US Accepts Chavez Victory In Referendum, Urges National Reconciliation

[stickdog]

So being able to audit election results is "important for credibility." Is that the Bush Administration's official stance?

http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=24730

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (AFP) - The United States on Tuesday accepted as legitimate preliminary results of Venezuela's weekend recall referendum, belatedly acknowledging the victory in the polls of longtime US irritant President Hugo Chavez.

The State Department, 24 hours after refusing to endorse similar a assessment by international election monitors, also called on all Venezuelans to embrace national reconciliation, including the embittered opposition which has claimed the vote was marred by widespread fraud.

"We ... join the Group of Friends of Venezuela in acknowledging the preliminary results of the referendum and noting that they show that President Chavez received the support of the majority of voters," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

<snip>

Ereli also repeated US calls for Venezuelan election officials to promptly, thoroughly and transparently investigate the opposition's fraud charges, saying it was important for credibility of the polls for an audit of the results.

[yellowcanine]

1. Wow - compare this to how long it took the U.S. to recognize the coup

plotters in 2002 - Does anyone have that? I believe it was almost immediately, no?

[denverbill]

7. Same day. Within hours, iirc.

Almost as if they knew if was going to happen.

[Judi Lynn]

8. You may have read about Venezuelan officials going to visit Otto Reich

in the State Department months before the coup:

Months before the coup d’etat that briefly removed Chavez from power in April 11, 2002, U.S. officials met in Washington with a delegation of the Venezuelan opposition movement. Although some evidence exists linking the U.S. government to the coup, U.S. officials denied any involvement. After The New York Times reported Washington’s meetings with Venezuelan opposition leaders and military officers prior to the coup, U.S. officials acknowledged them but deny providing any support for non-constitutional ways of removing Chavez from office. Pedro Carmona, who became a dictator after Chavez was removed from office, was among the opposition leaders who met with U.S. officials before the coup.
(snip/...)

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=5549&fcategory_desc=Venezuela

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Guardian:

1) American Navy 'Helped Venezuelan Coup'
by Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
The Guardian ; April 29, 2002
The United States had been considering a coup to overthrow the elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer claimed yesterday.
It is also alleged that the US navy aided the abortive coup which took place in Venezuela on April 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence is also emerging of US financial backing for key participants in the coup.
(snip)

Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, told the Guardian yesterday that American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup.
(snip)

He said that the navy was in the area for operations unconnected to the coup, but that he understood they had assisted with signals intelligence as the coup was played out.
Mr Madsen also said that the navy helped with communications jamming support to the Venezuelan military, focusing on communications to and from the diplomatic missions in Caracas belonging to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Iraq - the four countries which had expressed support for Mr Chavez.
Navy vessels on a training exercise in the area were supposedly put on stand-by in case evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela was required.
In Caracas, a congressman has accused the US ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, and two US embassy military attaches of involvement in the coup.
Roger Rondon claimed that the military officers, whom he named as (James) Rogers and (Ronald) MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of April 11-12.And referring to Mr Shapiro, Mr Rondon said: "We saw him leaving Miraflores palace, all smiles and embraces, with the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga ... satisfaction was obvious. Shapiro's participation in the coup d'état in Venezuela is evident."
(snip/...)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/US_Coup_Venezuela.html



wretched coup-President-hugging ambassador Charles Shapiro

[Hawkeye-X]

2. I still refuse to recoginize the Government of the United States

since the last legitimately elected President is William Jefferson Blythe IV.

And the President-elect is STILL waiting to be inaugurated.

Hawkeye-X

[xxqqqzme]

3. 'saying it was important for

credibility of the polls for an audit of the results.' yea whatever? when we have that credibility here, then ereli can flap his gums.

[Judi Lynn]

6. All that from the same people who sued to stop the 2000 recount! n/t

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. I notice something here - the Admin takes a moderate stance while goons

pop out from the fringes claiming we need to intervene, the clergy freaks out - suddenly the whole hing starts shifting to the right - because no ones gonna notice the Admin's shift right while people like Klayman and this Cardinal are bleating like goats on ridalin

[genius]

5. We need foreign monitors here

Oh, I bet Bush doesn't give up.

[lottie244]

9. Translation: "We want you oil. We are being nice, so you be nice."

Viva Chavez!!!

[tom_paine]

10. It makes me laugh to see the Vote Fraud Squad call for audits

Of coruse, these Imperial Scum have their Phony Image to keep up...not for the world which sees through them like it saw throught the Nazis and Soviets, but for the ever shrinking minority of Faux-Addled Busheviks who will follow Der Fuhrer* straight to hell.

What's funny is the show is actually for such a small crowd of fools who will believe they are free as long as THEY get to be the Camp Guards.

[Judi Lynn]

11. State Dept.: Referendum ends political crisis

Posted 8/17/2004 4:44 PM

State Dept.: Referendum ends political crisis
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States said Tuesday the vote by Venezuela's people to allow President Hugo Chavez to complete his term marks an end to the Latin American nation's political crisis. (Related story: Chavez survives recall vote)
"The people of Venezuela have spoken," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. "This is about resolving a political crisis, an issue that has divided the people of Venezuela."

While stopping short of congratulating Chavez, Ereli said the United States was prepared to move on in relations with Venezuela and rejected a suggestion U.S. policy is guided not by a love of democracy but by a distaste for Chavez.

"So people want to make it a U.S. versus this person or a U.S versus that person issue and it's not," Ereli said. "It's not the way we've been approaching it."
(snip/...)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-08-17-u.s.-talks-chavez_x.htm

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/Pictures/Persons/1007556/1007556-180763.jpg

A new lie every day. Don't they ever get tired of inventing new realities to stuff down our throats?

This new State Department spokesman Ereli can always get a job in comedy if his Bush thing doesn't last.