Venezuela's UN Envoy Quits to Protest Chavez Policies

Bloomberg ^ | 3/04/04 | Bill Varner

[Dane]

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations, Milos Alcalay, resigned, saying the government of President Hugo Chavez isn't protecting human rights or adhering to democratic principles.

A career diplomat of 34 years, Alcalay was appointed Venezuela's envoy to the UN in 2001 by Chavez, after serving as the country's ambassador to Brazil. Calls to Venezuela's foreign ministry seeking comment weren't answered.

[Dane]

.

[Truth29]

Unfortunately, appealing to violence is the only solution. Chavez and his Cuban enforcers will never go quietly.

[RedWhiteBlue]

The longer the tyrant continues to hang on and ignore the will of the people, the closer he gets to his own destruction. He could choose to accept the signatures, allow the vote, and accept the consequences, or he could ignore the obvious and move toward civil war. Unfortunately, he chooses civil war, which will bring death not only to many of his fellow countrymen but also likely to himself. He loves no-one but himself. What an egotistical, self-absorbed, megalomaniac.

[Law is not justice but process]

Chavez will soon go the way of Aristide. Considering how appreciative Aristide was of our effort to prevent his slaughter by the rebels, perhaps we should offer no such assistance to Chavez when his time comes?

[happygrl]

Ping!

[RedWhiteBlue]

From your keyboard to God's ears.

[BIGZ]

Now if only we could get Kofi to quit.

[Dog Gone]

Chavez charges that the US supported the aborted coup against him two years ago.

I'm thinking that I should start complaining that we didn't support it, and should have.

[Iberian]

Chavez has the playbook of 43 year dictator. Poor people in Venezuela stuck with that for a leader.

[Dog Gone]

The difference is that Venezuela is not comprised of only a rich elite and those in poverty. The differences between Cuba in 1959 and Venezuela in 2004 are pretty big.

The question today is whether a communist can use the democratic process to seize power, eliminate political foes, and rule for life while still plausibly operating under existing law.

Chavez is not a fool. He is an evil and cunning adversary. He's pulling off a successful hijacking as we watch.

[RedWhiteBlue]

Chavez charges that the US supported the aborted coup against him two years ago. I'm thinking that I should start complaining that we didn't support it, and should have.

I'm thinking that the failure of the coup is proof positive that we weren't behind it. If we had supported it, it wouldn't have failed.

[Dog Gone]

Absolutely. If anything, we didn't support the coup enough which gave the coup leaders some shivers.

It was a hard call in Washington. The coup was clearly illegal under Venezuelan law. And Chavez was a creep. Endorsing it had risks, but opposing it was dumb.

Ultimately, we remained silent. We upheld the Venezuelan Constitution which Chavez continues to trash.

Smart move? I don't think we can truly judge until long after Chavez is gone.

We didn't interfere with the democratic process, but we're also in risk of losing it there altogether.

[Iberian]

Dog, Cuba had very similar differences, I lived in Cuba when Castro came in. The rich and Elite were very similar to Venezuela. In Venezuela there are also 2 classes.
He is not a communist (At least I don't think so), he is a ruthless dictator wanna-be.
Remember that Fidel was not a communist until he had no other choice. In 1964(off the top of my head) Castro made a famous visit here and we may have turned our backs on him.
Probably the Agrary Reform was a huge turning point in differences. At that point he was still not a flaming communist and we could have brought him down with the Bay of Pigs and our might.
Had we backed the Bay of Pigs and not backed out at the last minutes he would not catapult to the status he achieved in the Americas.
He thought that we beat him, when we actually chose not to fight.
Hope we don't make the same mistake with Chavez, we can't have dictators in this hemisphere hanging around for that long.

[anymouse]

I'm sure Senor Chavez is deeply saddened.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

``The last thing that the Chavez government needs right now is a hemorrhaging of top officials,'' said Julia Buxton, a professor of political science at the London-based Kingston University. ``It's not good for the government at all.''

Bump!

[SunkenCiv]

The protests may be picking up, or could be said to be resuming, but the fact is, they've never stopped. From AOL, therefore no URL.

U.S. Urges Elections in Venezuela
by Randall Mikkelsen
Reuters
12/13/02

"We're worried about democracy, and we have been worried about democracy in Venezuela," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said... Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham told Reuters he was concerned the unrest could destabilize the region... Boucher cited "attacks on democracy from President Chavez and supporters," and other actions which have bred violence. U.S. concern is heightened by the impact of the 12-day-old strike which has virtually halted shipments from the world's No. 5 oil exporter, as Washington prepares for a possible war against Iraq.