Meanwhile in Venezuela

As the tension mounts over the call for referendum, I missed this visit in late January by Jimmy Carter.

From the U.S. Venezuelan embassy news page:

Caracas, Venezuela. Jan 27, 2004 (Venezuelanalysis.com).- U.S. ex-president and head of the Carter Center, Jimmy Carter, met this Monday with several Venezuelan government officials, including President Hugo Chavez, National Assembly deputies, National Electoral Council (CNE) officials, and magistrates of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, to discuss the current process of validation and counting of signatures for a possible recall referendum on the President and some lawmakers.

...Chavez, who has echoed numerous claims of fraud allegedly committed by the opposition during the signature drive, promised to give Carter some hard evidence of the allegations. As an example, Chavez showed Carter a copy of a tally form where 28 out of 60 signature forms were not returned to authorities at the end of the day when they were handed in to be filled. Chavez speculates that those other forms -each of which holds ten signatures- were kept in order to be filled at unauthorized collection places without the presence of observers, and during dates after the signature drive was allowed by law. After the drive, the opposition took three weeks to deliver the signatures to the National Electoral Council (CNE). Chavez said Carter seemed surprised by the evidence presented.

Chavez promised to hand in to the Carter Center, a dossier of hard evidence of the alleged fraud, but said that his government will accept any decision the electoral authorities might make, even if unfavorable to him.

...Chavez told Carter that, even though he knows that the United States would not accept international observers interfering with its elections, Venezuela does welcome foreign observers because he "has nothing to fear".

Oopsie. Little dig on Bushie? Deservedly so.

The Nobel Peace Price winner also met with electoral authorities. After the meeting, Carter urged the local media to trust the signature verification process being carried out by the National Electoral Council (CNE). "Venezuela's political future rests on the shoulders of the CNE authorities. We are satisfied and gratified by the job carried out by them, and we think that their decisions are consistent with the law and the Constitution of this country," said Carter.

The ex-president, who has visited Venezuela in several occasions in the last three years, is said to be pleased with the country's commitment to democracy, and its willingness to find a peaceful solution to the current situation.

Meanwhile...

Venezuelan opposition radicals say they're going to increase the number of street protests in an up-scale campaign to force a recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez Frias even before the National Elections Council (CNE) has verified and counted the number of signatures collected against him.

The CNE had earlier said it will make an announcement this Friday (2/13) but ... set to lose the democratic requirement of a minimum 2.4 million signatures ... the political opposition is taking violent preemptive action to cause disturbances across the country.

CNE executives have just today said that they will not be able to hold to the deadline and that a final decision would take several more days as officials fight against the clock to finalize intricate verification procedures on pro-referendum signatures.  VHeadline article

I suppose they could do it our way - call a halt to the process and declare Chavez recalled. Ooops. No, I guess they can't, since the power at the moment belongs to Chavez.

Staying tuned.

Past Venezuela posts
More on Venezuela

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.