Former Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Dr. Milos Alcalay writes: In a decision handed down, Thursday (October 23) in Strasbourg-France, the European Parliament has condemned illegal "disqualifications" of quite a number of Venezuelan (mainly opposition) politicians from standing for election and re-election to public office.
At the the same time, a plenary session of the EU Parliament condemned the Venezuelan government's summary expulsion from that country of Human Rights Watch (HRW) director Jose Miguel Vivanco and the possibly extra-judicial political killing of Christian Socialist (COPEI) student leader, Julio Soto.
As expected, President Hugo Chavez Frias' "revolutionary" administration immediately launched a series of insulting epithets targetting the European Parliament ... but the MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) immediately rejected the assault as "disinformation" agreeing with a call from Portugal's MEP Ribeiro e Castro that European Union countries should "not drop their pants" for the government of Hugo Chavez.
Romanian Liberal MEP, Renate Weber also rebutted an assertion from Venezuela's Vice Minister for Europe, Alexander Fleming who, in September, claimed that the European Parliament had refused to discuss the issue on the grounds that any vote would be "against the fight against corruption" in Venezuela. Weber said "What he (Fleming) is trying to do is to manipulate public opinion in Venezuela, and this is NOT worthy of a Vice Minister for Europe." She also referred to an assertion (also by Fleming) that Thursday's EU resolution "violated Venezuelan sovereignty" and responded "We reject any assertion that this EU resolution represents an attack against a country's sovereignty ... rather, it is an expression of respect and support for democracy and human rights for and on behalf of the Venezuelan people!"
German MEP Bernd Posselt also rejected Fleming's accusation that the EU resolution is "an interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela" saying that "what the EU is clearly talking about is the defense of universal rights!"
Britain's Conservative MEP Charles Tannock also referred to a statement from Venezuela's National Assembly claiming that that "the EU resolution discredits the defense of human rights!" Tannock emphastically defended the right of the European Parliament to decide on matters of human rights violation anywhere in the world "since denouncing such violations, we are sending a wake-up call (to the Venezuelan government) that should lead them to promote and respect respect human rights."
Faced with further accusations that the EU resolution only had the support of European right-wingers, Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) MEP, Josu Ortuondo ridiculed Venezuela's claim saying that his party, the PNV, "can certainly NOT be said to be a party of the political Right ... but when it comes to human rights violations and the rule of law, the European Parliament has a clear duty to speak with clarity and firmness "
The EU Parliament also rebutted the Venezuelan Bolivarian (Chavez) administration's assertion that the 51-1 vote decision was NOT representative -- that it represented less than 0.7% of the total possible votes in a full plenary assembly -- adding that the Venezuelan argument was riddled with holes since resolutions emergency were discussed at various levels of the EU Parliament over the two weeks previous to Thursday's plenary session.
Milos Alcalay
milosalcalay@yahoo.com
Editor's note: VHeadline has made diligent and painstaking attempts over the last four days, inviting Ambassador Fleming and/or any government spokesperson to state the government's point of view both here at VHeadline Venezuelan News' English and Spanish editions as well as exclusively on the VHeadline Venezuelan Newshour on the American Voice Radio Network (AVRN). Regrettablt, but NOT unusually, the responsible Venezuelan diplomatic representative has NOT deigned to respond to our responsible ans democratic invitations or to our queries.
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