Posted on 04/12/2002 5:19:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez, the former army paratrooper who vowed to dismantle a corrupt democracy and improve the lot of Venezuela's poor, resigned under military pressure Friday after a massive opposition demonstration against his government ended in a bloodbath.
Chavez, 47, presented his resignation to three officers after he was confronted by the military high command at the presidential palace, said the Air Force chief, Gen. Regulo Anselmi, who was present at the time.
At 3 a.m. Friday, Chavez, wearing military fatigues and a red beret -- as he did when he led a failed 1992 coup against then-President Carlos Andres Perez -- left the palace for Caracas' Fort Tiuna army base. He was being held there while investigators decide what charges he could face for Thursday's violence, said army commander Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco.
Thousands of Chavez opponents celebrated overnight, waving flags, blowing whistles and jamming a main highway in Caracas. They planned a victory rally later Friday.
Pedro Carmona, head of Venezuela's largest business association, announced he would head a transitional government to be installed later Friday. He also announced an immediate end to a general strike called earlier this week against Chavez.
The 1 million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation, and the business association Fedecamaras, called the strike to support executives within the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, who were protesting Chavez's appointments to top company posts. The oil strike had sharply cut vital production in the world's fourth-largest oil exporter and the No. 3 supplier to the United States.
Chavez quit just hours after at least 13 people were killed and 110 wounded during a 150,000-strong opposition demonstration in downtown Caracas. Chavez had ordered National Guard troops and civilian gunmen, including rooftop snipers, to stop the marchers from reaching the palace, military officers said.
The rapid developments stunned this oil-rich, yet poverty-stricken nation. But opposition to Chavez's three-year presidencey had been growing for some time.
The confrontational president had also alienated Washington with his close ties to Cuban President Fidel Castro and criticism of U.S. bombings in Afghanistan. The White House had no immediate comment on Chavez's resignation, spokesman Taylor Gross said.
"I urge Venezuelans to maintain calm, to keep faith, to continue working on the road toward democracy, freedom and peace," said retired Gen. Guaicaipuro Lameda, who until February headed the Petroleos de Venezuela oil monopoly and was a leader of the movement to oust Chavez. "It's with sadness that to reach this point, so many people had to die, so many wounded."
During Thursday's clashes, National Guard troops fired tear gas at the front ranks of marchers bearing sticks and throwing rocks. Tear gas drifted into the presidential compound. Rooftop snipers and Chavez supporters repeatedly fired upon the protesters and even ambulance crews trying to evacuate the wounded.
Among the dead was Jorge Tortoza, a 45-year-old photographer with Diario 2001 newspaper. As many as 110 people were wounded, Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said.
As the bloodbath unfolded, Chavez ordered five Caracas television stations off the air -- charging they were inciting violence. Most Venezuelans were denied images of "Chavistas" repeatedly firing on unarmed protesters, bodies lying in pools of blood on the streets, and hooded thugs attacking police until after the military rebelled.
Just three years into his presidency, Chavez's combative rhetoric had alienated virtually every sector of Venezuelan society with his attacks on the news media and Roman Catholic Church leaders, his refusal to consult with business leaders, and his failed attempt to assert control over labor groups.
Chavez's government also inherited a staggering $21 billion in back wages and pensions owed workers by previous administrations -- a debt he was unable to pay.
His suspected ties to Colombia's leftist guerrillas angered many in the military and abroad.
Domestic opponents claimed his government was secretly arming neighborhood block committees known as "Bolivarian Circles," named after South American liberator Simon Bolivar, to defend his revolution. The Circles were created after Castro urged Chavez's supporters to organize during a 2000 visit.
Chavez also exasperated Venezuelans with his frequent use of "cadenas" -- hours-long presidential speeches that by law had to be broadcast by all Venezuelan TV and radio stations.
For Chavez, who on Tuesday boasted he would remain president until 2021, the end came quickly.
Just last Friday, he refused to negotiate with state-run Petroleos de Venezuela executives who were demanding that he remove a company board he had appointed Feb. 25. The executives claimed the appointees weren't qualified and were meant to strengthen Chavez's hold on a multinational corporation that cherishes its autonomy.
The oil executives launched a slowdown last week that cut production at the Paraguana refinery complex, one of the world's largest, to below 50 percent capacity. They closed another refinery, disrupted gasoline deliveries and all but stopped loading of oil tankers. Oil generates 80 percent of Venezuela's foreign earnings.
Anselmi said the military urged Chavez on Wednesday to negotiate. He agreed, but by then the Petroleos de Venezuela executives had rejected such overtures.
