Maduro issues Obama challenge amid mounting protests
Source: AFP
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on Barack Obama to "accept the challenge" and hold direct talks, as the death toll from escalating anti-government protests jumped to eight Friday.
The announcement was particularly surprising because relations with the US, long strained under late president Hugo Chavez, have worsened under Maduro, who has hewed closely to his predecessor's socialist policies and has never spoken to his counterpart in Washington.
Maduro, facing the biggest crisis of his rule since he was narrowly elected last year, said: "I call a dialogue with you, President Obama... between the patriotic and revolutionary Venezuela and the United States and its government."
"Accept the challenge and we will start a high-level dialogue and put the truth on the table," Maduro told foreign reporters, while also striking a more conciliatory tone, saying he was willing to reappoint a Venezuelan ambassador to the United States.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-threatens-cut-off-fuel-protest-areas-205822959.html
I smell a whiff of desperation in Maduro's reported remarks.
Warpy
(111,274 posts)At least he's learned one of the harsh lessons of history, that people will rally around the worst leaders in a time of national crisis that has been caused by an external power.
See: Stupid, right after 9/11.
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)Archae
(46,335 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)springchick
(137 posts)This is a homegrown protest against a worsening economic situation and a very high violent crime rate and the govern. lack of action to correct it.
ag_dude
(562 posts)Dr. Strange
(25,921 posts)Chavez had Bush. Maduro gets Obama.
RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)statement ever made by Venezuelan citizens against their government since Chavez took the reins. You didn't know that?
Of course, in reality the US did deploy significant resources toward 'regime change' against Chavez, but what's going on now is a country in chaos as a result of government mismanagement and repression.