Venezuelan President lashes at press

Описание: (17 Jan 2003)
1. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and others at the Venezuelan Mission at the United Nations
2. Medium of President Chavez
3. Cutaway of the press
4. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela:
"And the most important thing is not what people think of Hugo Chavez, what value is the opinion some have of one person? Much more (important) than Hugo Chavez is an entire nation, about a political and economic process."
5. Cutaway to media
6. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela:
"I did not go to speak with Saddam Hussein because he is an enemy of the United States, I went to see him because he is the president of one of the largest oil producing nations. I spent some 12 hours in Baghdad, we spoke, he invited me to look around, he drove himself. That photo went around the world right away, that photo here in the United States has been published I don't know how many times. But my photo with the Pope, on three visits, has not been published. And I even touched the sacred ground, I am Catholic you know."
7. Cutaway of presser
8. President Chavez saying good bye and leaving

STORYLINE:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visiting the US on Thursday said he would respect the outcome of an August referendum and leave office if he loses, but stressed that any attempt to hold an earlier vote would be unconstitutional.

While in New York the President also lashed out at the American media for their participation in what he described as an attack on his personality.

As an example, he said a photograph that showed him meeting the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had been splashed across the press while his talks with other world leaders attracted little attention.

Chavez's trip to New York came a day after representatives from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain and Portugal agreed to create a forum known as "Group of Friends of Venezuela" to seek solutions to an oil strike which is crippling Venezuela's economy.

Chavez called it a "very positive" step and said he wanted the group to be extended to include countries that have expressed an interest in helping to resolve the standoff. Among those he mentioned were Russia, China, France, Algeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Venezuela's constitution allows citizens to petition for a binding referendum halfway through a six-year presidential term, in Chavez's case, in mid-August.

Opposition leaders in November presented Venezuelan electoral authorities with a petition with 2 million signatures demanding a February 2 referendum.

The referendum would be nonbinding, but strike leaders believe Chavez, elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, would be so embarrassed by its outcome he would voluntarily step down.

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