WASHINGTON (AFP) — A Venezuelan opposition leader met Friday with a top US diplomat to urge the United States to press leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to slow his constitutional overhaul plan.
The Venezuelan politician, Manuel Rosales, met with Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon who reminded reporters Venezuela's constitutional affairs were a strictly Venezuelan debate.
Rosales told AFP nonetheless that "we are suggesting to the US government the possibility of pressuring in international organizations so that the reforms can be made public, debated, and so the (Chavez) government lengthens the time frame" in which it is to be considered.
"The government is setting out to change, in three short months, the basic principles of the Venezuelan constitution," Rosales said.
Rosales, who lost in last year's election to the staunch critic of US policies, said he also would be taking his concerns to the Washington-based Organization of American States, where he was to meet with its leader, Jose Miguel Insulza.
Rosales said he did not ask the United States to invoke an OAS charter clause against Chavez which is meant to be used when democratic rule has been interrupted.
Chavez's socialist-populist style reforms have to be approved by a legislature controlled by his allies and then in a referendum in December.
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