[NYTr] Venezuela's US Ambassador Replies to Wash Post Edit'l
 
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:47:48 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Venezuela Information Office (VIO)
http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com

excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - Nov 20, 2007

[A letter by Venezuelan Ambassador to the US Bernardo Alvarez
appears in the Washington Post in response to an editorial that called
constitutional reforms a "coup."  Ambassador Alvarez states that the
reforms will essentially "decentralize political power and establish a
framework for a more equitable and democratic state."  An audio
recording of a speech by the Ambassador yesterday at Washington's
Center for Strategic and International Studies is available here:
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/events/071119_ambven.m3u -VIO]

The Washington Post - November 20, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/19/AR2007111901398.html

No 'Coup' in Venezuela

The Post's Nov. 15 editorial on Venezuela, "Mr. Chavez's Coup,"
contained a number of distortions.

The proposed constitutional reforms that the editorial discussed are
aimed at allowing Venezuela to decentralize political power and
establish a framework for a more equitable and democratic state. While
one reform would eliminate term limits, any president would still be
subject to a recall referendum, an innovative tool already used in
2004. Furthermore, private property will remain, while new forms of
public property will gain legal recognition. A number of progressive
reforms would bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or health;
grant the right to adequate housing and free public education; and
create a social security fund for the self-employed.

The reforms have been widely debated. Over a 47-day period, members of
Venezuela's legislature participated in 9,000 public events and took
80,000 phone calls on the reforms. More than 10 million copies of the
reform proposals were distributed; a recent poll found that 77 percent
of Venezuelans had read them. And the reforms will be voted on in a
national referendum on Dec. 2.

The claim that students were attacked by "government-sponsored
paramilitary groups" is false. Student leaders have been granted
meetings with high-level government officials, including the National
Electoral Council and Supreme Tribunal of Justice, where they have been
given the chance to freely express their grievances.

BERNARDO ALVAREZ

Ambassador
Embassy of Venezuela, Washington DC
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