Opposition attempts to convince Group of Friends at the Brazilian Embassy CCS 

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Miranda State Governor, Enrique Mendoza and former Presidential Secretariat Minister (under President Rafael Caldera), Asdrubal Aguiar have paid a visit to the Brazilian Embassy to hand a letter to that country's Foreign Minister as member of the six-nation Group of Friends, insisting on the need to seek an electoral solution to the Venezuelan crisis. 

Speaking on behalf of Coordinadora Democratica (CD), Mendoza says the recall referendum is the solution and the CD wants the group to ensure that nothing is altered. "We insist that the date, laws and other legal instruments be respected ... the Group must monitor that nothing changes." 

Aguiar insists that the government-opposition negotiation process must continue and that transfering the forum to the National Assembly won't work ... "there are no conditions in Venezuela of institutional normality, political normality or social normality." 

A lawyer, Aguiar highlights current criminal violence, which he says shows severe explosive conditions in society, owing to the absence of mediating institutions ... "it's a picture that the international community cannot ignore."