U.S. bishop sends solidarity wishes for Venezuelan election

Published: 2004-08-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As Venezuelans prepared to vote in a presidential recall election, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote to his counterpart to express solidarity. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., told Archbishop Baltazar Porras Cardozo of Merida, president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference, that the pastoral exhortation he and his fellow bishops issued calling on Venezuelans to participate peacefully in the election was to be praised. Venezuelans were to vote Aug. 15 in a referendum over whether to end President Hugo Chavez's term in office. The recall vote was sought by a coalition of groups that say Chavez has weakened the country's democratic institutions, that he has hurt Venezuela's ties with the United States and has supported Cuban President Fidel Castro. Chavez was elected in 1998, six years after the former military officer led a failed coup attempt.

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