AMERICA/VENEZUELA - “What future are we building ?”: pressing question raised by Catholic Bishops of Venezuela a country shaken by recent acts of anarchy and violence.

Caracas (Fides Service) - A climate of growing violence and progressive bipolarisation of the different sectors of the population in Venezuela peaked last week with violent clashes between demonstrators and the National Guard in Caracas and seven other cities. The sad toll, according to Associated Press, was eight dead and ninety injured. The situation in Venezuela precipitated after the National Electoral Council announced that the Opposition had failed to collect enough signatures for a referendum to revoke President Hugo Chávez’s mandate.
Faced with this concerning panorama, the Venezuelan Catholic Bishops’ Conference appealed to the government, the National Electoral Council, public authorities, political leaders and the people to reflect on the facts of violence and to ask what future is being built in this way.
In its statement the Bishops’ Conference recalls the “duty of the authorities to recognise and facilitate the rule of law and to guarantee the presence of public security forces... therefore the first function of the public authorities is to respect and protect persons and in the case of illegality, exercise power of dissuasion which is quite different from repression. When the latter appears or is out of all proportion, as we have seen recently, the function of public forces is deformed ”.
The Bishops voice their disapproval for the use of violence to solve conflict. “Anarchy, promoted or unleashed, and exaggerated repression, are totally objectionable; they serve no just cause and produce only suffering and death”. The Bishops exhort and hope that reason will lead everyone to renounce violence and to search for paths to harmony and peace. Lastly the Bishops’ Conference stresses the need to facilitate a peaceful, constitutional and electoral solution to the crisis which is afflicting the people of Venezuela, underlining in this regard “that the solution passes by way of respect for human dignity and sovereignty which lies in the people, of whom both the government and public institutions must be servants”.
The statement closes with a call to all the people to pray for peace and to organise special initiatives to promote peace and harmony among all Venezuelans. (R.Z) (Agenzia Fides 5/3/2004; righe 29 - parole 387)