"The Non-Aligned Movement is Questionably Non-Aligned At This Point" - Senior U.S. Diplomat

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) "is questionably non-aligned at this point, and it’s really a misnomer," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Carrie Filipetti told reporters on Friday.

In a telephonic briefing on Venezuela organized by the Washington Foreign Press Center, the senior diplomat was asked by the TURAN's U.S. correspondent about the welcoming support that Nicolás Maduro enjoys receiving from his international allies, including organizations such as NAM, currently led by Azerbaijan.

The Non-Aligned Movement, Filipetti said in response, "is a movement which now continues in its support for Iran, in its support for Venezuela under the Maduro regime, in its support for Cuba."

"We’re starting to see the Non-Aligned Movement really start to align itself with some of the worst actors, the largest human rights violators in the world, and so it’s something we need to keep our eye on",  she said, adding that  "these are countries that wanted to be independent of either the U.S. view or the Soviet view back during the Cold War, and now they are very much aligning themselves with a particular view. They should be focusing on the independence that was so important to them at their – at the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement."

The senior diplomat called for increased international support to help the people of Venezuela during "this political and humanitarian crisis."

A year ago, Venezuela's opposition head Juan Guaido announced himself as the country's rightful leader. But although Guaido won support from nearly 60 countries around the world, including the U.S., Maduro remains in power.

In the past week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in person with Guaido for the first time during his visit to Colombia, where the secretary, according to Filipetti, "reiterated the same promise that we have been making to the people of Venezuela since a year and a day ago when we recognized Interim President Juan Guaido, which is that we’re doing everything we can to ensure that the Venezuelans get the chance to live their lives with dignity, democracy, and freedom."

In the meantime, she added, while "we so frequently focus on the need for a political solution, the need for presidential elections, but it’s critical that we’re also focused on the social support, the humanitarian aid that the people of Venezuela so desperately need immediately"

When asked about the reasons why Maduro has survived so far, despite his unpopularity as well as economic meltdown and political crisis in his country, Filipetti told TURAN's correspondent the followings:

"Part of why we think the Maduro regime has continued to survive is because they fundamentally don’t care about the Venezuelan people, they just care about the few individuals that they need to pay off in order to maintain their grip on power.."

She laid out three reasons for how the Maduro regime is able to continue to empower itself through "buying off loyalty, and allowing a few corrupt individuals to survive at the expense of many in Venezuela,"

-  illicit networks;

- international enablers; (such as Russia and Cuba)

- brutality and fear

While the Maduro regime is able to maintain itself in the various ways, Filipetti said, "it’s important to focus on the fact that they really are losing support."

"They really are desperate. They really are weak. We’re seeing it in the confused messaging from the regime, we’re seeing it in the increase in repression from the regime, and we’re certainly seeing it from the international community, which continues to isolate the regime," she concluded.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.