The government of Prime Minister Gaston Browne in Antigua and Barbuda has expressed solidarity with the people and government of Venezuela “where an attempted military coup was hatched then discovered and defeated.”
“The Antigua and Barbuda government and people stand with the democratically-elected administration of President Nicolas Maduro,” said an Antigua and Barbuda government statement on Saturday.
The Antigua government said the coup was discovered on Feb. 1, 2015, stating that “several of the plotters have been detained and will face a trial.
“Nevertheless, the government of Antigua and Barbuda condemns any and every attempt to bring an end to democratically-elected governments by means other than the ballot box,” the statement said.
“The era has long past when military coups in Latin America were the norm,” said Browne, recalling that member-countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) signed on to The Inter-American Democratic Charter on Sept. 11, 2001, in Lima, Peru, pledging not to recognize any government which comes to power by undemocratic means.
“The culture of coups and counter-coups is at an end,” declared Browne, who, along with Foreign Minister Charles Fernandez and Energy Minister Asot Michael, was at the time meeting with the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, at the Prime Minister’s Office in St. John’s, the Antiguan capital, on Saturday morning.
