CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - An international labor group said Thursday it won't recognize any unions that emerge from a weekend referendum to oust Venezuela's opposition labor leaders.An International Confederation of Free Trade Unions delegation left Venezuela Thursday, frustrated that its three-day visit failed to convince President Hugo Chavez from canceling Sunday's national referendum.
The group, based in Brussels, Belgium, accused Chavez of violating labor rights with the referendum, which would ask voters to back a move to suspend the heads of Venezuela's unions for 180 days until unions elect new leaders.
Bill Jordan, the director general of the ICFTU, criticized Chavez for refusing to meet with his mission.
"Please stop violating trade union rights in this country," he said. "No one - no one - anywhere in the world is disputing that what is happening with this referendum is a violation of people's human rights ... and yet the president presses on."
Since coming to power in 1998 promising sweeping social change, opponents charge that Chavez had given himself authoritarian powers through a series of elections and referendums. He has pushed through a new constitution that increased the power of the presidency and replaced the opposition-controlled Congress and Supreme Court.
If the measure is approved in Sunday's referendum, it would dismantle the only institutions still controlled by the opposition Democratic Action and Social Christian parties
After meeting with Vice President Isaias Rodriguez in Caracas Thursday, Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the referendum posed a "concentration of power without a counterweight that can maintain the state of law."
Chavez, who insists current union leaders are corrupt, scoffed at the delegation's criticism. "Let them come and make ridiculous clowns of themselves! Dogs that bark don't bite," he said. Chavez's popularity all but ensures his victory in the referendum.
A formal condemnation by the ILO could prompt its member countries, including the United States, to impose trade sanctions against Venezuela.
Daniel Hopsicker
http://www.madcowprod.com
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