ESPAÑOL – Cuba has an “occupation” army in Venezuela, according to Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro.

He spoke at a US Senate hearing on Wednesday, July 19, during which he expounded on Venezuela and Cuba’s long-standing relationship.

“There are currently about 15,000 Cubans in Venezuela,” he said. “It’s like an occupation army from Cuba in Venezuela,” Secretary Almagro said during his testimony before US lawmakers.

The diplomat, who has strongly condemned Maduro’s dictatorial regime in Venezuela, said: “If we don’t seek to free the prisoners and restore power in Venezuela, there will be no solution to the problem … Néstor Reverol, Benavides Torres and General Zavarce are responsible for every gunshot and every death in Venezuela.”

“A hundred murders in more than 100 days of protest,” he said. “This goes against basic decency and human rights … The government, when it can’t win with the tool of dialogue, resorts to repression.”

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Almagro said he is in favor of applying sanctions on Maduro’s regime, claiming that no sanction will worsen the crisis of the Venezuelan people.

“It is not a question of dismantling a dictatorship and returning to democracy,” he said. “It is about a whole structure of drug trafficking in the state.”