[mobglob-discuss] Hands Off Venezuela Campaign

[Chris Palecek]

http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org <http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/> 

 



An appeal of the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign against the increasing
interference of US imperialism in Venezuela in the run up to the decision of
the National Electoral Council on the signatures collected by the opposition
to call a presidential recall referendum. Please circulate and sign this
statement.

We would like to express our deep concern at the interference of the United
States in the internal democratic affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela. We are extremely worried by recent statements of US Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State Peter DeShazo, in which he stated that there
were "too many technicalities" in the process of verification of the
signatures that the opposition has collected in an attempt to force a
presidential recall referendum.

He also declared that for the United States the opinion of the Organization
of American States and Carter Centre observers was as important as the final
decision of the National Electoral Council. This is quite clearly an
unwarranted interference in the democratic process in Venezuela and an
attempt to put pressure on the NEC to take a decision to validate the
opposition signatures, regardless of whether they are actually valid or not.

Furthermore, the Venezuelan government has denounced the fact that the
opposition organization, which coordinated the collection of the signatures,
SUMATE, has received funding from the US National Endowment for Democracy.

We are also worried about the situation of journalist Ernesto Villegas. A
court case has been opened against Villegas who is being accused of having
published the transcript of a phone conversation between two leading
oppositionists in which they admitted they had not collected the necessary
number of signatures. The recording of the conversation was already in the
public domain and one of the persons involved has accepted its veracity. The
judicial proceedings against Villegas are an attempt to silence those who
make public what everybody knows: that the opposition never collected the
necessary number of signatures to force a recall referendum.

The United States government has no moral standing to give the Venezuelan
government and people lessons in democracy, particularly after the support
of the US administration for the short-lived and undemocratic Pedro Carmona
government, which was installed in Venezuela as a result of a coup in April
11, 2002.

We express our defence of the revolutionary process in Venezuela, where the
people have shown repeatedly, in 7 electoral contests, their support for the
Bolivarian project promoted by president Chavez, and demand that the
government of the United States of America stops interfering in Venezuela.

Anyone who wishes to add their signature to this appeal can do so by
clicking here <http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/add_name.html> .

 <http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/signatures_venezuela.html> See the list of
signatures

Contact us at solidarity at handsoffvenezuela.org

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE
PROLETARIOS DE TODOS LOS LAISES UNIOS!

 

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