After Thursday's violence, the high command decided Chavez had to go, and they confronted him en masse in his offices, Anselmi said. National Guard troops seized the government television station as tanks rumbled on the streets. Chavez's longtime mentor, former Interior Minister Luis Miquilena, condemned the repression.
Chavez, surrounded by a nervous Cabinet, finally handed his resignation to Anselmi, Armed Forces Inspector General Gen. Lucas Rincon Romero and National Guard commander Gen. Belisario Landis.
"Being a friend of his for many years, I advised him to resign and allow Venezuelans to avoid a bigger bloodbath," said Gen. Francisco Uson, who until Thursday served as Chavez's finance minister.
Vasquez Velasco, the army commander, said 95 percent of army forces were under his control, as well as all airports and major military bases. Incoming international commercial flights were canceled until further notice.
"We ask the Venezuelan people's forgiveness for today's events," said Vasquez Velasco. "Mr. President, I was loyal to the end, but today's deaths cannot be tolerated."
Good -- let that be a lesson to other, like-minded Chavez-wannabees.
FILE--The leader of the Bolivarian Revolution 2000, officer Hugo Chavez, talks to reporters at the Defense Ministry after he surrendered to the troops loyal to the government of Carlos Andres Perez, in Caracas, Venezuela, this Feb. 4, 1992, file photo. Chavez assumed Venezuela's presidency in 1999, vowing to eradicate corruption and the poverty that afflicts 80 percent of Venezuela's 24 million people. He was ousted Friday, April 12, 2002, at age 47. (AP Photo/Ali Gomez, File)
Bump!!
U.S. Monitors Venezuela Tumult - Fri Apr 12, 8:12 AM ET
[Full Text] WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration said it is closely monitoring the political upheaval in Venezuela and the ouster Friday of President Hugo Chavez.
The State Department has warned Americans to avoid travel in the South American nation because of violent clashes between supporters of Chavez and anti-government protesters.
Chavez, 47, a former army paratrooper, resigned under military pressure after demonstrations against his government ended in a blood bath. He had come to power on a promise of cleaning up a corrupt democracy and improving living conditions for the poverty-stricken population of the oil-rich country.
"We're following very closely what is happening," said a senior U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Colin Powell in Jerusalem. "Our interests are in democracy and democratic institutions."
Chavez presented his resignation only hours after at least 13 people were killed and more than 100 wounded during a 150,000-strong opposition demonstration in downtown Caracas.
Chavez had ordered National Guard troops and civilian gunmen, including rooftop snipers, to stop the marchers from reaching his palace, military officers said.
With visits to Libya and Iraq, his close friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro and his "neutral" stand in Colombia's civil war, Chavez alienated Washington. He also angered the Bush administration when he criticized U.S. bombing in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. [End]
Life in an island prison will do just fine. Now the fun can really start as the Generals try and sort out his followers, Chinese Agents, and FARC infiltrators.
It would be ideal if the Venezuelan armed forces could move against FARC from the East, while the Colombians move against them from the West.
Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela all have a stake in killing as many commies as possible. Let's pray that they can coordinate better than they did when Bolivar was alive.
I hope they're rooting out Castro's advisors that have been given free access to sensitive offices in Venezuela.
They should kick out Castro's teachers, doctors and "trainers" too. And shut off the free oil spigot to Castro.
A well phrased remark from the Bush adminstration will be important.
Now, if the original monster would only die a slow, violent, agonizing death, the world would be a much better place for it.
(UPI) Published 4/10/2002 1:38 PM Analysis: Chavez 'the neo-liberal' - By Ian Campbell ianscampbell@yahoo.com - Chief Economics Correspondent From the Business & Economics Desk
[Full Text] "No one stops Venezuela," Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Tuesday. The president was being modest. He has brought the country to a halt.
Chávez once divided Venezuelans; now he unites them. The main trade union organization, Confederación de Trabajadores Venezolanos or CTV, called a general strike for Tuesday and, late on Tuesday, called for it to be extended for another day. Both the original call for a strike and the extension of it were supported by Fedecamaras, the main employers' organization.
It is not often that workers and employers have shared the same view in Venezuela -- but on the issue of Chávez they have begun to do so. After a narrow election victory in 1998, he became enormously popular in his first months of power. The country has had a collective sense for some time that it has problems to which it needs a radical solution.
For a while it shared a view that Chávez might be that solution. The belief is now almost entirely eroded. Three years of abundant oratory, with speeches lasting, Fidel Castro-style, for hours, has been accompanied by economic decline and a growing sense of frustration and anger.
