Friends Group Calls for Venezuela Referendum

Fri May 9, 2003 02:55 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Six nations seeking to end Venezuela's political crisis told President Hugo Chavez's government and its opponents on Friday to settle their differences and agree to hold a referendum on the leftist leader's rule.

In a statement released after two days of talks in Caracas, envoys from the so-called Group of Friends urged both sides to decide on a peaceful electoral solution to their conflict, which has kept the world's No. 5 oil exporter in political and economic turmoil for more than a year.

Chavez's government and its opponents have spent weeks haggling over the terms of a proposed agreement committing them to the holding of a constitutional referendum after Aug 19, halfway through the current term of the populist president.

The Group of Friends -- the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal -- has since January been supporting efforts by the Organization of American States to broker an election deal in Venezuela.

In the statement read at a news conference, the Group noted both sides had expressed their willingness to reach agreement.

"The Group exhorts them to dedicate their utmost urgent efforts to overcome ... the differences that persist," said the statement, read by Brazil's representative Gilberto Saboia.

FIERCE OPPOSITION

Former paratrooper Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, has resisted a fierce opposition campaign pressing him to resign. The president, who is accused by foes of ruling like a dictator, survived a coup last year and weathered an opposition strike in December and January.

But despite the pressure for an accord, the two sides are still clearly at odds over key issues.

The government, citing national sovereignty, rejects the idea of international organizations like the OAS acting as guarantors of any future referendum. But the opposition, which accuses Chavez of trying to wriggle out of the referendum, says international pressure for the poll to be held is essential.

"I think it's possible there will be an agreement ... we exhort everyone to give that little bit more political will to get there," Curtis Struble, acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told Reuters.

Government negotiators have insisted that before a referendum can be held, the National Assembly, where Chavez supporters still hold a slim majority, must elect a new electoral authority to set a date for the poll.