AGREEMENT in support of Venezuela

AGREEMENT:

We, the undersigned, citizens of Venezuela and countries of the world, in the exercise of our right to free speech and in defense of sovereignty as well as the right to self-determination of the people, resolve to issue the following agreement:

WHEREAS: On October 7th, the majority of the Venezuelan people re-elected Mr. Hugo Chávez as President, with an historical turn out of over 84% of all Venezuelans registered to vote.

WHEREAS: Venezuela’s electoral system has been recognized worldwide as one of the most secure, reliable, transparent and publicly auditable voting systems available, thus guaranteeing Participatory Democracy in Venezuela.

WHEREAS: The December 16 elections were held to designate governors of 23 states and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 20 out of them thanks to the vote of a majority of the Venezuelan people who attested their unconditional support, loyalty and political commitment to President Hugo Chávez as PSUV’s leader.

WHEREAS: President Hugo Chávez Frías’ Government has proved to be democratic, participatory and protagonist in nature in over 17 elections.

WHEREAS: During his 1998 presidential campaign, Hugo Chávez promised to the people of Venezuela that he would summon a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Magna Carta in line with the political model the Venezuelan Republic required for the times to come.

WHEREAS: Venezuela's opposition campaigned against the 1999 Constitution draft which was voted in Referendum that year, thus rejecting with a massive media operation the rights and guarantees granted to all Venezuelans alike for the first time in history and, still, Venezuelans overwhelmingly approved the new Charter.

WHEREAS: On April 11th 2002, the Venezuelan opposition staged a coup d’état against President Hugo Chávez, kidnapped him, signed a Decree repealing and ignoring the Constitution on the pretext of a “power void” and then appointed the head of the country’s private business organization, FEDECAMARAS, as Venezuela’s President.

WHEREAS: In December 2002, the Venezuelan opposition called an oil strike and sabotage actions against PDVSA, the country’s oil company, resulting in loss of lives, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, as well as job losses affecting thousands of professional workers educated at the country’s free of charge universities, who abandoned their duties to join the strike and thus jeopardized the core income source of Venezuela.

WHEREAS: On December 8th 2012, President Hugo Chávez informed he was to undergo a new operation of his cancer and, accordingly, requested permission to the National Assembly to be operated in Cuba; permission which was duly granted and ratified on January 8th 2013, according to article 235 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

WHEREAS: The interpretation of Article 231 of the Constitution by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela states that while January 10th 2013 marks the beginning of a new constitutional term, the re-inauguration of President Hugo Chávez is not required, given the fact that he is an incumbent President who won a re-election and, accordingly, there is no disruption in the performance of his duties.