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The U.S. Response to the Venezuelan Referendum
Quote:
US seeks 'positive relationship' with Venezuela
3 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States will pursue a "positive relationship" with Venezuela after a referendum lifted term limits for President Hugo Chavez and all politicians, a US official said Tuesday.
"We will continue to seek to maintain a positive relationship with Venezuela," said US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid.
"Although there were some troubling reports of intimidation of opponents, for the most part, this was a process that was fully consistent with democratic practice."
Venezuelans on Sunday voted nearly 55 percent in favor of constitutional reform sought by Chavez, a staunch Washington critic, to run for unlimited reelection, in his bid to consolidate his brand of socialism critics compare to Cuba's communism.
Chavez has already signaled he intends to run for a third term in 2012.
Asked about Chavez's bid for unlimited rule, Duguid said he did not have "an opinion on the democratic practices of Venezuelan. In the United States, we have term limits, but that's our practice."
Duguid reiterated that the referendum "was a matter for the Venezuelan people."
But he said that the United States looks "for governments who have achieved a positive democratic result to use that in a positive manner."
US-Venezuelan relations have been steadily deteriorating since Chavez first took office in 1999. In September, they took a turn for the worse after Venezuela expelled the US ambassador and the United States responded in kind.
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AFP: US seeks 'positive relationship' with Venezuela
So here it is--the U.S. response so far. This is a different tone than what I would have expected from the Bush administration.
Do you think we'll see a turnaround in relations between the two?
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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