Venezuela: Chavez discussed mediation with Gadhafi

[steve2470]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-02-Chavez-Libya_N.htm

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's information minister says President Hugo Chavez has spoken with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi about creating a bloc of friendly countries to help resolve the crisis in the North African country.

Andres Izarra says through Twitter that Chavez spoke with Gadhafi on Tuesday. He said Venezuela has reached out to its allies in Latin America and beyond to discuss the creation of a bloc of friendly countries — dubbed the Committee of Peace — to mediate the crisis.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said earlier Wednesday that a bloc of friendly countries could help resolve the conflict in Libya, saying diplomacy — rather than military threats — should be used to end the violence sweeping the North African nation.

[Wilms]

1. Chavez? Isn't he that *leftist* president? n/t

[snagglepuss]

5. You are forgiven if you surmised that a Leftist would be the first to condemn the likes

of Gadaffi. However that is not the case. Chavez refuses to condemn Guadaffi or support plans to oust him. Chavez wants to see concilliation. However in light of Chavez' support for Mugabe and Ak-mad-din-a-jad (Iran), his support for Guadaffi seems to be par for the course.

That he supports these despicable sh*ts suggests to me that he mentally unsound. I say this as someone who once respected him.

[Wilms]

12. Let him play good cop for a while. n/t

[steve2470]

2. FWIW, tweets by Andres Izarra

http://twitter.com/#!/IzarraDeVerdad



IzarraDeVerdad Andres Izarra
Todos los contactos que Vzla está haciendo con el mundo árabe y el mundo entero es por la paz en #Libia. Mañana nuevos desarrollos
2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply



IzarraDeVerdad Andres Izarra
Confirmamos conversación del Comandante Chávez con Kadafi en el día de ayer sobre propuesta de Comisión de Paz para #Libia.
9 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

[digitaln3rd]

3. Two words that don't go together:

"Peace" and "Chavez".

This is probably more about Chavez coddling up to a dictator - they tend to stick together. :/

[MrSlayer]

4. Mediate it between whom?

This is between the dictator and the People of Libya. Just who is the "Committee of Peace" going to be speaking to? And whose case are they going to present? This is fucking strange.

[steve2470]

6. Gadaffi accepts Chavez talks offer

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/20113365739369754.html

Last Modified: 03 Mar 2011 07:36 GMT

Muammar Gadaffi has accepted an offer from Venezuela to mediate in Libya’s political crisis after talks with Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, Al Jazeera has learnt.

Sources told our correspondent in Caracas that Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan’s foreign minister, discussed the offer with Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, and that details of the plan could be announced at an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Thursday.

The plan would involve a commission from Latin America, Europe and the Middle East trying to reach a negotiated outcome between the Libyan leader and opposition forces which have seized control of large areas of the North African oil-producing country.

Moussa has confirmed that the Venezuelan peace plan was "under consideration".

[pinboy3niner]

8. The opposition wants Gaddafi out, not dialogue

Even though the Arab League apparently has "welcomed" the offer, according to AJE:


(All times are local in Libya GMT+2) < (USA EST +7, PST +10) >

10:09am Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from the eastern city of Benghazi on how the offer of mediation from Venezuela will be received by the opposition in Libya, says:

"The only mediation they will consider is to find an exit strategy for Gaddafi and his family and all his close aides. They said there is no time anymore for dialogue. Mediation, unless it's with an exit strategy, will be quite difficult.


8:53am Al Jazeera has learned that Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has offered to mediate a solution to the crisis in Libya, and in the last few hours, Colonel Gaddafi accepted the offer.

Gaddafi spoke to Chavez and agreed in principle to a mediation plan. We've also learned that the Arab League has welcomed the offer.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/live-blog-libya-march-3

[CJvR]

10. Naturally.

He has nothing to loose and everything to gain, why wouldn't he accept?

[Lyric]

7. I thought Chavez was firmly against any foreign intervention?

:shrug:

[CJvR]

9. Only interventions...

...that risk producing an outcome he diapprove of.

This whole matter is very odd, still Chavez did try negotiations with NARC guerillar in Colombia. Perhaps he belives in his own press releases that Gaddafi haven't burned all the bridges,, but I cant see how any sane person could have missed that - Gaddafi have hardly been stealthy in his efforts to terrorize the Libyans.

Perhaps it is simply a bad case of "the enemy of my enemy" and that any anti-western regime is worthy of support, apparently even those busy murdering their protesting popuation.

[Dorian Gray]

11. If he thinks that diplomacy

should be resolving the conflict, anything protecting Gadhaffi is undermining that. Chavez falls short in his support for Middle Eastern dictators.