{"id":31939,"date":"2013-05-07T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T15:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/obama-attacks-legitimacy-of-venezuelan-government\/31939\/"},"modified":"2013-05-07T16:37:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T15:37:00","slug":"obama-attacks-legitimacy-of-venezuelan-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/obama-attacks-legitimacy-of-venezuelan-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Attacks Legitimacy of Venezuelan Government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"obama<\/p>\n

M\u00c3\u00a9rida, 6\u00a0May<\/span>\u00a02013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) \u2014 The Venezuelan government hit back at a series of what it describes as \u201cfalse and \u201cinterventionist\u201d statements made by U.S. President Barack Obama over the weekend.<\/p>\n

During his visit to Mexico on 3 May, Obama questioned whether \u201cbasic principles of human rights and democracy and freedom of press and freedom of assembly\u201d were being observed in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are reports that they have not been fully observed post-election,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Obama then cited Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru as examples that Venezuela should follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our only interest at this point is making sure that the people of Venezuela are able to determine their own destiny free from the kinds of practices that the entire hemisphere generally has moved away from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In his visit to Costa Rica last week, Obama also said, \u201cI think our general view has been that it\u2019s up to the people of Venezuela to choose their leaders in legitimate elections\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Univision, he also said that his administration continues to monitor the \u201cviolence, the protests, the crackdowns on the opposition\u201d, but refused to say whether Washington would recognise the results of the 14 April elections.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan Response<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua read an official government communique, describing Obama\u2019s comments as an \u201cattack\u201d on the \u201clegitimate government of Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the televised statement, Jaua criticised Obama for ignoring Venezuela\u2019s democratic processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Obama attacks the legitimate Venezuelan government, which was elected on 14 April through a transparent electoral process, whose results were recognised by electoral accompaniments coming from the whole continent and other countries of the world; including the Electoral Mission of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) as well as by all the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean and other continents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaua then stated that Venezuela\u2019s automated electoral system is subject to numerous audits \u201cguaranteeing\u2026the accuracy of the data\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Obama, please get informed. The National Electoral Council has overcome those terrible practices that used to violate the people\u2019s will, and that the U.S. supported in order to have governments that were obedient to its bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then criticised Obama for showing \u201cdouble standards\u201d by not condemning what he described as the \u201cviolent record of\u2026[Venezuelan] opposition groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement also called on Obama to close \u201cthe illegal prison of Guantanamo\u201d, describing the controversial site as \u201cone of the most shameful chapters of human history\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve gone against the promise you made in 2008 and 2012 to close this shameful place,\u201d Jaua said.<\/p>\n

Timothy Tracy<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an interview with Telemundo, Obama also reiterated his support for Timothy Tracy, a 35 year old Californian currently detained by Venezuelan authorities under charges of espionage, conspiring to commit an offence, using a false document and being an accomplice in a criminal act.<\/p>\n

Obama described the charges as \u201cridiculous\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Minister for Internal Affairs Miguel Rodriguez Torres told Venezuelan media that authorities are now convinced that Tracy\u2019s occupation as a film-maker was \u201ca guise\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Torres, Venezuelan authorities have seized more than \u201c500 videotapes\u201d and other evidence including emails that allegedly show Tracy was involved in a conspiracy with \u201cmembers of the far right\u2026to cause violent actions on the streets and create a climate of chaos\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tracy\u2019s family has maintained that he is innocent, according to Associated Press.<\/p>\n

One of Tracy\u2019s associates, Aengus James, told AP that the film-maker \u201cliterally has no political agenda. He is very sympathetic to all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s telling stories about people and what their life is like there [in Venezuela]\u201d.<\/p>\n

The\u201cbig boss of the devils\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Nicolas Maduro also weighed in over the weekend, criticising Obama for \u201cfinancing\u201d the opposition and \u201cseeking to destroy Venezuela\u2019s democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, he reiterated previous calls to \u201csit down\u201d with Obama, who he described as the \u201cbig boss of the devils\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From: Global Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M\u00c3\u00a9rida, 6\u00a0May\u00a02013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) \u2014 The Venezuelan government hit back at a series of what it describes as \u201cfalse and \u201cinterventionist\u201d statements made by U.S. President Barack Obama over the weekend. During his visit to Mexico on 3 May, Obama questioned whether \u201cbasic principles of human rights and democracy and freedom of press and freedom of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}