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CARACAS, Venezuela — Opponents on Sunday accused President Hugo Chavez of trying to silence his critics after associates of Lech Walesa said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate would not attend a pro-democracy forum in Venezuela.
Piotr Gulczynski, head of the Warsaw-based Lech Walesa Institute, said Walesa decided to skip this week’s conference organized by anti-Chavez university students. He said Poland’s foreign ministry informed him that Venezuela could not guarantee his security ahead of Nov. 23 gubernatorial and municipal elections.
Gulczynski told Poland’s TVN24 television channel it was “a sign that they do not want him there.”
Walesa has been critical of Chavez in the past, calling the former lieutenant colonel a “demagogue.”
