Posted on 11/22/2003 3:35:32 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - Hugo Chavez's government staged a massive petition drive Friday to revoke the mandates of opposition lawmakers, hoping to derail a similar effort to force a vote on the president's rule.
Under the gaze of rifle-toting soldiers, thousands of Venezuelans signed petitions demanding recall votes for 38 lawmakers. Results were expected within a month.
The four-day sign-up, a bid to strengthen Chavez's hold on Congress, came as his opponents gear up for their own petition drive — also a recall campaign — set to start next Friday.
The Organization of American States views a presidential recall referendum as a peaceful way to resolve a conflict threatening the stability of one of the world's largest oil producers. Any vote on Chavez's term, which runs to 2007, would likely occur next year.
Chavez has vowed to defeat the effort, just as he survived a coup in 2002 and a punishing general strike earlier this year. In recent months he has spent millions of dollars on programs designed to feed, house and educate Venezuela's majority poor.
"We have to kick out those obstructing the revolution," said Diana Trejo, an unemployed woman who signed Chavez's petition Friday. "All of this (government spending) benefits the poor who always have been excluded in this country."
A former army paratrooper, Chavez led a failed coup in 1992, was imprisoned for two years and was elected president in 1998 on an anti-corruption platform. He ushered in a new constitution, won a new six-year term and seized control of Congress in subsequent elections.
Since then, more than a dozen lawmakers have abandoned the Chavez camp to protest his inability to fight crime or create jobs. Many cite fears he wants to impose a Cuban-style dictatorship in this South American nation. Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement now has a single-digit majority in Congress.
Chavez urged Venezuelans to recall these revolutionary "traitors." He also lauded the recall process he introduced in the 1999 constitution as a "historic" step giving Venezuela's poor a say in politics.
Venezuela's Constitution allows recalls halfway through an elected official's term. At least 20 percent of a constituency must sign to force a vote, and Chavez supporters needed more than 60,000 signatures in some states. Government officials predicted a turnout of more than 2 million.
"We understand that signers are overflowing everywhere," said Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, one of dozens of signers at a Caracas petition center Friday. He said Chavez would sign on Saturday.
Opposition lawmaker Carlos Tablante, one of those targeted by Chavez, predicted the government drive "will be a total failure. It's been very slow, very weak."
Ruling party leaders and observers from the OAS and the Georgia-based Carter Center monitored the petition drive, which runs through Monday.
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