TMCnet News
Chavez asks Colombia to withdraw its consul in MaracaiboCaracas, Nov 30, 2008 (EFE via COMTEX) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday here asked Colombia to immediate withdraw its consul in Maracaibo, Carlos Galvis Fajardo, after accusing him of being involved in plans to destabilize the Venezuelan government. "The only way that I won't expel that consul general is if the Colombian government withdraws him right away, otherwise I'll expel him from the country. I hope the Colombian government will make those decisions," said Chavez at an official ceremony broadcast live on national radio and television. Chavez cited an alleged telephone call to Galvis Fajardo from Jose Obdulio, a supposed advisor to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, that the Venezuelan government had monitored. In that conversation, Galvis Fajardo hailed the recent opposition election victories in several regions of Venezuela and spoke of contacting the new state governors who oppose Chavez's government and activating "some plans," the Venezuelan leader said. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said that immediately after Chavez's public claim, he received a phone call from his Colombian counterpart, Jaime Bermudez, who assured him that Bogota would withdraw Galvis Fajardo. "I received a direct call from the foreign minister of Colombia at that same time... He notified me, informed me, that they're going to withdraw the Colombian consul in Maracaibo," Maduro told state-run Venezolana de Television, or VTV. Maduri praised the "swiftness" of the official Colombian response, calling it "very positive," and he added that Caracas "hopes that this surprising situation will not be repeated with other diplomatic representatives in Venezuela." He added that the Venezuelan government "will attentively follow" any reports or signs of plans to destabilize it and will pay attention to all complaints of that sort of activity. Meanwhile, the Colombian consul in Maracaibo, 700 kilometers (434 miles) west of Caracas, told local media that he spoke about the incident with the Colombian foreign minister and said that he "has no problem" leaving Venezuela if and when ordered to do so. In an interview with the private news station Globovision, Galvis Fajardo denied being involved in any plot against Chavez's government, adding that the taping of a private conversation constitutes a "violation" of both his human rights and international law. Galvis Fajardo said that the phone conversation in question was held last Monday with an "honorable person" and he attributed the taping of the call to a reporter he did not name, blaming the latter with practicing "criminal" journalism. The Colombian consul admitted that during that conversation he expressed his satisfaction with the election results because opposition leaders Manuel Rosales and Pablo Perez had been elected mayor of Maracaibo and governor of Zulia state, respectively. "There are some comments where I express ... that I felt pleased by the elections (of Rosales and Perez), that it was very nice to have well-known people" in those public posts, he said. He added that the phone conversation was "a very basic analysis of the election process" that transpired last Sunday "without (my) having the most minimum participation or intention (of participating in internal Venezuelan matters)." The Venezuelan opposition won 20 percent of the more than 330 mayorships around the country and five of the 22 state governorships in the recent vote, compared to just two in the election before that. One of those governorships was in Zulia, which borders on Colombia and the capital of which is Maracaibo. Chavez claimed on Sunday that the new opposition governors and mayors are lying when they assert like "crybabies" that they will govern in coordination with the national government when in reality those "coupmongers and fascists" will use their offices to try and depose him. EFE gf/bp |