"What are they looking for? Do they want this agency to say
that I'm not president to justify an invasion? They [the opposition] are
registering candidates, and releasing a document to the world saying that
election fraud has been committed here. ... they are mounting a brutal war on the economy, so that when we reach [the next election period in] October,
November, we're in a dire situation. ... We will seek a new system [for
accepting non-dollar currencies] to stabilize the so-called foreign exchange
market ... I've been told that the White House has remained 'strangely' silent.
You know every time someone says anything, some spokesperson emerges."
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles with supporters almost a year ago. Hugo Chavez has died since then, and Nicolas President Maduro, after barely winning the special election to replace Chavez, is having his win challenged by Capriles at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the OAS system considered by the Maduro government to be U.S. controlled.
Caracas: On Monday [Sept. 9], President
Nicolas Maduro defended Venezuela's
impending exit from the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, declaring that the agency has become an "instrument
for the persecution of progressive governments."
The
president said that the IACHR had nothing to say about
the April 14 elections, over which opposition candidate Henrique Capriles filed a complaint yesterday for alleged fraud and
seeking to challenge the results.
Maduro said that the Commission is under the
control of the United States, and for that reason, it believes it is a
"supranational" power.
"We
have to react. It believes itself to be a supranational power, a power above
the legitimate governments of the continent. Its time has passed. Now they feign
ignorance of Venezuela's electoral system. What does the Commission have to do
with the sovereign and autonomous operation of Venezuelan electoral authority? What
are they looking for? Do they want this agency to say that I am not president to
justify an invasion?, " the president said at a press conference at the
seat of government [the Miraflores Palace].
He
added that his government would proceed with the steps necessary to withdraw
from the Convention [American
Convention on Human Rights] in order to leave the Commission, which will be
implemented in the coming days [reportedly on Tuesday, Sept. 16].
The
president questioned the fact that a Capriles delegate,
lawyer Ramón José Medina, had filed a complaint with the Commission [in Washington] about the
April elections, the victory of which was narrowly attributed to Maduro.
"He
(Medina) is the right-hand man of the biggest fascist of all (Capriles), which relates him to dangerous things. So now he
goes to the headquarters of the Commission, to submit a document saying there
is a fraudulent electoral system in Venezuela," Maduro
said.
'
"They
[the opposition] are registering candidates, and releasing a document to the
world saying that fraud has been committed here. In other words, following that
logic, a fraud will be committed on the 8th of December," he said. He also
accused the opposition of maintaining a "brutal war" on the economy, in
order that, "when we reach [the next election period in] October, November, we're in a dire situation."
"They
are two-faced, hypocritical, liars and perverts," Maduro
declared.
The Foreign
exchange market
The
president also said Monday he is evaluating the implementation of a system that
provides for the use of alternative currencies by the Commission for the
Administration of Currency Exchange (CADIVI) and the Ancillary
Foreign Currency Administration System (SICAD).
"The new system would pursue that goal," stressed our head of state,
adding that the objective would be to "stabilize the so-called foreign
exchange market," so it reaches an optimal balancing point.
[Editor's
Note: SICAD,
which operates in parallel with a decade-long currency control mechanism CADIVI, provides dollars at a
weaker rate than the official exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars. According
to the Babalu Blog: "This new
"SICAD" system is an acknowledgment of the existence of a black
market. Under SICAD, the Bolivar will have three distinct exchange rates. Right
now, depending on what kind of financial transaction one is making, the Bolivar
is worth 10 cents on a U.S. Dollar,6.3
cents on a U.S. Dollar, or 3 cents on a U.S. Dollar. The lowest of the three is
the real value of the Bolivar, for that is the value it is pegged at on the
black market, euphemistically referred to as the "parallel market."]
Silence from the
U.S.
President
Maduro said that the United States remained "strangely"
silent, after he denounced the White House for launching a plan for the
"total collapse" of his government over the next month.
"I've
been told that the White House has remained 'strangely' silent. You know every
time someone says anything, some spokesperson emerges, as is the case for the
current White House caretaker, and he says, 'It's a lie'. ... Or the caretaker
at the State Department says something," he said.
