Violence, confusion, lies and contradictions

March 1, 2004

It has been a long and dissapointing day. There are protests in many cities of the country and they seem to be increasing at this time.


The President of the Electoral Board (CNE) came on TV sometime around noon and said that the Carter Center had decided to leave the country because of the attitude of CNE Director Sobella Mejias. Accusing Ms. Mejias of being partisan, and saying that he is not (!), Carrasquero called for her removal from the CNE. It sounded strange to me that the Carter Center would say soemthing so undiplomatic, even if true. Minutes later, Jennifer McCoy and Francisco Diez from the Carter Center, held a press Conference to clear up the “confusion” and said that they were not leaving the country that Ms. McCoy was leaving in her regular trips since there was no process to “facilitate” since there were no negotiations going on. Minutes later the President of the CNE came down again and visibly upset said that Francisco Diez from the Carter Center had not told the truth and that he had indeed told him that.


Ms. Mejias essentially said that she was not going to negotiate the process for confirmation or ratification of the signatures. Ms. Mejias said that the CNE was changing the rules and she would only accept that the law be respected. (see next post)


Reportedly, the OAS agrees with the opposition’s position to not accept the process, while the Carter Center thinks the opposition should go to this process, even if it is not what the law says. The opposition has been cautious about refusing to go to a confirmation or ratifiation process, saying nothing about it.


Meanwhile, the Minister of Defense was on TV saying that the protests were restricted to areas where people lived “comfortably”, but no more than hour later the Mayor of the Libertador District which encompasses the West of Caracas, said there were eleven focuses of violence in his municipality, which is mostly inhabitated but those who don’t enjoy a “comfortable” standard of living to exprss it in the Minister’s terms.

This entry was posted on March 1, 2004 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Venezuela.

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