Bachelet: I support Maduro’s Venezuela
Chile’s president-elect, Michelle Bachelet, said her administration will support the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“When we take office, what we’re going to do is offer our support to the government and people of Venezuela in a real search for the democratic channels of social peace, so the Venezuelans themselves may find that road,” Bachelet said Thursday night (March 6) on television.
It was her first public statement on the Venezuelan crisis since her election in December.
“Chile has played a very important role in the defense of human rights, and also of the democratic processes,” she said on Santiago’s Channel 13. “And just as we shall always endeavor to truly guarantee human rights, we don’t think it proper that violent actions be utilized to destabilize a democratically elected government,” she told her interviewer, Mario Kreutzberger (Don Francisco).
[In an interview published Friday (March 7) in The Washington Post, Bachelet is quoted as saying that “Chile has recognized President Maduro as a democratically elected president. I will work with President Maduro, as with other presidents, with a lot of respect.” When pressed for a longer answer, she said that “once [I am] in office, there will be a chance to talk about all of these issues.”]
Bachelet, 62, will take the oath of office next Tuesday (March 11) in Valparaiso, in the presence of many hemispheric leaders, including U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden. It is likely that she will hold private meetings with several of them, including Maduro, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Ollanta Humala of Peru.
Other presidents who have confirmed their presence are Rafael Correa of Ecuador; Horacio Cartes of Paraguay; José Mujica of Uruguay; Cristina Fernández of Argentina; and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico. The presence of Raúl Castro of Cuba has not been confirmed for security reasons.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela — will meet in Santiago to discuss the situation in Venezuela.
Bachelet, a socialist, was Chile’s president from 2006 to 2010. Next week, she will succeed President Sebastián Piñera.
Her cabinet includes 6 members of the center-left Party for Democracy (PPD) and 5 each of the centrist Christian Democratic Party (DC) and center-left Socialist Party (PS). Six others are independent. There is only one Communist Party official, Claudia Pascual, director of the National Women’s Service.
For a full list of Bachelet’s cabinet, click here.
[In photo above incoming president, Michelle Bachelet, greets TV host Don Francisco, whose real name is Mario Kreutzberger, on Thursday night during a Channel 13 TV program in Santiago, Chile.]
