Submitted by DAVID  COMISSIONG, President, Clement Payne Movement

Barbados’ newly appointed Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) – Selwin Hart – continues to embarrass our nation with his words and actions and should be immediately recalled from his Washington D.C based posting.

Mr. Hart committed a major diplomatic blunder when, on the 3rd of April 2017, he joined together with 16 other Ambassadors to the OAS to stage an outrageously unconstitutional and illegal meeting at OAS headquarters in Washington D.C: an illegal and unconstitutional meeting that was designed by a triumvirate of powerful nations – the USA, Canada and Mexico – to target, stigmatize and attack the legitimate Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Indeed, so outrageous were the actions of Mr. Hart and the other 16 rebel Ambassadors in staging the unconstitutional meeting in defiance of  the Chairman of the Permanent Council of the OAS (the Ambassador of Bolivia) and the Vice Chair of the Council (the Ambassador of Haiti) and in passing an “illegal” anti-Venezuela Resolution, that the actions of Hart and his cohorts are being described by OAS officials and by veteran statesmen like Sir Ronald Sanders as “a coup d’etat following by a lynching” !

The people of Barbados should be made aware that when Hart and the 16 other rebel Ambassadors were holding their unconstitutional “rebel’ meeting on the afternoon of Monday 3rd April, the Chairman of the Permanent Council of the OAS – the Ambassador of Bolivia – stormed into the meeting and informed them that they had no authority to stage such a meeting and that the meeting constituted a “coup d’etat”.

In spite of this, Hart and his fellow rebel Ambassadors  – no doubt emboldened by the fact that they were being led by the mighty USA – persisted with their illegal meeting and went on to propose and pass a Resolution that -in effect – indicted the democratic-socialist Administration of President Nicolas Maduro and set the stage for an OAS intervention in the internal affairs of Venezuela.

The end result of the outrageous folly of Hart and his fellow rebel Ambassadors is that Venezuela  has felt constrained to withdraw from membership of the OAS!

So, as a result of the actions of Ambassador Selwin Hart and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our nation of Barbados has played an unprincipled role in causing Venezuela– a nation that we respect and have friendly and fraternal relations with – to be hounded out of an important regional multi-lateral organization.

As a citizen of Barbados, I consider this to be one of the lowest and most shameful episodes in our entire history of diplomacy as an independent nation.

Surely, the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow – author of the motto “friends of all, satellites of none”- must be turning in anguish in his watery grave!

And to further compound matters, Ambassador Selwin Hart has shown no regret or remorse for his actions. Rather, in the on-line Nation Newspaper of 12th May 2017 Hart is quoted by the Nation’s USA – based correspondent – Tony Best – as speaking proudly and approvingly of the actions that he facilitated and engaged in on the 3rd of April 2017.

On behalf of the Clement Payne Movement I now hereby CALL upon Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxine McClean to recall Ambassador Hart from Washington D.C and to issue a public apology to the people of Barbados and to the Government and people of Venezuela for the unprincipled mis-behaviour of our Barbados Mission to the OAS on the 3rd of April 2017.