Organization of American States

Extract

An emergency session of the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) was reportedly held on November 30, 1960, in response to a note sent to Dr. Savhez Cavito, chairman of the Council, by the government of Venezuela requesting the opportunity to inform the Council of new acts of aggression that the Dominican Republic was planning and had already begun launching against Venezuela. At the meeting Dr. Nelson Himiob, Venezuelan delegate to the Council, was said to have charged the Dominican Republic with placing airplanes and other war materials at the disposal of former Venezuelan military officers residing in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Himiob asked that the fivenation Inter-American Peace Committee be convoked immediately after the emergency session, with a view to initiating an investigation of the aggressive acts contemplated by the Dominican Republic. The Venezuelan representative was reported to have stated that unless the Peace Committee took action, his government would have to act unilaterally in legitimate self-defense. Dr. Himiob also told the Council that there had been considerable delay in fulfilling the mandate for action against the Dominican Republic agreed upon at the August meeting of the foreign ministers; he pointed out that this was the fifth time in two years that Venezuela had brought charges against the Dominican Republic. According to the press, however, the Venezuelan delegate did not provide any concrete evidence in support of his government's contentions, and Mr. Virgilio Diaz Ordonez, Dominican delegate to the Council, denied the Venezuelan allegations.