Carter Puts Forward Election Plans for Venezuela

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Carter Puts Forward Election Plans for Venezuela

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Former US President Jimmy Carter said in Caracas Tuesday he had presented to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the opposition two proposals for elections designed to bring an end to the political crisis in the country.

Carter, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2002, who had already met with Chavez and opposition leaders, told reporters that he would also present his proposals to the Group of Friends of Venezuela, which will meet for the first time in Washington on Friday.

The Group of Friends, composed of Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, Chile and the United States, was created on Jan. 15 in abid to solve the political crisis in Venezuela.

Chavez has called for the expansion of the group to include Cuba, Russia, China, France, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Malaysia.

Under Carter's first plan, Venezuela's constitution would be amended to allow early elections, and his second is for the country to wait until Aug. 19, when the constitution allows a mid-term referendum to determine whether Chavez should remain in office.

"My opinion is that both parties wish to reach an agreement to put an end to the stagnation," he said. "This is a step in the right direction, but in no way a definitive solution."

Carter, who arrived in Caracas last Wednesday on his second visit to the country in less than a year, joined the efforts of Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of Organization of American States (OAS), to broker the peace talks between Chavez and the opposition.

Chavez said he was willing to accept the proposals if they follow the Venezuelan constitution. "I do not reject any of these possibilities, but the opposition must comply with the constitution," he said.

Opposition leaders responded cautiously. "We have to see how much the government is willing - frankly not rhetorically - to facilitate an electoral solution," said opposition negotiator Alejandro Armas.

The opposition launched the nationwide strike on Dec. 2, demanding the resignation of President Chavez and a Feb. 2 referendum on his presidency so as to pave the way for an early election.

Chavez, who was re-elected in 2000 and survived a brief coup last April, rejected calls for any referendum before August this year, halfway through his six-year term.

HARBOR PILOTS RETURN TO WORK

Some striking harbor pilots have returned to work in Maracaibo Lake in western Venezuela, the country's main petroleum zone, local shipping companies said on Tuesday.

Striking oil workers have sent a delegation there to meet with the pilots in an attempt to persuade them to reverse their decision, a shipping company manager said.

"According to verbal information obtained at the Harbor Dues, the crew strike has ceased," he said.

The end of the harbor pilots' strike could facilitate exports of crude oil from the region, which produces more than half of thepetroleum in the oil-rich country, once foreign tankers begin docking at local harbors.

The oil industry has become the spotlight in the fight between the government and the opposition, who launched the 51-day-old strike to press their demand for the resignation of President Chavez.

The strike has crippled oil production and exports and caused fuel and food shortages in Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil producer.

The Venezuelan government Tuesday decided to import 1.23 million barrels of gasoline from the United States and Trinidad and Tobago to meet needs of its domestic market.

Ali Rodriguez, president of state-run oil company PDVSA, said on Monday that gas supplies will become normal by late January.

In a televised statement, Rodriguez also said an oil tanker loaded with Mexican gasoline arrived in Venezuela on Monday.

Sabotage on the oil-pipeline that links Caracas with the Carenero oil refinery, 130 km east of the capital, has worsened shortage of gasoline supplies, according to the official.

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