Rice, Venezuelan Diplomat in Fiery Exchange

Verbal jousting between Condoleeza Rice and the Venezuelan foreign Minister ended in the Secretary of State walking out of the Organization of American States (OAS) meeting two days in Panama City, Panama.

Rice began the meeting by saying the decision by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez not to renew RCTV’s broadcasting rights was his “sharpest and most acute” action yet taken against democracy. She went on to call for a formal OAS investigation into matter as free speech violation. RCTV had previously been critical of the Chávez government and its editorial page had supported the 2003 coup that briefly toppled Chávez.

The Venezuelan diplomat, Nicolás Maduro, fired right back. He accused Rice of hypocrisy and said that Rice’s words constituted an unacceptable meddling n Venezuela’s internal affairs. He also condemned the US government’s human rights abuses it Guantánamo Bay and the US attempt to build a wall along its southern frontier with Mexico.

Rice replied by defending the US’s freedom of expression, and then walked out of the meeting. Even though Rice was no longer there to hear the rebuke, Maduro took the floor again to compare the US’s human rights violations to Adolph Hitler’s.