Ambassador-in-waiting menaces: Foreign participation in Venezuela is imper

Published: Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Bylined to: Philip Stinard


Ambassador-in-waiting menaces: Foreign participation in Venezuela is imperative


This participation will be “more visible” in the next few weeks, when the recall referendum process reaches a critical point, and the Organization of American States (OAS) elects a new secretary general, Brownfield said.

Brownfield made his comments at a confirmation hearing before the Subcommittee for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The hearing was schedule after President Hugo Chavez opposed the designation of Brownfield, who has 25 years of experience in diplomatic service, and who has been US Ambassador to Chile since March of 2002.

Senator Norm Coleman, president of the subcommittee, called “optimistic” Brownfield’s comments that “from the beginning” of his appointment, he would work in favor of “the fundamental values” of democracy and respect for the constitution that Venezuela and the United States share.

Brownfield said that “from those two concepts flows the rest: Respect for human rights, respect for the law, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and cooperation with the world campaign against terrorism, drugs, and corruption.”

Venezuela is the only country in the OAS that has formally announced that it will not recognize the Haitian government after the February resignation of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Aristide said that he was forced to resign by the United States.

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http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21234

USA morally unqualified to make pronouncements on Venezuelan human rights
By Philip Stinard
May 19, 2004, 09:43


FIRST, because the accusation is totally and utterly false, without any basis whatsoever in the reality of our country. Venezuela doesn’t have human rights violations because there isn’t a repressive government. On the contrary, there is the most absolute respect for human dignity, as has never existed before, a respect based on the Bolivarian Constitution and on the political and human trajectory of those who currently run the Venezuelan State. Only as an expression of irresponsible accusations and the interests of an opposition without flags, is it possible to brazenly accuse President Chavez’s government of ignoring fundamental rights. Unfortunately, the sources that inspired the State Department report have a close relationship with the Venezuelan opposition, which confirms once again the connection that exists between that political sector and US authorities.

SECOND, the US government lacks the moral authority to question conduct with respect to human rights in the world, and even less in Venezuela. There is no point of comparison between the respect that our country has for human rights, and the disrespect that characterizes the current conduct of President Bush’s government. If any government is universally questioned in the world today, it is none other than the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld government, accused of genocide, massacres, the open bombing of cities, ignoring the norms of international law, complete disrespect for the United Nations, and horrendous tortures in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo. For the US, there is no limit of any kind to the violation of human rights, and therefore, evil makes a judge of humanity he who is burdened with responsibilities.

SUMMARY: The government of president Bush lacks the credibility to criticize the human rights situation in Venezuela. The State Department report that was just released is invalid, not only because of the rude falsehoods about our reality, but also because the one making the report is morally unqualified.

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http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_7842.shtml