22 members of the Council of Europe signed a declaration declaring their worries about the way the Venezuelan comptroller excluded against the law the participation of several opposition leaders in the elections of 23 November 2008. They also condemned the attacks by the Chávez government to critical figures and the expulsion without any lawful procedure of the director of Human Rights Watch, Vivanco.
The interesting thing I see here is how the list is including more and more people who belong to SOCIAL DEMOCRATS, like Christoph Strässer (German SPD) and Gerd Höfer (also German SPD)
and Arcadio Díaz Tejera (PSC/PSOE), as well as those who had taken a more critical stance towards the current government earlier like people from the Spanish PP, like Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora.
The interesting thing I see here is how the list is including more and more people who belong to SOCIAL DEMOCRATS, like Christoph Strässer (German SPD) and Gerd Höfer (also German SPD)
and Arcadio Díaz Tejera (PSC/PSOE), as well as those who had taken a more critical stance towards the current government earlier like people from the Spanish PP, like Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora.
The Council of Europe is not the EU. Still, I wonder in view of this the following:
- Will there be EU observers in Venezuela for the elections on 23 November? I doubt it: no one is moving a finger for that.
- What new ways will the extreme left find to defend Chávez?
- When will Rodríguez Zapatero be more firm in condemning the Chávez government? Under which circumstances?
The EU took a long time to recognise how Mugabe's regime was damaging the people of Zimbabwe. Let's hope it won't take so long to recognise the full extent of what is happening in Venezuela.