San Salvador, 17 April (ACAN-EFE) -- Salvadorian President, Francisco Flores, today defended his declaration of support for the interim Venezuelan Government headed by industrialist Pedro Carmona, indicating that the information that he had at the time was that Hugo Chavez had resigned the Presidency. Flores said, in a press conference, that "there is no reason to apologize" to President Chavez, as demanded by Salvadoran opposition parties. "Our position is very clear, our position was that the new authorities had to receive a vote of confidence to lead the Venezuelan process back to the democratic path," he stated. He added "we understood that if there were a civilian who had committed himself to call for elections he should receive a vote of confidence." Flores maintained that "this is a position that is not unique to El Salvador; it is the position of all the European countries, it is the position of the United States; this is in our view totally reasonable when so little information is available." The Salvadorian president considered that the vote of confidence in the provisional government of Carmona will not have any repercussions in relations between El Salvador and Venezuela, which he described as "totally normal, we are not worried in that sense". He explained that "El Salvador took a different position" from that of other Latin American countries because at the present time it presides over the Permanent Council of the OAS. He added that the Latin American countries decided to invoke the OAS Democratic Charter, which implies the investigation all the steps that brought a country to a particular point, and not just simply to determine "if there were a coup d'etat or not." He reminded (the press) that currently there is an OAS mission in Venezuela with those very objectives. The commission is headed by Cesar Gaviria, Secretary General of the OAS. He indicated that the Democratic Charter is a new instrument "and implies that the OAS countries members convene a tribunal" to investigate the case of a country and "decide whether or not to remove it from the international community of which it is part;" something that "is a tremendously serious process". Asked what repercussions an announced visit to Venezuela-by leaders of the opposition party Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN, left wing)-would have for his government, Flores said that "my concern is that they may be seeking to cause damage to the country." The FMLN condemned last Friday the actions against the government of Chavez and celebrated his return to the power on Sunday. They criticized Flores for not condemning the rupture of constitutional order in Venezuela. "There is no international problem, but rather a manipulation of the subject domestically; and once again I want to ask the FMLN that it does not cause damage to this country. And that in trying to hurt me, it ends up causing damage to the country. It is necessary to be loyal to El Salvador," Flores concluded.