CARACAS, Tuesday August 26, 2008 | Update
The Venezuelan opposition party Primero Justicia announced
on Monday that it will support the initiative of the union
and professional associations to collect signatures to endorse
a request to the Organization of American States (OAS) to
discuss in a plenary session the alteration of constitutional
order in Venezuela by President Hugo Chávez after the
enactment of 26 decree-laws that could be contrary to the
Venezuelan Constitution. .
Elenis Rodríguez, a member of the direction of the Venezuelan
national party, said that the signatures will not repeat the
negative experiences of Tascón and Maisanta lists, since
the forms with signatures will not be disclosed by the OAS.
In February 2004, pro-government legislator Luis Tascón
collected copies of signatures of petitioners for the recall
referendum and published them on his website. After the publication,
there were reports of government reprisals against people
appearing in the list.
The promoters of the initiative will meet in the coming days
to plan a symbolic occupation of squares in the country in
order to raise support to seek OAS intervention.
10:07 AM. DIPLOMACY. Admired by the Colombian guerrilla after his coup attempt in 1992, the then lieutenant colonel Hugo Chávez Frías received financial support by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for his projects after his capture that year. This mostly explains the relationship and "debt" between the parties, as revealed by a paper of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of the United Kingdom.