State Department Briefing Transcript - News from the Washington file
25 February 2003
...................Yes, ma'am.
QUESTION: Me? On Venezuela.
QUESTION: Oh, Venezuela. Okay.
MR. REEKER: Yes.
QUESTION: Do you have any reaction on that what happened earlier --
MR. REEKER: It's okay, Barry. You can go. It's okay.
QUESTION: No, no. (Inaudible.) (Laughter.)
MR. REEKER: Sorry. Pardon me. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes. On Venezuela. Do you have any reaction on that what happened early this morning, the two explosions at the Consular Office of Spain and Colombia? And there is anything new to announce concerning the meeting of Group of Friends of Gaviria? A next meeting?
MR. REEKER: First of all, let me say that we strongly condemn today's bombings, and of course the use of any form of violence. We note that those bombs follow some sharp verbal attacks by President Chavez on the international community as well as individual Venezuelans and institutions that I talked a bit about yesterday.
Again, we call on the Government of Venezuela to proceed with an expeditious and thorough investigation into this violence, into these bombings, and to hold responsible, or to hold accountable, those parties responsible for this. The bombings are the latest in a series of recent events that highlight the need to make rapid and genuine progress in the dialogue process in Venezuela, and it underscores the need to honor the nonviolence pledge that both sides signed on February the 18th.
We have consistently underscored the importance of a dialogue to achieve a peaceful, democratic and electoral solution to Venezuela's protracted crisis. The February 18th nonviolence pledge was an important step forward in helping to create a climate conducive to such a solution, conducive to a positive dialogue. But I think it's regrettable that recent events like the unsolved killing of members of Venezuela's armed forces and police, the recent arrests and the threat of arrests of opposition activists, and now today's bombings, stand in sharp contrast to the commitments that were undertaken by both sides in that agreement.
The pledge from February 18th specifically emphasized the need to curb confrontational rhetoric and moderate the tone, style and content of language, and to reject any manifestations of violence or intolerance. And that's what both sides agreed to. And it called for the establishment of a truth commission as well, which is certainly a move the United States supports.
QUESTION: And on the next meeting of the, maybe, of the Group of Friends of Gaviria, can we announce anything that could be in the next days?
MR. REEKER: As I told you yesterday, the Group of Friends of the Secretary General of the OAS is in regular contact and touch. When they would have a formal meeting in one particular city, whether here in Washington at the OAS or in some other capacity, I don't know. You might check with the OAS on that. I'm not aware of anything particularly scheduled, but certainly their efforts in supporting the Secretary General and fostering this dialogue that we believe is so vital to reconciliation in Venezuela, those efforts continue unabated.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR. REEKER: Jonathan.
QUESTION: Phil, were you suggesting that President Chavez's inflammatory rhetoric, as you put it yesterday, was a possible, possibly incited somebody to carry out these bombings?
MR. REEKER: No, I think what I said, and I'll just stand by what I said, is that we discussed already yesterday the sharp verbal attacks by President Chavez that we felt were not in keeping with what was agreed to in the nonviolence pacts that they signed, that both sides pledged and signed up to February 18th in terms of, you know, obviously not curbing the sort of confrontational rhetoric and obviously not moderating the tone and style and content of language.
Following that, we see, today, more violence. We see these bombings. And this is the latest in a series of recent events involving violence and that we believe highlight the need to follow what both sides have signed up to in terms of the agreement, the nonviolence pact, and to move forward.
QUESTION: Yeah, but do you see a cause or link between these two things? I mean, you're saying following, following, following --
MR. REEKER: I think those are just facts, and I'll stand by what I've said.
Now we have one more. Yeah. Please.