Obama
campaign spokesman Alejandro Miyar responded that Washington's relationship
with Venezuela will not improve unless Chavez ``respects democracy and the rule
of law.''
The statement contains two of the three basic elements
missing from Chavez' autocracy, I just wish Mr. Miyar had explicitly added
human rights to the request, but two out of three ain't bad. Democracy includes respect for human rights, but it would have been a nice and very complete message anyway.