Posted on 06/07/2002 4:56:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela on Thursday asked former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to help soothe lingering political tensions after April's coup against President Hugo Chavez and welcomed international observers to monitor the nation's democratic process.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said he had written to Carter asking him to help foster dialogue in the bitterly divided South American nation.
"We're not considering intervention, we're looking for a process to facilitate talks," Rangel said.
Nearly eight weeks after rebel military and civilian leaders briefly toppled Chavez, Venezuela is still mired in political uncertainty and jitters over another possible uprising.
Talks aimed at brokering dialogue between Chavez supporters and his critics have descended into political sniping as both sides blame each other for the deaths of civilians shot by gunmen during the April 11-14 ouster.
Carter, working from his nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta after leaving office in 1981, has established himself as an elder statesman helping to settle conflicts around the world.
Last month he became the most senior U.S. statesman to visit Cuba since its 1959 revolution. He met Cuban dissidents in Havana as part of his push for internal reforms in the island's one-party Communist state.
The Carter Center confirmed it had received the request.
"We did receive the invitation from the Venezuelan vice president and we are taking it under consideration," a Carter Center spokesman said.
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS
Venezuela this week accepted a broad declaration of support for its national dialogue from the Organization of American States. But the world's fifth-largest oil exporter rejected a U.S. proposal that the OAS intervene directly in its internal crisis talks.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton on Thursday invited international monitors to observe the nation's democracy, but reiterated that Venezuela could manage its own reconciliation talks.
"We would agree to international observers, facilitators watching how our democracy is progressing. But independent of that, our commitment to the process of reconciliation does not depend on international organizations," Chaderton told reporters.
Though Chavez has offered dialogue, political, labor and business leaders opposed to his rule say they do not believe he is willing to accept change.
Fears of a second uprising were underscored this week when a group of masked figures appeared on television claiming to be military officers who criticized the president, praised the coup and warned of a civil war.
The government swiftly questioned the authenticity of the video broadcast.
During weeks of testimony in a parliamentary inquiry into the coup, several military officers have also described seething discontent in the armed forces as Chavez moves to cull critics from the ranks.
Opposition leaders are now trying to unseat the former paratrooper through constitutional change and have taken to the streets to call for the president's resignation several times in the last month.
Since his election in 1998 on a platform of social reform, Chavez has faced growing criticism over his self-proclaimed revolution, which he says has aided the poor and closed the wealth gap. But opponents claim his statist economic and social policies have scared off investors and divided the nation along class lines.
Ruling party legislators accuse Venezuelan journalist of treason *** CARACAS, Venezuela - Ruling party lawmakers said Wednesday they will ask prosecutors to formally charge a Venezuelan journalist with treason for releasing a video in which masked men claiming to be military officers criticize President Hugo Chavez. Three members of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party on Wednesday accused journalist Patricia Poleo of conspiring to overthrow President Hugo Chavez, who survived a coup attempt last month. "We are going to file a formal accusation against Patricia Poleo for crimes of treason, for rebellion," lawmaker Cilia Flores told reporters. "These conspirators, including Patricia Poleo, among others, are still determined to depose President Chavez."***
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