Peña Esclusa: European legislators warn about democracy in Venezuela

http://unoamerica.org/unoPAG/principal.php

A group of 23 lawmakers in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Monday released a written statement warning about the state of democracy in Venezuela and the "criminalization of dissenting opinions".

http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/10/04/en_pol_art
_european-legislators_04A4560371.shtml

 
Among the signatories there are 19 deputies of the Group of the European People's Party - including four Spanish Senators, two lawmakers of the Socialist Group, one deputy of the Liberal, Democratic and Reformers' Group and one British conservative lawmaker, Efe reported. 







Spanish senators are Alejandro Muñoz Alonso, Carmen Quintanilla, Agustín Conde and Pedro Agramunt. The latter told Efe that the initiative came from them and that the chair of the Group, Italian Luca Volontè, will bring the initiative to the Bureau of the Assembly. 



The Bureau of the Assembly will consider the statement on Friday and decide whether to give its approval for a Committee -possibly the Committee on Political Affairs, to prepare a report including a draft resolution or recommendation to be debated and voted in a plenary session. 



The signatories regretted "that the situation in Venezuela has worsened further," after some events, such as the arrest of Judge María Afiuni or the "arbitrary detention" of president of UnoAmerica Alejandro Peña Esclusa. 

Alejandro Peña Esclusa



They also recalled the detention of Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, the former chairman of the Congress of Venezuela and a former presidential candidate, as well as the death on August 30 of farmer Franklin Brito, a hunger striker, after his detention in a military hospital. 




The statement also cited the case against former military officer Antonio Rivero, "in retaliation for his stance condemning the presence of Cubans in strategic military posts." 




This, claimed the lawmakers, evidences the "use of the Judiciary to promote intolerance." 
Thus, they urged the Venezuelan government to "respect and protect" the rule of law, freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and democracy. 



Agramunt, a Member of the Political Affairs Committee, said that the results of legislative elections on September 26 encouraged them to pursue this initiative. 




Referring to those polls, the Spanish Senator stressed that the government of Hugo Chávez "has changed the electoral system and has managed to make the winners lose." 




According to Agramunt, the initiative will highlight "the weakness of some Latin American democracies, like Venezuela's."

El Universal





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