They better not give up their guns.
Posted on 05/24/2003 1:18:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's government and opposition, seeking to end months of feuding, have agreed a political pact to hold a referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency after Aug. 19, officials said on Friday.
The accord follows more than six months of negotiations between the two sides, which have been locked in fierce conflict over Chavez's rule.
Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria, who has brokered the talks, achieved a consensus late on Thursday on the framework agreement, an OAS official said.
"There is an agreement," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He added the accord should be signed by Wednesday.
Despite the accord, an opposition party, Accion Democratica, planned to go ahead with an anti-government rally Saturday in a strongly pro-Chavez district of west Caracas.
Defense Minister Gen. Jose Luis Prieto and Interior Minister Gen. Lucas Rincon appeared on national television later on Friday to appeal to both sides to avoid violence during the rally.
Rincon said 2,000 police officers, supported by National Guard, would be on duty to prevent trouble at the protest.
International mediators and foreign governments have been pressing Chavez and his opponents to commit to a referendum to end the cycle of protests, strikes and violence that has gripped the world's No. 5 oil exporter since 2001.
Chavez, who survived a coup last year and a general strike in December and January, has said he is willing to submit to the constitutional referendum on his mandate. But his foes accuse him of trying to avoid a vote.
Chavez opponents say the populist president is ruling like a dictator and trying to install Cuba-style communism. In the 19-point accord, both sides agree to shun violence, respect democracy and hold referendums for the president and other elected officials as laid down in the constitution.
The accord also endorses plans to disarm the civilian population. At least 50 people have been shot to death and several hundred injured in political violence over the last 18 months.
Both government and opposition negotiators hailed the political pact as a mechanism to reduce tensions.
"This clears the path to a referendum as an electoral solution to the political crisis," opposition representative Alejandro Armas told reporters.
Venezuela's constitution allows for a recall vote on the president's rule once he has completed half of his six-year mandate. In Chavez's case, this is Aug. 19.
To trigger the referendum, the opposition must collect signatures from 20 percent of the electorate.
The government also insists that the National Assembly must first select a new National Electoral Commission.
But the assembly, where pro-Chavez deputies hold a slim majority, is still haggling over candidates for the electoral authority which would verify the signatures for a referendum and set a date for the vote.
They better not give up their guns.
Opposition representative Juan Raffalli said the proposal also calls for votes on the mandates of other elected officials.
The agreement, brokered by the Organization of American States, prohibits any amendments to election laws while authorities prepare for balloting.
A government delegate involved in the negotiations, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed an agreement had been reached with help from OAS chief Cesar Gaviria.
The pact, which came unexpectedly after six months of OAS-mediated negotiations and is slated to be signed next week, would end formal talks between the sides. It calls for the creation of a special committee, including envoys from the OAS, Atlanta-based Carter Center and United Nations, to ensure the accord is respected.
Opponents accuse Chavez of scaring off foreign investment and becoming increasingly authoritarian. The only democratic solution to the crisis that has dangerously divided this South American nation of 24 million, they argue, is holding a referendum on his rule.
Chavez denies the allegations. Opposition groups, he argues, aim to overthrow his government to regain privileges they lost when he swept to power on promises to cast aside entrenched political parties widely regarded as corrupt.
Chavez, a former paratrooper who led a failed 1992 coup attempt, was elected president in 1998 and re-elected to a six-year term in 2000. The leftist firebrand has vowed to defeat the opposition bid at the ballot box and says he could remain in power until 2021. [End]
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
But answer came there none --
And this is scarcely odd, because
They'd eated every one.
William Manchester from The Last Lion:
Winston Spencer Churchill Alone 1932-1940
Copyright 1988 by Little, Brown and Company
Spot on.
I have questions:
Who elected them?
Did the Department of State have anything to say about this deal via the OAS?
If not, why would Bush accept it? He'd better not keep quiet.
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper
prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn.
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breath of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market-Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in
Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would
cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had
plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards
withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not God that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four-
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man- There are only
four things certain since Social Progress began:-
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
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