Governments from across the Americas on Tuesday chastised Venezuela’s socialist leadership for its handling of a political and economic crisis, prompting the OPEC nation’s foreign minister to brand the critics as the “lapdogs of imperialism.” The United States, Brazil and 10 other members of the 34-nation Organization of American States issued a letter accusing Venezuela of undermining democracy, failing to feed its people and violating rights. “Considering the interruption of the democratic process in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, we believe that there should be a settled solution that includes all Venezuelan parties for the benefit of the people of that nation,” the letter said. It called for the release of political prisoners, respect for rights, an election timetable, a “humanitarian channel” to ship food and medicine, and the […]