Who is lying about ILO and Venezuela? Urbieta or Iglesias?

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

International Labor Organization (ILO) Administrative Council member and "spokesman" for the Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV),  Jesus Urbieta has called Venezuela's Labor Minister, Maria Cristina Iglesias a liar. 

"The Venezuelan delegation has tried to mount a circus at the last ILO meeting and convince the rest of the world that there is democracy and union freedom in Venezuela ... the government flew in a Venpres agency team and TV cameras but nobody took any notice of them." 

Urbieta, who was never an elected CTV official but hand-picked as an Accion Democratica (AD) commissar during his tenure as CTV legal adviser, states that the ILO did indeed condemn the Venezuelan government for violating ILO Agreement 87 and has appointed a committee to monitor compliance with ratified agreements. 

The Labor Minster, also an Accion Democratica (AD) former militant, replies that the ILO is not a tribunal or punitive body that slaps on penalties as the CTV and Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) wants people to believe. 

As for the verification committee, Iglesias says it is a technical committee of cooperation and consultancy ... "if the government requests its presence, it will help to set up statutes for cooperatives and reform the labor law." 

Iglesias accuses the opposition of dragging Venezuela's political problems to the ILO, which "interests nobody except Venezuelans themselves."