MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Personalities will monitor Venezuela's referendum.

Former presidents and rulers, artists, Nobel Prize winners, bishops and even actors have been invited as observers for the recall referendum of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to be held next August 15.

The Venezuelan Electoral Council released this week the list of invited personalities which include Nobel Prize Nelson Mandel, Mijail Gorbachov, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, former Latinamerican presidents Rosalía Arteaga, Ecuador; Rodrigo Carazo, Costa Rica; Antonio Gutierrez, Portugal; Belisario Betancourt, Colombia and Eduardo Duhalde from Argentina.

Other outstanding personalities are Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Danny Glover, Eduardo Galeano, Horacio Zerpa, Cauhtemoc Cardenas, Hebe de Bonafini, Bishops Belorco Giacinto, Giuseppe Bertello and Pedro Casaldaliga.

Other guests are representatives from the Electoral Boards of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Uruguay and the United States Federal Election Commission.

Mercosur, the Non Aligned Movement, Organization of American States, Spanish universities and the Madrid Centre for Political and Social Studies will also send delegations.

The August recall referendum mandate convened by the opposition has the purpose of ending President Chavez mandate. However another storm is brewing since presidential elections must be held the following month, September, and Mr. Chavez even if defeated, has anticipated he will be running again.