impunity, and valued the objective promulgated by Petro that the country presided over by Nicolás Maduro return to the Inter-American Human Rights System (IDH).
They also demanded that a road map be established to release people imprisoned “for political reasons”. “Currently around 300 people are estimated to be arbitrarily detained,” the letter says.
Finally, the organizations criticized the bill to control the actions and financing of NGOs that the Venezuelan Parliament approved in January, and asked that “these legislative proposals that limit the defense of human rights” be “discarded.”
All in all, the groups praised the holding of the summit and wished it to become “a fruitful space.”
The open letter was signed, in addition to Amnesty International, by the International Commission of Jurists, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P) and the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).
The meeting in Bogotá on Venezuela will begin on Tuesday, April 25, and will be attended by foreign ministers or delegates from around 20 countries, including representatives of the United States.
