1.
LV EXTERIOR: Simon Bolivar University building.
0.06

2.
CU INTERIOR: Outgoing Venezuelan President Carlos Andrew Perez enters and walks onto platform.
0.15

3.
CU: row of seats reserved for ex-presidents (2 shots)
0.17

4.
CU: former presidents taking seats
0.26

5.
CU PULL BACK: President Perez on platform.
0.32

6.
TV: Ex-presidents (in front row) sit down after singing hymn.
0.50

7.
SV: President Perez speaking.
1.00

8.
LV: Former presidents sitting in front row of audience ZOOM IN TO CU former Argentine President Arturo Illia (white hair) seated next to former Colombian President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen (with glasses) who is sitting next to former Chilean President Eduardo Frei (2 shots)
1.26

9.
CU: former Peruvian President Fernando Belaunde Terry (patterned tie)
1.36

10.
CU: Former President Michelsen.
1.47

11.
CU: Former President Frei.
1.54

12.
CU: Former President of Dominican republic, Juan Bosch.
1.57

13.
CU: Former Mexican President, Luis Echeverria.
2.05

14.
CU: Former Ecuador President Calo Plaza.
2.11

15.
SV(LEFT TO RIGHT) former President's Echeverria and Plaza and Dr. Rafael Caldera (striped tie) former President of Venezuela.
2.26

16.
SV: President Perez concluding speech.
2.38

17.
GV: Former presidents join in applause at end of speech.
2.45



Initials RH/



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Outgoing Venezuelan President, Carlos Andres Perez, addressed the opening session of a symposium for former Latin-American presidents in the capital of Caracas on Tuesday (6 March).

SYNOPSIS: The symposium opened in the Simon Bolivar University, built to commemorate the man who freed six Latin-American republics from Spanish rule in the nineteenth century. It was one of the last official engagements for president Carlos Andres Perez who hands over to President-elect Luis Herrera Campins on Monday (12 March). The Venezuelan constitution prevented President Perez from taking part in December's elections, when Senor Campins defeated Luis Pinera Ordaz, the candidate of President Perez's Democratic Action Party.

The symposium was organised by the University's Institute of Higher Studies, and was aimed at discussing all aspects of democracy in Latin American presidents were invited to attend as well as an audience of two hundred and fifty. The ex-presidents who attended were present because, like Senor Perez, they claimed to have gained office in "free and democratic" elections.

The University Institute called the symposium because of growing concern about the alleged lessening of democracy in Latin America. Many of the delegates had personal experience. The white-haired Senor Arturo Umberto Illia was deposed as President of Argentina by a military coup in 1966.

Another whose presidency ended abruptly was former Peruvian leader Fernando Belaunde Terry. His five years in office ended with a military coup in October, 1968. Dr. Alfonso Lopez Michelsen's four-year term in Colombia was also plagued by civil unrest and he did not stand in the 1978 presidential election.

Chilean Eduardo Montalva Frei was one of those present who did serve a full term of office. He was succeeded by the ill-fated Dr. Salvador Allende in September 1970.

The widely experienced politician, Galo Plaza, who held office in Chile from 1948 to 1952, was one of sixteen former presides attending the symposium. One of the subjects discussed was the failure of democratically elected governments to produce successful policies which resulted in a series military coups.

One country not represented at President Perez's speech was Bolivia where the election campaign is now well under way. Incoming Venezuelan president Herrera Campins was also expected to address the three-day symposium.