Chávez's behavior this week has not helped the cause of the self-styled Bolivarian revolutionary. To try to deter support for the strike, Chávez denied it was taking place. "No one stops Venezuela" was Chávez's judgment. In American parlance, Chávez was in denial: pretending that what was happening was not happening. It is not a tactic likely to impress the electorate.
His other move was to institute another monopoly: television and radio. The government had its own propaganda broadcast for hours on end Tuesday. Was this legal? A lawyer, Juan Manuel Ravalli, said that constant transmission of "official communications" was illegal under the telecommunications law. The TV channels had a response of their own, transmitting split screens, showing the government broadcast on one side and their own reporting, not least of the general strike, on the right.
Chávez, for his part, said that the "private channels send cameras and journalists to places where there are hardly any people." As the strike is being reported as having won 80 percent support, it is yet another comment by Chávez that bears little relation to reality.
It was another of Chávez's controversial moves that triggered the strike. Since February, he has worked himself into a worse and worse position with Venezuela's most important company, the state-run Petróleos de Venezuela, SA.
Chávez has long seen PDVSA as a cash cow from which he could extract funds. He placed one of his most competent lieutenants in charge of the company last year, Gen. Guaicaipuro Lameda, an officer who served with him in the army years ago. Despite his military background, Lameda was a thoroughly trained financial professional. Indeed, he would not even say "despite."
In a meeting with this correspondent some years ago Lameda pointed out that he owed all his training to the armed forces. Lameda came across as a highly professional, firm, honest and loyal person -- loyal not least to the Venezuelan armed forces and to Chávez. In February, however, Lameda departed unwillingly from PDVSA. Since then Chávez has been at war with the company.
PDVSA's employees would not accept Lameda's dismissal and replacement by Gaston Parra, an economist from the Central Bank. Neither would they accept a new board with many Chávez appointees. Within PDVSA, Parra was seen as Chávez's agent -- a person who would ensure that the company cut its spending on exploration and production and paid to the government kickbacks. These included the 30 percent royalties prescribed by the new Hydrocarbons Law and the high dividends that Chávez has been wont to demand. In 2001 the required dividend payment was a huge $4 billion.
Many in PDVSA believe Chávez is going to run the company into the ground, harming its prospects and those of Venezuela for years to come. Workers began a go-slow in March, and the CTV called a general strike for April 9. Chávez responded April 7 by firing seven dissident executives in PDVSA and obliging twelve others to take early retirement.
Now PDVSA, which is respected internationally and by Venezuela's elite, but which Venezuela's poor normally see as a headquarters for big money and corruption, has become an unlikely symbol of unity for anti-Chávez protests. But will this unity last?
What is most disturbing about Venezuela is not the fact that Chávez is harming the country -- though that is what he is doing. It is a matter of time before Chávez falls. What is more disturbing is that the country may not learn from his disastrous period in government.
Many Venezuelans condemn Chávez not as a demagogue whose only economic policy is to sack PDVSA and spend the money unwisely but as a "neo-liberal," the term Latin America uses for a modernizer, a follower of the International Monetary Fund line on privatization, fiscal finances and monetary policy. It is an accusation that would cause astonishment in the IMF, where Chávez's handling of the economy can cause nothing but dismay. So we can laugh at "Down with Chavez, the neo-liberal" scrawled on Venezuelan walls. But we should also be concerned.
For 20 years, ever since oil prices began to fall from their Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries-inspired highs in the 1970s, Venezuela has been floundering to find a way forward politically and economically. The country, once wealthy by Latin American standards, is getting poorer.
The poor want a share of the country's dwindling wealth and suspect they are being robbed by the elite. Governments have placated the poor with subsidies and price freezes and edicts on interest rates and manipulated exchange rates that help to keep prices down. These kinds of policies have made Venezuela a terrible place in which to invest in anything other than oil and have ensured the economy does not grow.
What Venezuela needs is some neo-liberalism: some sound economic policies that will help this overly oil-dependent country to grow and provide jobs. But if Chávez's tenure of bullying and clown-like incompetence is seen as neo-liberalism, how will a neo-liberal be seen?
The unity Chávez is creating in Venezuela seems unlikely to survive him. The poor will look for a true revolutionary, not a Chávez, who betrayed them, while the middle class will look for a neo-liberal, whom the poor will oppose as "another Chávez."
As Chávez's ridiculous term works its way towards a premature end, its final tragedy may be that this rich and poor country learns little from his passing. [End]
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