International Coalition Expresses Concern for Democracy in Venezuela Havel, Albright, McCain among signatories of letter to Chavez

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) are members of an international coalition of more than 70 democrats who sent a letter today to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressing concern over the prosecution of civic activists in that country, calling it a “grave threat to democracy.” Other prominent signatories include former Nicaraguan President Violetta Chamorro, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria Philip Dimitrov and Richard Goldstone, former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia.

The letter, which is also addressed to the President of Venezuela’s Supreme Court and to the President of the National Assembly, specifically raises the case of Sumate, an NGO that received $31,150 in funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for civic education efforts related to Venezuela’s August 15 recall referendum.

“It has come to our attention that the leaders of Sumate, a civic organization, face criminal prosecution for accepting international assistance to help educate citizens about their rights under Venezuela’s constitution,” reads the letter. “As democrats, we are appalled that this group is being singled out for punishment, a group whose deep commitment to democratic principles we share and applaud.”

The letter also criticizes pending legislation that could criminalize receipt of international democracy assistance, in violation of Venezuelan commitments under the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the Warsaw Declaration of the Community of Democracies.

“We are equally troubled that this prosecution appears to be just the beginning of a larger effort to criminalize the receipt of foreign funds by Venezuelan NGOs. We agree with the denunciations of this proposed “reform” of the penal code by human rights groups in Venezuela and elsewhere as a clear violation of international standards and practices.”

NED President Carl Gershman, who returned Wednesday from a trip to Venezuela where he sought to improve government and public understanding of the Endowment and the objectives of NED’s grants to civil society groups said, “International democracy assistance in support of independent institutions of civil society is today an established feature of international relations.” During his trip, Gershman and NED representatives met with the President of Venezuela’s Supreme Court and the Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez, to whom they personally delivered the coalition’s letter. “We hope that by alerting the Venezuelan authorities to the seriousness of international concern on the issues of Sumate and international democracy assistance, they will refrain from taking actions that would be counterproductive for everyone involved,” said Gershman.

NED is a private, nonprofit, grant-making organization created in 1983 to strengthen democratic institutions around the world. It is active in more than 80 countries, supporting grassroots democratic initiatives.


Honorable Hugo Chavez, President
Honorable Ivan Rincon, President of the Supreme Court
Francisco Ameliach, President, National Assembly

Dear Sirs:

We write to you as democrats from around the world to express our solidarity with and deep concern for some fellow democrats in your country who face prosecution for exercising their civic rights.

It has come to our attention that the leaders of Sumate, a civic organization, face criminal prosecution for accepting international assistance to help educate citizens about their rights under Venezuela’s constitution. As democrats, we are appalled that this group is being singled out for punishment, a group whose deep commitment to democratic principles we share and applaud.

We are equally troubled that this prosecution appears to be just the beginning of a larger effort to criminalize the receipt of foreign funds by Venezuelan NGOs. We agree with the denunciations of this proposed “reform” of the penal code by human rights groups in Venezuela and elsewhere as a clear violation of international standards and practices.

As you undoubtedly know, proceeding against nongovernmental organizations for receiving democratic assistance is a violation of both the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the Warsaw Declaration of the Community of Democracies, a document your government signed along with over 100 others four years ago.

The charges against Sumate include its having received support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a highly reputable and established nongovernmental foundation that promotes democracy in over 80 countries around the world. In fact, NED is but one of dozens of democracy foundations in North America, Europe, and Asia that receive public funding from their respective parliaments for the purpose of providing assistance to support democracy-related programs no different from the one conducted by Sumate.

We urge you to reconsider the prosecution of the leadership of Sumate, as well as the proposal to criminalize democracy assistance from abroad. Both are clearly inconsistent with international democratic norms and constitute a grave threat to democracy.

