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Carter on the Scene in Venezuela
Aired January 21, 2003 - 14:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A plan for peace in the face of violence in Venezuela. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has drafted a blueprint for ending a seven week-old general strike. That strike took a deadly turn yesterday.
CNN's Diana Muriel brings us up to date now from Caracas -- Diana.
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra. This morning, U.S. -- former U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced to the press that there's been a form of (ph) breakthrough in these deadlocked negotiations between the Venezuelan government and leaders of the opposition. He sat Monday in talks with both sides, and he announced today that there are now two concrete proposals for the two sides to discuss and negotiate on.
In the general strike that we've been seeing here in Venezuela, which is now in its 51st day, there have, indeed, not been any terms of discussion in the negotiations between the two sides.
The two proposals are as follows: the first one would require a form of (ph) the constitution to shorten the presidential term from the current 6 years. He didn't specify how short it would be. Those details will be worked out in the negotiation.
The second proposal which he sees as an alternative proposal would be something which already exists within the constitution currently, which is a midterm referendum on the president halfway through his period of office, which, in this case would be on August the 19. Now this is something that the opposition has been rejecting. They've wanted to call a much earlier referendum on February the 2nd on the president.
President Jimmy Carter said that both sides have welcomed these two proposals, and were prepared to discuss them. I asked him whether or not he thought that a political solution could now be achieved. This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My opinion is that both sides now want to reach an agreement and to end the impasse that is destroying the economy of this country and the social structure.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MURIEL: Jimmy Carter also said, though, that the final decision was up to the Venezuelans, and not to the -- not to any other body, not for himself, not for the organization of American states, but just to -- just to the Venezuelan people.
In the meantime, the strike is starting to disintegrate. We understand that in Lake Maracaibo (ph) in the west of the country where most of the oil for Venezuela is exported, that tanker pilots are coming back to work. The strike, with regard to the tanker pilots, at least, appears to have been broken.
We know that the government has managed to get 16 of the 20 state-owned tankers back in operation, eight of them carrying crude cargo, and the president has also seized control of tankers which can distribute domestically gasoline around the country. People are waiting up to 20 hours queuing for gas around the country. Some food shortages are starting to occur, and the -- we're waiting for the opposition to announce whether or not they are going to cancel the national strike.
At the moment, as I speak, they are in negotiations about...
(AUDIO GAP)
PHILLIPS: All right. That's our Diana Muriel reporting via videophone from Caracas. As you can see, we many times have technical problems with that videophone.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 21, 2003 - 14:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A plan for peace in the face of violence in Venezuela. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has drafted a blueprint for ending a seven week-old general strike. That strike took a deadly turn yesterday.
CNN's Diana Muriel brings us up to date now from Caracas -- Diana.
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra. This morning, U.S. -- former U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced to the press that there's been a form of (ph) breakthrough in these deadlocked negotiations between the Venezuelan government and leaders of the opposition. He sat Monday in talks with both sides, and he announced today that there are now two concrete proposals for the two sides to discuss and negotiate on.
In the general strike that we've been seeing here in Venezuela, which is now in its 51st day, there have, indeed, not been any terms of discussion in the negotiations between the two sides.
The two proposals are as follows: the first one would require a form of (ph) the constitution to shorten the presidential term from the current 6 years. He didn't specify how short it would be. Those details will be worked out in the negotiation.
The second proposal which he sees as an alternative proposal would be something which already exists within the constitution currently, which is a midterm referendum on the president halfway through his period of office, which, in this case would be on August the 19. Now this is something that the opposition has been rejecting. They've wanted to call a much earlier referendum on February the 2nd on the president.
President Jimmy Carter said that both sides have welcomed these two proposals, and were prepared to discuss them. I asked him whether or not he thought that a political solution could now be achieved. This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My opinion is that both sides now want to reach an agreement and to end the impasse that is destroying the economy of this country and the social structure.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MURIEL: Jimmy Carter also said, though, that the final decision was up to the Venezuelans, and not to the -- not to any other body, not for himself, not for the organization of American states, but just to -- just to the Venezuelan people.
In the meantime, the strike is starting to disintegrate. We understand that in Lake Maracaibo (ph) in the west of the country where most of the oil for Venezuela is exported, that tanker pilots are coming back to work. The strike, with regard to the tanker pilots, at least, appears to have been broken.
We know that the government has managed to get 16 of the 20 state-owned tankers back in operation, eight of them carrying crude cargo, and the president has also seized control of tankers which can distribute domestically gasoline around the country. People are waiting up to 20 hours queuing for gas around the country. Some food shortages are starting to occur, and the -- we're waiting for the opposition to announce whether or not they are going to cancel the national strike.
At the moment, as I speak, they are in negotiations about...
(AUDIO GAP)
PHILLIPS: All right. That's our Diana Muriel reporting via videophone from Caracas. As you can see, we many times have technical problems with that videophone.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
