_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________ Venezuela ________________

Bishops intervene in crisis
Time to talk
Venezuela’s bishops vowed to prevent a clash between government and unions after a national strike was called in December. The bishops’ conference announced that it would intervene in order to prevent a clash of powers that may jeopardize democracy.

The call for a general strike, initially promoted by union leaders, gained momentum when a prominent association of corporate executives joined in the call. The strike was announced to protest new economic laws passed by the mercurial President Hugo Chavez without consulting Congress or local leaders.

When the strike paralyzed the country, Chavez reacted angrily, threatening newspapers that had been critical of his government and saying that he would pass even stronger laws and increase taxes, as a way to punish the protesting workers. With Chavez’s popularity falling sharply, some observers began to make the frightening observation that a military coup could be the only way to restore stability to the country. Such suggestions prompted the bishops to act.

The secretary general of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference, Bishop José Luis Azuaje, announced after an emergency meeting in Caracas that the conference would sponsor a national dialogue between the government and the country’s most representative civil and political organizations in order to prevent further instability. “As part of our mission of promoting reconciliation in our society, we believe we must call now for a national dialogue to defuse the current situation,” announced Bishop Azuaje.

Bishop Azuaje called on Chavez to “stop the inflammatory rhetoric, because the people now want concrete solutions and not the spawning of more conflicts.” Since he was elected president, Chavez has pushed through a series of populist reforms that former Christian Democratic president Rafael Caldera has described as a “soft dictatorship.”

“The only way to prevent a greater deterioration in the relationship between the government and civil society is that we all have to be willing to sit together at a table and listen to each other,” Bishop Azuaje said. “We hope the president is ready to do that now.”

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