The head of the Organization of American States (OAS) opened a hemispheric summit late on Sunday with a warning against "silencing" political opponents, a week after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shut down an opposition television station.
"The first duty of a democratic government is broadening democracy," OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told delegates at the organization's 37th General Assembly.
"By contrast, if a government is silencing opponents, excludes them from the political process and resorts to repression, it embarks on a path toward certain weakening of democratic rule," Insulza added without mentioning Chavez directly.
PHOTO: AFP
He urged Latin American nations to promote a climate of tolerance as they confront multiple political, economic and social challenges.
Venezuela's oldest and most popular television channel, RCTV, went of the air a week ago, after Chavez refused to renew its broadcasting license, accusing the station of subversion.
The country has been in turmoil ever since, with thousands of students and other opponents of Venezuela's mercurial ruler taking to the streets to protest the move.
Thousands of demonstrators marched in Caracas again on Sunday, slamming Chavez's shutdown of RCTV that openly called for his ouster in 2002, during a two-day coup bid against him that ultimately failed.
Tooting whistles and waving Venezuelan flags, demonstrators also spoke out noisily against government ombudsman German Mundarain, who on Friday endorsed Chavez's move.
He also suggested there was a link between protesting students and parties who might be trying to topple leftist Chavez.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Chavez backers marched in a show of support for his controversial maneuver, now an international scandal.
The conflict has spilled over into the halls of the OAS assembly, where a group of former employees of the defunct network is lobbying foreign ministers, urging them to hold a full-scale debate on the situation in Venezuela.
They have enjoyed tacit support from the US, which has submitted to the OAS Permanent Council a statement by the US Senate, in which the upper chamber of Congress urged the OAS to come up with a response to Chavez's decision.
But while not ruling out changes in the assembly's agenda, Insulza told reporters at the start of the meeting that so far, no member nation has presented a formal request that the issue of RCTV be discussed at the forum.
Venezuela's OAS representative, Jorge Valero, said on Saturday that a discussion of RCTV's closing would be considered "interference" in Venezuela's domestic affairs.
But he later said such a debate, if it were to occur, will give Venezuela "an excellent opportunity" to explain its government's action.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS