Carter Center interferes with the Venezuelan Election Process Again! Venezuela's Presidential election is less than a year from now and true to form, an all out effort is being made by array of characters from international media to governmental organizations from many countries to NGO's such as the Carter Center who are already on the attack to discredit it and the popular President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution in general.
Many of you know I am no friend of the Carter Center after its actions in Venezuela in the 2004 recall vote ( see below-The Carter Center, OAS and the Recall Referendum in Venezuela ), even though some in the Venezuelan bureaucracy praised its role only after President Chavez's stunning victory in a effort to try to curry favors and legitimize an election that was not needed to begin with and was nothing but a disgraceful display of groveling before an arm of imperialist intervention. The Carter Center in an open letter entitled Declaration of the Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter on the Venezuelan Decision Regrading the Ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights( see below) has come out swinging and has compared the Venezuelan Supreme Court to those of Chile's military courts rulings during the fascist Fujimori regime because of it saying that the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is lacking and unenforceable and thus maintaining the prohibition against the embezzler and coup monger Leopoldo Lopez in the upcoming election and from holding public office until 2014( I for one think he should not be able to hold office at all). The declaration is signed, by the same old "protectors of capital"among others such as Cesar Gaviria, Jorge Castaneda, Andres Pastrana, Sergio Ramirez, Alejandro Toledo and Jimmy Carter. Most countries including the United States have rules and regulations governing elections and those who run in them and Venezuela is no different. It is an absurdity for the Carter Center to interject itself into the process at all considering their past performance. As we get closer the the election we will see all kinds of charades from these so called watchdogs of bourgeois democracy. Cort http://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/inter_american-democratic-charter-102111.html#english Declaration of the Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter on the Venezuelan Decision Regarding the Ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights We, the undersigned, regret the announcement of the Venezuelan Supreme Court that it will not be feasible to comply with the decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Leopoldo Lopez vs. Venezuela issued on September 1, 2011. The Inter-American Court together with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights constitute a human rights system that serves as a model for the world. Based in the American Convention on Human Rights, the system is an achievement of Latin American and Caribbean states (neither Canada nor the United States have ratified) that should be jealously protected by all. We note with concern that to our knowledge, with the exception of the military courts rulings during the Fujimori regime, this is the only country in the hemisphere where the merits rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have been rejected by the Supreme Court in expressly declaring them non-binding and unenforceable. The failure to comply with the findings of the Court by a signatory state under the jurisdiction of the Court, and departing from its international obligations as dictated by the American Convention, threatens not only the Court itself but also the collective defense of human rights in the hemisphere. Signed, *Diego Abente Brun *Former Minister of Justice and Labor of Paraguay *Mariclaire Acosta *Former Undersecretary for Democracy and Human Rights of Mexico *Nicolás Ardito Barletta *Former President of Panama *Jimmy Carter *Former President of the United States of America *Jorge Castañeda *Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico *Joe Clark *Former Prime Minister of Canada *Humberto de la Calle *Former Vice President of Colombia *César Gaviria *Former President of Colombia *John Graham *Chair Emeritus, Canadian Foundation for the Americas *Osvaldo Hurtado *Former President of Ecuador *Torquato Jardim *Former Justice of the Superior Electoral Tribunal of Brazil *Luis Alberto Lacalle *Former President of Uruguay *John Maisto *Former U.S. Ambassador to the OAS *John Manley *Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada *Barbara McDougall *Former Minister of External Affairs of Canada *Robert Pastor *Former Director of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs National Security Council *Andrés Pastrana *Former President of Colombia *Sergio Ramírez *Former Vice-President of Nicaragua *Ronald M. Sanders *Member Eminent Persons Group of the Commonwealth *Jorge Santistevan de Noriega* Former Human Rights Ombudsman of Peru *Eduardo Stein *Former Vice President of Guatemala *Alejandro Toledo *Former President of Peru *Fernando Tuesta Soldevilla *Former Director National Office of Electoral Processes, Peru --------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/8838/index.php *The Carter Center, OAS and the Recall Referendum in Venezuela * *By Cort Greene* After decades of corruption that had permeated the politics and life of the people of Venezuela, the Bolivarian Process and its representative Hugo Chavez were elected with a majority of the electorate in 1998 and then again reaffirmed in 2000. With this the winds of change blew through the whole of the country and political system. Those who had the most to lose, the oligarchy and the comprador bourgeoisie, who were tied by a thousand threads to American and Spanish imperialism and had enjoyed the perks and privileges of their position, started a campaign to subvert the will of people who have supported the Venezuelan Revolution on many occasions. When a coup d'etat, organized by the United States government and a business-backed effort to sabotage the economy with a industrial stoppage didn't work, they resorted to other forms of intrigue. One of many maneuvers now being employed by the so-called opposition and their U.S. handlers is the recall referendum. On May 29, 2003 after intense pressure by the afore-mentioned groups, the government of President Chavez agreed to a process for the referendum with the Carter Center, the Organization of American States and United Nations Development Program. These groups profess to be building "democratic processes", but remained silent when the democratically elected President of Haiti was overthrown in a recent coup, and during the disputed 2000 presidential elections in the United States, where disenfranchisement and fraud were rampant. However, many problems emerged for those who thought they could use the recall process as a ploy to steal an election. The greatest problem was that not enough legitimate signatures were gathered to launch a referendum. The Venezuelan National Election Council (NEC) has thrown out 400,000 signatures for various reasons and ruled another 870,000 were not valid, and the Venezuelan Supreme Court's constitutional panel concurred. Many of the fraudulent signatures were of children, foreign nationals or people who had been dead a long time. Additionally, workers were forced by their bosses to sign or be fired, and patients in hospitals were told they would not receive proper treatment and care if they did not sign. Very democratic indeed! The reason for this is clear: the majority of the population (some 80 percent of which live in poverty) is not in favor of the recall election. A recent opposition demonstration consisted of just a couple thousand people, as compared to the millions who flooded the streets in a show of support for Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution. But this is not enough for those outside "observers" who wish to disregard the will of the majority and the decisions taken by the NEC. The Carter Center and its Americas Program, directed by Dr. Jennifer McCoy, have played the leading role in this. The OAS and other "fifth column" groups, have joined the Carter Center in calling for a repair process of the fraudulent signatures. Ground rules were agreed to and the NEC set dates for the process. Then the electoral panel of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, who are heavily in favor of the opposition demanded that the NEC recognize the signatures and gave them five days to do it. In the face of this blatant bullying, both the Carter Center and the OAS quickly made statements saying they just wanted fair elections and praised the efforts of the Coordinadora Democratica (CD) and other terrorist groups who have received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy. The proof of the objectives of these bullies is in the pudding. Due to a split within the opposition, some very interesting revelations were made public this past week. The General secretary of Accion Democratica (AD), Henry Ramos Alup stated that the CD was really opposed to the re-call process and he wanted internal meetings of the CD recorded and made public. He alleges that some CD members say one thing in private meetings and another altogether in public. "We [the AD] are not prepared to play along or remain silent vis-à-vis new adventures or stoppages, such as April 11, 2002 [the coup] and December 2002 [economic sabotage] that have cost the Venezuelan People dear." Accion Democratica is no liberal group (one week ago armed members of this group took over a public hospital and destroyed a baby incubator and other equipment), and is the largest group within the Coordinadora Democratica. So there we have it the CD is planning more of the same, and the Carter Center and the OAS just stand by and watch. We call on them to stop this farce and end their intervention in Venezuela. Leave the country and let the people of Venezuela decide! Defend the Venezuelan Revolution! Forward to Socialism! Letters of protest can be sent to: Dr. Jennifer McCoy, Director; Americas Program of the Carter Center: POLJLM (at) langate.gsu.edu <POLJLM*langate.gsu.edu> POLJLM (at) langate.gsu.edu> *Joaquín Villalobos *Founder of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), Signatory of the Peace Agreements of El Salvador in 1992 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
