'Friends of Venezuela' group to start work Friday
www.alertnet.org 20 Jan 2003 21:03
BRASILIA, Brazil, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A coalition of nations seeking to help Venezuela negotiate an end to a seven-week-old strike against President Hugo Chavez will begin talks on Friday in Washington, Brazil's foreign minister said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters in Brasilia, Celso Amorim said the meeting would bring together the foreign ministers of a "group of friends" comprising Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and the United States.
The group, spearheaded by Brazil's new leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was created last week to aid talks led by the head of the Organization of American States, Cesar Gaviria.
Chavez, who was briefly deposed in a botched coup last April, has cast doubts on the plan by threatening to pull out of the OAS talks and insisting Lula's group be expanded to include other countries such as Russia, Cuba and France.
Brazil has resisted, arguing the coalition is already balanced.
Negotiations between Chavez and his foes have been deadlocked for weeks, raising international concern over global oil supplies at a time when energy markets are jittery over a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter and supplies about one-sixth of U.S. oil imports.