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VENEZUELAN FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS ON OPPONENTS
TO RESPECT RULES OF DEMOCRATIC GAME

  August 19, 2002



The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Roy Chaderton Matos, today at the Organization of American States (OAS) called on "my Venezuelan compatriots of the opposition to organize and seek the support of the Venezuelan people to carry out their political battles playing by the rules of the democratic game."

During a session of the OAS Permanent Council, presided by U.S. Ambassador Roger Noriega, the Venezuelan diplomat also reiterated his government's invitation to the OAS, the Carter Center and the United Nations "to support us in the facilitation of dialogue and in the reconciliation efforts carried out by the national government."

Chaderton described as "inexplicable according to any juridical logic," the recent decision adopted by 11 magistrates of the Supreme Court to drop charges against four high-ranking officials accused of rebellion for their participation in the events of April 11. In his opinion, that measure was taken "contradicting principles contained in the Bolivarian Constitution and in violation of the basic duty to administer justice in the name of the sovereign power from which their positions as judges emanate."

Chaderton ratified his government's commitment to honor the obligations of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in defending and promoting the Constitution, respecting human rights and fundamental liberties, governing in accordance with the rule of law, guaranteeing the electoral process as an expression of the people's sovereignty, and respecting the multiparty system and the separation of powers.

In his welcoming remarks, Ambassador Noriega noted that the Permanent Council, in an August 14 resolution, reiterated the Organization's willingness to support and assist the Venezuelan government in carrying out a national dialogue and consolidating democracy.

Reference: E-170/02