VENEZUELA: Venezuela's ambassador to the UN resigned yesterday in protest over the policies of the government of President Hugo Chavez, who is fighting a movement to oust him.
Mr Milos Alcalay said his key concerns throughout a 34-year career were to promote democracy, human rights and a non-confrontational foreign policy. "Sadly, Venezuela now is operating devoid of these fundamental principles, which I still remain intensely committed to."
The announcement took the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and his UN colleagues by surprise.
In Caracas, a leading political ally of Mr Chavez in the National Assembly condemned Mr Alcalay's resignation as hypocritical.
"Milos Alcalay looks very bad because everyone remembers him as an apologist, a defender, in extreme terms, of the foreign policy of President Hugo Chavez's government," Mr Tarek William Saab said.
- (Reuters)
