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View Full Version : Fernandez on temporary mediation lull



NewsWhore
03-10-2010, 03:40 PM
The government of the Dominican Republic regretted on Tuesday, 9 March Venezuela's "concern and discomfort" with the mediation process initiated by President Leonel Fernandez to defuse the tension between Venezuela and Colombia, as reported in El Tiempo newspaper of Venezuela. In a subsequent press release, President Fernandez would express his "unconditional willingness" to work for regional unity.
The Ministry of Foreign Relations issued a note indicating that the government deeply regrets any concern or discomfort that the agenda promoted by President Fernandez may have inadvertently caused in the government of Venezuela. "We reiterate, that if you were to consider this necessary and convenient, we are at your disposition, unconditionally, to serve the cause of the unity of the peoples of Latina America and the Caribbean that, in essence, was always the dream of the Liberator, Simon Bolivar", explains the note from the Dominican government.
On Monday, the Dominican government received a protest note that expressed "concern" and discomfort" with the mediation process initiated by President Fernandez.
Regional heads of government during the Rio Summit held in February in Mexico had delegated in Fernandez mediating between Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
The government of Fernandez has benefitted from billions in financing under the PetroCaribe fuel agreement, and was until recently the lead regional spokesman for the return to power of deposed Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. Following the election of Pedro Lobos in Honduras, Fernandez participated in the negotiations of a deal whereby Zelaya would come to live in exile in the DR. Fernandez would travel to Honduras for the inaugural of Lobos.
After that decision, the Venezuelan government petroleum firm would call off the purchase of 49% of shares of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery, and relations between Fernandez and Chavez seemed to chill off.
El Nuevo Diario reports that Fernandez told news commentator Huchi Lora of CDN radio show that Chavez knew all about the efforts he was making on behalf of Mexico and Brazil, in accordance with the mission he was given during the Rio Group Summit in February in Mexico. Lora said on his CDN radio show that Fernandez, who had visited him at the hospital where he was interned for health problems, told him that he felt badly when he heard that Chavez said he knew nothing about the talks that were taking place. Lora said "he (Fernandez) carried out this mission because they asked him to, and he did not ask for it, and he feels bad because they have said that there were not consulted when both of them (Uribe and Chavez) had told him yes".

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