Carter Center Closes Offices in Venezuela

[Say_What]

<clips>

Caracas, Venezuela, Friday 25, 2005—Jennifer McCoy, the director of the Carter Center's Americas Program, announced yesterday that the organization’s office in Venezuela will close. However, she assured both Venezuelans and the international community that the Carter Center will continue to "involve itself in promoting the opening of space for dialogue, tolerance, and peaceful resolution of disputes in Venezuela.”

After praising Venezuela’s democratic vocation, which has withstood “recent periods of high tension,” McCoy met with the President of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Jorge Rodriguez. Together they discussed the Center’s recommendations to improve Venezuela’s electoral mechanisms, such as the creation of a Permanent Electoral Registry (REP), and the auditing of voting machines. Rodriguez assured the McCoy that the CNE is in the process of implementing these suggestions.

McCoy and Rodriguez also agreed upon the necessity to take measures in order to facilitate national dialogue and to ensure the participation of all political parties and all citizens in upcoming electoral processes. "The CNE still has the challenge to develop confidence of all of the Venezuelan people in times when there are significant sectors that do not trust the electoral power," pointed out the director.

She emphasized that Venezuela has made significant progress towards the peaceful coexistence between different groups, and that the major goal now, which "is going to take a lot of time, will be to recover the trust between people” and “to continue to discuss alternatve visions in order that the people are able to choose”. On behalf of the Carter Center, McCoy expressed hope that Venezuela would remain an example of a peaceful social transformation.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1523

[oasis]

1. We are not going to hang around waiting for the right wing death squads to

bump us off." Loose translation.

[CottonBear]

2. Oh! No.

:scared:

[AP]

3. More like: "Chávez has won 8 elections in 6 years by increasing margins...

...so why are we even here?"

[Zhade]

4. Yes, to all those "Chavez is a thug" idiots, a few words...

1. Carter seems okay with him.

2. You're completely misinformed about the guy.

3. Learn to read international news sources.

That is all.

[Say_What]

5. "Learn to read international news sources."

Amen to that!! :bounce:

[AP]

7. Also read between the lines. Has the New York Times EVER been honest

about neoliberalism?

[ClarkUSA]

6. The only rightwing death squads are the ones sent by Bush's CIA ...

to knock off Chavez, who openly detests Bush.

[AP]

8. I think it's important to recognize that Chávez's differences with bush

are political and philosophical, and that Venezuela is willing to engage with the US in a free and fair marketplace. Ideology doesn't play a part in the way VZ does it's oil business overseas, and they constantly point out that VZ doesn't tell Americans what kind of government to have, so the US shouldn't tell VZ what kind of government to have.