Bachelet not to speak on behalf of Chávez

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet denied Tuesday that during her visit to Washington she would act as a mediator in favor of her Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez, among others, and noted that she is not an advisor, DPA reported.

"I do not give advice to anybody. I think that presidents relate each other in terms of sharing their way of thinking, views, suggestions and proposals," Bachelet told foreign correspondents, in reference to the outspoken hostility between the Government of US President George W. Bush and Chávez.

During her visit to Spain, on the eve of the European Union-Latin American Summit held in Vienna, Bachelet asked not to demonize governments such as Venezuela and Bolivia.

"There are countries with different leaderships, different perspectives. Every country is sovereign and can elect what it deems it proper. Chile is to have relations with any and all democratically elected governments, regardless of the president," she added in reference to upcoming polls next June 4th in Peru.

According to Bachelet, the true threats to the hemisphere and democracy are "exclusion, poverty, lack of integration of a portion of societies, of ethnic groups."