Posted on 07/10/2002 2:37:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Opposition parties missed a chance to ease Venezuela's crisis by refusing to meet President Hugo Chavez, former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday at the end of a peacekeeping mission.
Carter held out hope that anti-Chavez politicians, business and labor leaders will allow the Organization of American States, the United Nations and the Carter Center to start talks in this highly polarized society which many warn is on the brink of more violence.
The opposition leaders declined Carter's invitation to attend a Tuesday meeting with Chavez, OAS and U.N. representatives, the Catholic Church and foreign diplomats.
Their refusal "was a great disappointment to me," Carter told a news conference. "There's a mixture of opinions among the opposition. Some are singularly focused on removing Chavez from office. The overwhelming majority want reconciliation."
Carter said Chavez, a populist elected in 1998, was ready to discuss any opposition concerns. Among them: Chavez's inflammatory leftist rhetoric; his bickering with the business community; claims he is politicizing the military; a stalled investigation into violence that sparked an April coup; neighborhood political groups that harass dissenters; and a judiciary stacked with Chavez supporters.
Even before Carter arrived Saturday, Venezuela's opposition rejected his mission as little more than a ploy by Chavez to buy time for his embattled government.
Chavez invited Carter to jump start government-sponsored reconciliation talks after an April coup. Prominent opposition leaders abandoned the talks, saying Chavez isn't sincere about changing the direction of his leftist "revolution."
Among other demands, opposition leaders told Carter they wanted the OAS to mediate - a condition previously rejected by the government - and for him to extend his visit to dissuade violence when opposition marchers rally on Thursday in memory of 18 people killed during a opposition march in April. That bloodshed provoked the coup.
Chavez has agreed to OAS participation and to guarantee marchers' safety, Carter said, adding he had done his best to meet the opposition's preconditions for talks.
Carter Center delegates will monitor Thursday's march, but Carter said he was leaving because he had prior commitments.
Carter refused to comment Tuesday on his Cuba mission in May, when dissidents tried to call a referendum on whether Cuba should allow freedom of expression and other rights. Cuba's National Assembly subsequently enshrined socialism in the constitution as "irrevocable."
As Carter tried to salvage his Venezuelan mission, tensions were stoked by a grenade attack Tuesday on Globovision, an independent television station. No one was injured, and there were no immediate arrests. The Inter-American Press Association, Reporters Without Borders and other media watchdog groups condemned the bombing.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello called it "a terrorist attack." Globovision director Frederico Alberto Ravell said that it was "sad, seeing that in Venezuela there is a hate war."
The bombing followed several acts of aggression against Venezuelan journalists. Chavez has accused much of the nation's news media of siding with the opposition.
David Natera Febres, president of the Bloque de Prensa, Venezuela's largest media owners group, said the attack may have been fanned by Chavez's anti-media rhetoric.
Carter deplored the attack but said he believed that freedom of expression is developing in Venezuela.
Venezuela's main opposition parties insist Chavez must go well before his term ends in 2007. They have filed court cases alleging corruption and are organizing a referendum on his rule.
Bump!
Since when did the "Carter Center" get to become an international mediator? I think this is way out of line. There are far too many people (mostly left-wingers or worse) roaming the world doing "diplomacy" these days, ranging from Jimmy to Louis Farrakhan. There's probably no way to stop them from traveling about as private citizens. But I don't quite understand why they seem to have acquired semi-official status, and their doings are never rejected by Washington.
Since the left lost the American elections, they seem to have decided that the way to handle it is to set up a shadow government, complete with its own diplomatic corps. I think this should be nipped in the bud; it gives, at best, conflicting messages.
LOL. I can hear the dry wall nails popping as the green wood warps.
Is this a description of the mission, or of Jimmy Carter?
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