Weekly Report - 20 April 2004

As these lines are being written, there is a strong chance that the Venezuelan opposition will scuttle the possibility, faint as it is, of holding a referendum on President Hugo Chávez 's permanence in office. It has painted itself into a corner by reaching an agreement with the electoral authority on the `repair' of suspect referendum petitions which merited high praise from the international observers, and then arguing that the implementation of that agreement was unacceptable.