MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Democracy is not only elections”

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice argued Tuesday in Brazil that the “political, economic and social problems of the Latinamerican region countries are making democracies fragile”.

Responding to journalists about South American instability with recurrent crisis in Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, Ms. Rice insisted that elections are not enough to characterize a democracy.

"Democracy is not only elections; it's promoting governance, access to education, opportunities for all", said Ms. Rice following a meeting with her counterpart Celso Amorim in the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Brasilia.

"A democratic process is not built with easy solutions that seem good, but rather based in economic reality. We all want a free and democratic Venezuela, in the spirit of the Organization of American States charter", added the US Secretary of State who praised Brazil for emerging in this context as "a regional power".

Ms. Rice said that the OAS democratic charter is very clear and highlights that "democratic government duties means behaving democratically".

However Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Amorim tried to play down the strong words from her colleague arguing that Venezuela as any other democracy, "faces problems; we're friends of Venezuela, the Venezuelan people and we are interested in a harmonic evolution of events, respecting sovereignty".

Mr. Amorim also was emphatic saying that "we don't want to make Venezuela the only issue of the meeting".

Apparently Venezuela didn't figure predominantly in the bilateral agenda, rather the Ecuadorean crisis which led to the ousting of president Gutierrez exiled in Brazil and the current situation still volatile.

"We are both committed to follow the development of events and work so that Ecuador rapidly returns to the path of democracy", said Mr. Amorim.

According to the Brazilian press other issues in the agenda included propping the Free Trade Association of the Americans negotiations; World Trade Organization matters; South American integration; the United Nations Security Council reform; the coming South American-Arab countries leaders summit; Haiti; the UN Democratic Fund and regional crisis.