Morton Abramowitz, Senior Fellow, Century Foundation
Mahnaz Afkhami, Founder and President, Women’s Learning Partnership
Sergio Aguayo, Professor, El Colegio de Mexico
Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State
Sergio Fernando Araya Alverado, President, Colegio Ciencias Politicas y Relaciones Internacionales de Costa Rica
Zainah Anwar, Executive Director, Sisters in Islam, Malaysia
Bernard Aronson, former Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America and the Caribbean (US)
Genaro Arriagada, former Chilean Ambassador to the U.S.
Timothy Garton Ash, Senior Research Fellow, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford and Director European Studies Center
Ronald Asmus, German Marshall Fund
Dr. Werner Bohler, Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung, Germany
Robert M. Borden, CEO, Bumpers Corporation (Canada)
Jack Buechner, President, US Association of Former Members of Congress
Emma Bonino, former European Union Commissioner and former member, European Parliament (Italy)
William E. Brock, former US Senator and former Secretary of Labor
Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, former PM of Canada
Frank Carlucci , former National Security Advisor (US)
Violeta Chamorro, former President of Nicaragua
Lorne Craner, President, International Republican Institute and former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Michael Danby, Member of Parliament, Australia
Gianfranco Dell’Alba, Member of European Parliament, Italy
Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution and co-editor, Journal of Democracy
Philip Dimitrov, former Prime Minister, Bulgaria
Jorge Dominguez, Professor, Harvard University
Thomas R. Donahue, President Emeritus, AFL-CIO
Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute
Peter Eigen, Chairman, Transparency International
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, The University of Chicago
Joao Carlos Espada, Director, Institute for Political Studies, Portuguese Catholic University
Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Richard Goldstone, former Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia
Peter Hakim, President, Inter-American Dialogue
Vaclav Havel, former President, Czech Republic
Francois Heisbourg, French Academic
Bi-khim Hsiao, Member of Parliament, Taiwan
Penn Kemble, Senior Fellow, Freedom House
Harvey Klehr, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History, Emory University
Stephan Klingelhofer, President, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
Robert LaGamma, Council for a Community of Democracies
Bolívar Lamounier, Augurium Consulting, Brazil
Amb. Luis Lauredo, former U.S. Ambassador, Organization of American States
Ulrich Laute, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Germany
John McCain, US Senator
Edward J. McElroy, President, American Federation of Teachers
Matthew McHugh, former Member of US Congress
Edward McMillan-Scott, Member of European Parliament (UK)
Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Heinrich Böll Stiftung
Ghia Nodia, Chairman, Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, Republic of Georgia
Janusz Onyszkiewicz, former Minister of Defense, Poland
Marco Pannella, Member of European Parliament (Italy)
Amb. Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman, Freedom House
Robert A. Pastor, Director, Center for Democracy and Election Management, American University
Theodore Piccone, Democracy Coalition Project (US)
Surin Pitsuwan, Member of Parliament, Thailand
James N. Purcell, former Director General, International Organization for Migration
Xiao Qiang, U.of California at Berkley, Past Executive Director, Human Rights in China
John Richardson, Chair, Council for a Community of Democracies
Markus Rosenberger, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Perú
Richard C. Rowson, Council for a Community of Democracies
John Shattuck, CEO, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Michael Shifter, Vice President for Policy, Inter-American Dialogue
Stephen Solarz, Former Member of US Congress
Theodore C. Sorensen, Former Special Assistant to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Strobe Talbott, former Deputy US Secretary of State
Amb. Terence Todman, former US Ambassador to Argentina, Costa Rica and Spain
Elisabeth Ungar, Universidad de los Andes (Columbia)
Arturo Valenzuela, Director, Center for Latin American Affairs, Georgetown University
Gianni Vernetti, Member of Parliament, Italy
Alexandr Vondra, former Deputy Foreign Minister, Czech Republic
Gerhard Wahlers, Head of International Cooperation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Reinhard Willig, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung-Costa Rica
Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director, Freedom House
Kenneth Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor, U.S. News and World Report and New York Daily News

Titles for Identification Purposes Only


Excelentísimo Señor
Hugo Chávez,
Presidente de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela

Excelentísimo Señor
Iván Rincón,
Presidente del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia

Excelentísimo Señor
Francisco Ameliach
Presidente de la Asamblea Nacional

Estimados Señores:

Nos dirigimos a ustedes, como demócratas que representamos a diferentes pueblos del mundo, con el objeto de expresar nuestra solidaridad y preocupación por la situación a la cual están sometidos algunos de nuestros colegas demócratas venezolanos quienes, en estos momentos, son perseguidos por ejercer sus derechos civiles.

Tenemos conocimiento sobre la situación que afecta a los representantes de Súmate, una organización civil que promueve y defiende los derechos políticos de los ciudadanos venezolanos, quienes están sometidos a un proceso judicial por recibir financiamiento internacional para diseñar y ejecutar un programa de educación ciudadana dirigido a dar a conocer los mecanismos de participación política y ciudadana, derechos establecidos en la Constitución. Como demócratas, nos sentimos en la obligación de denunciar este caso ya que el gobierno venezolano está persiguiendo a un grupo con el cual compartimos el mismo y profundo compromiso con la democracia.

Estamos igualmente preocupados porque este caso parece ser el primer paso de un esfuerzo oficial por criminalizar la solicitud y uso de fondos internacionales por parte de Organizaciones No Gubernamentales venezolanas. Asimismo, compartimos las denuncias formuladas por grupos de derechos humanos en Venezuela y en otros países contra la reforma propuesta del Código Penal la cual pretende sancionar, con la máxima pena aplicable en Venezuela, el financiamiento internacional a ONGs.

Enjuciar y castigar Organizaciones No Gubernamentales por recibir financiamiento dirigido a fortalecer la democracia es una violación de la Carta Democrática Interamericana y de la Declaración de la Comunidad de Democracias de Varsovia. Debemos recordar que el gobierno venezolano firmó, hace cuatro años, la Declaración de Varsovia junto a más de cien países.

