Posted on 06/14/2002 5:19:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON - The State Department on Thursday complained that a handful of U.S. diplomats and citizens have been mistreated by Venezuelan authorities and also warned opponents of populist President Hugo Chávez that it opposes any new effort to topple him during upcoming weekend protests.
A brief State Department note underscored that tensions between Chávez government authorities and U.S. citizens in Venezuela remain high.
The U.S. Embassy in Caracas has issued a protest over ''threatening remarks made to a U.S. diplomat at Maiquetia International Airport by authorities there, as well as mistreatment of two U.S. diplomats and a U.S. citizen teacher by local Venezuelan authorities during a weekend fishing trip,'' the department statement said.
`MISTREATMENT'
''The embassy also protested the mistreatment of a U.S. citizen businessman on Margarita Island and the harassment of a U.S. citizen missionary in western Venezuela,'' it said.
The department did not provide further details, such as when each incident occurred, although it said it has ``received assurances that Venezuela's Foreign Ministry takes the incidents seriously.''
Separately, the State Department issued an emphatic four-paragraph statement calling on Venezuelans not to attempt to remove Chávez through violence during demonstrations scheduled for Saturday.
''The U.S. does not and will not condone an unconstitutional, undemocratic interruption in the democratic order by any party in Venezuela,'' deputy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said in the statement, which recognized the right of Venezuelans ''to express their political views'' during commemorative weekend protests but urged them ``to reject violence.''
CALL FOR DIALOGUE
''We look to all parties to engage in genuine dialogue to resolve peacefully and democratically their differences,'' Reeker said.
The statement appeared intended to quell any notion among opponents of Chávez that Washington was winking at renewed efforts to remove the Venezuelan leader by force.
In a two-day aborted coup, sectors of the Venezuelan military on April 12 ousted Chávez, a former army paratroop commander, and installed a civilian-led interim junta. Chávez supporters launched a counter-revolt and brought the president back to the colonial Miraflores Palace.
In the initial hours of the coup, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer announced that Chávez had resigned. Fleischer also seemed to justify the revolt, saying Chávez had ordered the military to fire on peaceful anti-Chávez demonstrators.
Washington's posture brought widespread criticism around the hemisphere, and Chávez later said he was looking into reports that U.S. officials had been in contact with coup leaders prior to his brief ouster.
U.S. officials blame confusion of April 12 events for their initial statement.
But the matter has become subject of bipartisan dispute. A group of 28 legislators, led by an Ohio Democrat, sent a letter Thursday calling for congressional hearings to look into any U.S. role in the attempted overthrow of Chávez.
PROBE SOUGHT
''Only a congressional investigative committee can probe what the administration knew and when it knew it; and what the administration did and when,'' stated the letter, which was released by the office of Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio.
Kucinich and the other lawmakers called on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to inquire whether U.S. officials had met with Chávez opponents prior to the revolt, and whether they received U.S. funding.
''We hope you will agree that a thorough investigation of this specific episode of administration conduct is important to U.S. relations with other countries,'' the letter said.
CARTER INVOLVEMENT
Separately, the office of former President Jimmy Carter announced that he would deploy ''a small assessment team'' to Caracas June 24-29 to determine whether he should accept a Chávez government request to facilitate a national dialogue in Venezuela over ``issues dividing the country.''
Once the team returns to the Carter Center in Atlanta, it ''will recommend to President Carter whether he might play a role at this time,'' a statement said.
The team is to include former Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez, and Jennifer McCoy, director of the Carter Center's Americas program.
It's always been my conviction that Jimmy Carter and his former palace guard, Marxist associates, and plants in the government have operated a leftist shadow "state department" without stop since the day he left DC. Quite an apparatus surrounds the former president.
The average American today thinks of Carter in terms of a toothy good-ole-boy peanut farmer wielding a hammer as he does the good works for Habitats for Humanity. To me, Habitats is cultivated and used by Carter as a convenient and socially-acceptable front as he steadily and stealthily conducts behind-the-scenes shadow diplomacy which may not be in the best interests of American foreign policy.
I think that Carter is a dangerous man and a witting tool of the left. Sometimes we concentrate too much on the obnoxious man from Hope, while the quietly persistent man from Plains is the one to watch.
Leni
Question. Who is the bigger fool, Carter or Castro?
Good advise.
HUH!!!!!! How come RATS always muct meddle after they get the boot? From Carter to Clinton to Jesse Jackson.
''The U.S. does not and will not condone an unconstitutional, undemocratic interruption in the democratic order by any party in Venezuela,'' deputy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said in the statement, which recognized the right of Venezuelans ''to express their political views'' during commemorative weekend protests but urged them ``to reject violence.''
Heh the US does'nt observe it's own contstitution and would presume to correct another country for not obeying theirs
Excuse my French, but why are we NOT encouraing his removal by force if it comes to that? Mr. Chavez ain't a friend of ours. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Oh, he will. There isn't a commie Carter doesn't like.
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