Chavez Frias rejects any intervention by multinational force in Colombia

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, June 02, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Speaking at his weekly Sunday radio address, Venezuelan  President Hugo Chavez Frias says he is convinced that the Cuzco Declaration signed by the Rio Group last week contains an intention to intervene in Colombia ... "that is why I signed with reservations." 

Chavez Frias told his listeners that he urged Heads of State gathered in Cuzco to debate the issue and says it is unbelievable that the United Nations (UN) would even think of entering Colombia ... the declaration asks the UN to establish a deadline for Colombian guerrillas to sign a peace agreement with the Colombian government and if the deadline isn't met, then to seek other options in conjunction with the Rio Group. 

"When I asked several Presidents at the meeting about the options, they couldn't answer ... I asked the question openly and someone did say it meant a multilateral intervention in Colombia." 

The President argues that it is something that has never been proposed before in Latin America ... "we have had guerrilla movements here in Venezuela, in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua. Peru and Argentina ... this is crazy." 

A petition to discuss the topic was approved at the Rio Group meeting but no date fixed. President Chavez Frias says he hopes to open a continental debate on the matter and criticizes the Rio Group for not discussing the Free Trade for the Americas Agreement (FTAA) ... "that wouldn't have happened if the meeting had been here in Venezuela."