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Venezuela warns US against meddling in internal affairs
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday warned the United States not to interfere in his country's affairs.
"I have to remind the United States one more time that they have no right to express their opinion... we are an independent country not a colony of North America," Chavez told his supportersduring a rally.
The warning came after comments by a US official about a possible referendum on Chavez's rule.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday adecision on the referendum lies "with the courts, the National Electoral Council and the people of Venezuela, rather than with the executive branch of the government."
Boucher also urged the Venezuelan government and the oppositionto respect an accord signed in May on the possible referendum on Chavez's presidency.
The Venezuelan government and the opposition signed an agreement on May 29 to hold a referendum on Chavez's presidency to restore the country's stability, ruined by a failed coup in April last year and a nationwide strike from December to February to force the president to leave office.
Under Venezuelan constitution, the referendum should take placeafter August 19, halfway through Chavez's six-year term. Presidential elections will be held if Chavez loses the referendum.
Three Irish men plead not guilty in Colombian court
The three Irish citizens accused of training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) pleaded not guilty on Wednesday at the First Special Tribunal of
Bogota.
James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley, appeared incourt for the first time since they were captured in August, 2001,at El Dorado Airport of Bogota after visiting a safe haven of the
FARC.
In the summer of 2001, they traveled to Colombia mainly to witness the peace process between the Colombian government and theFARC, which ended in failure in February 2002, the accused said.
They said that the accusations against them are false and they are victims of a maneuver planned by the United States and Britain.
All the three denied being members of the Irish Republican Army(IRA) and said the Colombian Attorney General's office has failed to meet its responsibility of protecting the right of presumed innocence, allowing "forged" evidence to be deemed as true.
Prosecutor Carlos Sanchez demanded a 20-year prison term for the three Irish men on Monday, reaffirming that the proof presented against them was overwhelming.
The prosecutor said the Irish men belonged to the IRA and trained FARC guerrillas in the country.
The prosecutor listed some of the evidence against the presumedIRA members, like traces of explosives found in their clothes, andquoted the statements of guerrilla deserters and an army officer.
Peru formally requests Fujimori's extradition from Japan
The Peruvian government on Wednesday asked Japan to extradite former President Alberto Fujimori to face charges that he authorized massacres in Peru in the early 1990s.
"At this moment, the diplomatic note requesting the extradition of former President Alberto Fujimori, accompanied by the extradition file compiled by the supreme court, is being handed over in Japan," said Peruvian Foreign Minister Allan Wagner at a press conference.
The 700-page extradition request was submitted to the Japanese Foreign Ministry by Peruvian Ambassador to Japan Luis J. Macchiavello, government sources said.
Although the Peruvian government charged Fujimori with abandonment of office, embezzlement, homicide and violation of citizens' communications privacy, this time's extradition request applies only to the murder charge which says Fujimori was involvedin the massacre committed by a paramilitary death squad known as the "Colina Group."
The Japanese government has rejected the extradition of Fujimori, who has dual Peruvian-Japanese nationality, but in May the Japanese prosecutors questioned him in response to a request from the Peruvian government for cooperation in investigations.
Fujimori, 65, has denied the accusations and said the international arrest warrants were just propaganda of the
Peruvianadministration.
Also on Wednesday, the Peruvian office of Amnesty International(AI) and other non-government organizations (NGO) presented the Japanese Embassy here a document signed by 22,000 citizens demanding the extradition of former President Alberto
Fujimori.
The signatures came with a letter addressed to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
The document is part of an international campaign demanding theformer president appear before the Peruvian justice and respond tothe charges filed against him.
The dossier, translated into Japanese, would be handed over Thursday by Peruvian Ambassador to Japan, Luis Macchiavello, to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Fujimori, who fled to Japan amid a serious political crisis arising from his controversial re-election, has been staying in Japan in exile since November 2000.
After 10 years in office since 1990, Fujimori
announced on Nov.19 2000 in Tokyo, his resignation, which he sent to the Peruvian Congress by fax. He was sacked days later by the congress.
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