Por otra parte, la base de las acusaciones contra la Asociación Civil Súmate es el financiamiento otorgado por el National Endowment for Democracy (NED), la cual es una fundación privada muy respetada a nivel internacional por los programas que desarrolla en más de ochenta países para promover y defender la democracia. El NED es un ejemplo de las docenas de fundaciones que, en América del Norte, Europa y Asia, se dedican a promover la democracia. Estas fundaciones reciben financiamiento público de los parlamentos de sus países con el fin de apoyar programas dirigidos a fortalecer la democracia, como lo es el programa que está llevando a cabo Súmate.

Como demócratas del mundo, rogamos a ustedes su intervención para reconsiderar tanto el proceso judicial contra los líderes de Súmate como el proyecto legislativo de reforma del Código Penal que busca criminalizar la recepción de asistencia democrática internacional. Estas actuaciones de los poderes judicial y legislativo venezolanos son inconsistentes con las normas democráticas internacionales y representan una grave amenaza contra la democracia.

Atentamente,

Los abajofirmantes

Morton Abramowitz, Senior Fellow, Century Foundation
Mahnaz Afkhami, Founder and President, Women’s Learning Partnership
Sergio Aguayo, Professor, El Colegio de Mexico
Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State
Sergio Fernando Araya Alverado, President, Colegio Ciencias Politicas y Relaciones Internacionales de Costa Rica
Zainah Anwar, Executive Director, Sisters in Islam, Malaysia
Bernard Aronson, former Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America and the Caribbean (US)
Genaro Arriagada, former Chilean Ambassador to the U.S.
Timothy Garton Ash, Senior Research Fellow, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford and Director European Studies Center
Ronald Asmus, German Marshall Fund
Dr. Werner Bohler, Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung, Germany
Robert M. Borden, CEO, Bumpers Corporation (Canada)
Jack Buechner, President, US Association of Former Members of Congress
Emma Bonino, former European Union Commissioner and former member, European Parliament (Italy)
William E. Brock, former US Senator and former Secretary of Labor
Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, former PM of Canada
Frank Carlucci , former National Security Advisor (US)
Violeta Chamorro, former President of Nicaragua
Lorne Craner, President, International Republican Institute and former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Michael Danby, Member of Parliament, Australia
Gianfranco Dell’Alba, Member of European Parliament, Italy
Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution and co-editor, Journal of Democracy
Philip Dimitrov, former Prime Minister, Bulgaria
Jorge Dominguez, Professor, Harvard University
Thomas R. Donahue, President Emeritus, AFL-CIO
Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute
Peter Eigen, Chairman, Transparency International
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, The University of Chicago
Joao Carlos Espada, Director, Institute for Political Studies, Portuguese Catholic University
Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Richard Goldstone, former Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia
Peter Hakim, President, Inter-American Dialogue
Vaclav Havel, former President, Czech Republic
Francois Heisbourg, French Academic
Bi-khim Hsiao, Member of Parliament, Taiwan
Penn Kemble, Senior Fellow, Freedom House
Harvey Klehr, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History, Emory University
Stephan Klingelhofer, President, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
Robert LaGamma, Council for a Community of Democracies
Bolívar Lamounier, Augurium Consulting, Brazil
Amb. Luis Lauredo, former U.S. Ambassador, Organization of American States
Ulrich Laute, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Germany
John McCain, US Senator
Edward J. McElroy, President, American Federation of Teachers
Matthew McHugh, former Member of US Congress
Edward McMillan-Scott, Member of European Parliament (UK)
Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Heinrich Böll Stiftung
Ghia Nodia, Chairman, Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, Republic of Georgia
Janusz Onyszkiewicz, former Minister of Defense, Poland
Marco Pannella, Member of European Parliament (Italy)
Amb. Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman, Freedom House
Robert A. Pastor, Director, Center for Democracy and Election Management, American University
Theodore Piccone, Democracy Coalition Project (US)
Surin Pitsuwan, Member of Parliament, Thailand
James N. Purcell, former Director General, International Organization for Migration
Xiao Qiang, U.of California at Berkley, Past Executive Director, Human Rights in China
John Richardson, Chair, Council for a Community of Democracies
Markus Rosenberger, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Perú
Richard C. Rowson, Council for a Community of Democracies
John Shattuck, CEO, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Michael Shifter, Vice President for Policy, Inter-American Dialogue
Stephen Solarz, Former Member of US Congress
Theodore C. Sorensen, Former Special Assistant to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Strobe Talbott, former Deputy US Secretary of State
Amb. Terence Todman, former US Ambassador to Argentina, Costa Rica and Spain
Elisabeth Ungar, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)
Arturo Valenzuela, Director, Center for Latin American Affairs, Georgetown University
Gianni Vernetti, Member of Parliament, Italy
Alexandr Vondra, former Deputy Foreign Minister, Czech Republic
Gerhard Wahlers, Head of International Cooperation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Reinhard Willig, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung-Costa Rica
Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director, Freedom House
Kenneth Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor, U.S. News and World Report and New York Daily News

Nota: Los titulos sirven inicamente para identifacar a las persons

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