Venezuela's reckless opposition more interested in anti-government hatred

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2003 By: David Coleman

The Group of Friends of Venezuela created last January from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States to attempt to help the Organization of American States (OAS) arrive at a solution to Venezuela's political crisis has brokered an agreement only to end political violence and verbal insults from both sides of the political divide.

The Chavez Frias government has put OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria in something of an embarrassing situation by appearing to back out of an April 11 deal for a revocatory referendum on the Presidency with government negotiators saying that opposition delegates don't represent all sectors opposing Chavez and suggesting that OAS-mediated talks should more properly be replaced by democratic debate in Venezuela's own National Assembly (AN).

Legislators say parliament is better equipped for the assignment since they task since its representatives were democratically elected by the Venezuelan people, while OAS delegates are political party appointees.

Meanwhile, Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister, General Lucas Rincon has described opposition leaders as being "brain-damaged'' since they have "excessive expectations on fighting crime."  He added that exiled CTV union leader  Carlos Ortega is "not well in the head'' while the President consistently speaks of the opposition as fascists, terrorists and coup-plotters after a 2-month labor/employer stoppage which crippled the nation's oil production and cost $6 billion. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel has blamed the opposition saying they're "obsessed with necrophilia" latching onto violent deaths in the criminal underworld as a pretext to blame the government as "perpetrators of evil."

President Hugo Chavez Frias says that "a reckless opposition" is more interested in anti-government hatred and his unconstitutional ouster than helping any efforts to govern the country under its new-found participative democracy ... his most rabid opponents vociferously accuse him of mismanaging the economy, dividing the country along class lines and increasing authoritarianism.