State Dept. Daily Press Briefing for March 4
www.scoop.co.nz Thursday, 6 March 2003, 12:19 pm Press Release: US State Department
............Ma'am.
QUESTION: Can we move to the Western Hemisphere?
QUESTION: No, can we do Turkey?
MR. BOUCHER: I'm always happy to.
QUESTION: Okay. Yesterday Colombian officers from the Colombian government said that, or confirmed that the leader of the Colombia guerilla, FARC, Marulanda, was operating from Venezuela. My question is, Assistant Secretary Stroebel last week said that the U.S. Government had some doubts about the reliability of Venezuela as an oil supplier and that it doubted that the President Chavez would honor his word to hold elections in Venezuela. Do you believe that President Chavez could be a reliable partner to try to fight the Colombian guerillas in Venezuela?
MR. BOUCHER: I, the first think I need to say is every time somebody quotes what Acting Assistant Secretary Stroebel said in testimony to me, we look it up and we find out if that's not exactly what he said. I haven't had a chance to look up this exact quote yet. But I would suggest that people check it carefully before they use it.
He certainly did talk about our concerns about the situation in Venezuela and stressjed that the situation is deteriorating, said we need to help Venezuela find a solution to avoid further harm, a viable solution that's peaceful, constitutional, democratic and electoral. And that's what we've been saying all along. That needs to be agreed by the government and the opposition.
The effort the United States has made is to try to help Venezuela solve its political problems and get back to a situation of democratic representation and stability. That would certainly contribute to the stability of the region, and that's something that's important not only for us, but for others in the region. That's why we have the Friends Group.
As far as the operation of the FARC, of the Colombian guerillas from Venezuela, as you know, that's been reported from time to time. It's something we've kept in close touch with. We have made very, very clear our view that every government in the region should be doing whatever it can to prevent that sort of thing from happening and that's a view that we've often expressed here as well as to the Venezuela Government.
Yes..........