NAM summit backs Maduro
The Non-Aligned Movement wrapped up a summit Sunday in Venezuela with an expression of support for its embattled host, President Nicolas Maduro, and scathing attacks on US "interventionism" around the world.
The 120-member group issued a statement at the end of the two-day meeting calling for peace, urging world powers not to meddle in other countries' affairs and voicing concern over violence in Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories.
The 190-page document also urges support for "the struggle against terrorism, for solidarity with refugees in northern Africa, and the Venezuelan people's right to peace," Maduro told a press conference.
Founded 55 years ago to give a greater voice to countries squeezed in the power struggle between the United States and Soviet Union, the Non-Aligned Movement has struggled to stay relevant since the end of the Cold War.
Just a handful of heads of state or government attended the summit on the Caribbean island of Margarita, though organizers did not say exactly how many.
But it was a key diplomatic encounter for Maduro, who has been left increasingly isolated as Venezuela's oil-dependent economy has skidded into crisis amid a collapse in global crude prices, fueling calls for his ouster.
The leftist leader, who accuses the United States of backing opposition attempts to remove him in a "coup," emphasized that the summit had backed his government's condemnation of US sanctions that declare Venezuela a threat to US national security.
"It's a total economic war; we will be winning it," Maduro insisted at the closing event.
The White House says that language is a formality for imposing targeted sanctions, but Maduro has lambasted it as alarmist.
Venezuela took over the rotating presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement from Iran at the meeting. It will hold it for the next three years.
Maduro looks keen to recast the group as a bulwark against "interventionism" and "neo-colonialism," analysts say.
Both words were oft-invoked at the summit.
Syria had harsh condemnation for the United States after a US-led coalition strike killed dozens of Syrian soldiers Saturday.
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