Venezuelans Sign Petitions Seeking Hugo Chavez's Recall

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Opponents of President Hugo Chavez revived a nationwide movement to force him from office, turning out en masse to sign a petition demanding a recall vote.

Chanting anti-Chavez slogans as they waited in block-long lines Friday, government foes predicted the president's imminent downfall as they began a four-day signature drive for a presidential recall.

The opposition needs 2.4 million signatures to force a vote next year. Results of the drive will not be known for weeks and Chavez has vowed to challenge every signature.

"I'm confident my signature will help oust this president and bring us a solution to the crisis tearing this country apart," said Marianella Amaral, 67, waiting with a grandson at a collection center in Caracas.

Venezuela has lurched from crisis to crisis - including a short-lived 2002 coup and a two-month general strike that fizzled in February - since the opposition began pushing for Chavez's ouster two years ago.

Venezuelans waiting line in light rainfall in front of an opposition signing center in Caracas, November 28, 2003. Opponents of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez began a four-day signature drive on Friday seeking a referendum to vote the leftist leader out of office five years after he was first elected. A splintered alliance of opposition parties and groups hopes to gather 2.4 million signatures needed to trigger a vote against the former army officer who they say is steadily turning the world's No. 5 oil exporter into a communist tyranny. REUTERS/Howard Yanes

Friday's drive was mostly peaceful, with 60,000 troops deployed to keep order at nearly 3,000 sign-up booths across the country.

The constitution allows recall votes halfway through a president's six-year term. Chavez passed that mark in August.

But this oil-rich South American nation of 24 million people remains divided over Chavez, a former paratrooper who was elected in 1998 and re-elected to a six-year term in 2000.

Unemployment has soared to around 20 percent, however, supporters consider Chavez the only hope for change after decades of corruption and neglect of Venezuela's poor. Opponents say Chavez is gradually imposing a leftist dictatorship on the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

In May, the Organization of American States, the United Nations and the U.S.-based Carter Center got both sides to agree to play by constitutional rules in anticipation of a possible signature drive.

Chavez predicts opponents won't collect enough signatures for a recall vote. He vowed Friday to win the next presidential elections in 2006 and to hand power over to another "revolutionary in 2013."

"I saw lines that extended several blocks today. It was impressive," said opposition lawmaker Geraldo Blyde, who called last week's pro-Chavez drive "small and sullen."

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel played down Friday's turnout, saying it was being exaggerated by opposition-aligned news media.

"They're trying to fool a lot of people using the media, but these ploys always fail," Rangel said.

Venezuela's labor ministry filed a formal complaint alleging that business owners were forcing employees to sign against Chavez. Opposition leaders accused state security forces of seizing petitions at some booths.

Venezuela's Chavez warns supporters of referendum their names will be remembered.***"They should know that although they are not going to get (a referendum), their names will be recorded. Unlike in a vote, which is secret, they will sign. They will put their names and surnames, their national ID number and their fingerprint," he said. ***

[After the first Chavez recall] ***Vanessa Roca, a 31-year-old secretary from the eastern state of Monagas, says she lost her job at a state-owned transport company after signing a petition calling for a recall referendum to remove Chavez from office. She traveled seven hours by bus to ask officials at the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to remove her name from the petition.

"A friend who had the same thing happen to him told me this might help me get my job back," she said. "I understand it happened to a lot of us."

As the Chavez government tries to remain in office, state employees and students who signed the petition, or who are suspected of sympathizing with the political opposition, are being purged from jobs, internships and grants, according to dozens of interviews with trade unionists, students, state workers, lawyers and human rights activists.

And in an effort to discredit the recall movement, state workers whose names appear on the petition are being encouraged by the government to sign legal complaints alleging that their signatures were forged. ***Source

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Venezuela shifts control of border (mounting terrorist allegations)***CARACAS, Venezuela - Amid allegations that the Venezuelan government has given identity documents to foreign terrorists, President Hugo Chavez has put the country's immigration service in the hands of two young radicals, one of whom is close to the ousted Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

Hugo Cabezas and Tareck el-Aissami were appointed in the past two months as director and deputy director, respectively, of the Identification and Immigration Directorate, known as the DIEX after its initials in Spanish.

Their responsibilities include passports, voter identity cards and border security. Both men are former student leaders of groups accused of links to clandestine armed organizations.

"These appointments raise suspicions," said former Minister for Border Issues Pompeyo Marquez. "The risk is that they can play tricks both as regards elections and identity cards."

The DIEX appointments come at a sensitive moment in Venezuela's 2-year-old political crisis. Opposition leaders are to begin collecting signatures today to call for a national referendum to oust Chavez, with both sides fighting over the electoral process.

Venezuela is also facing mounting allegations by U.S. officials, and regional security analysts, over ties to terrorism. Middle Eastern terrorist groups operate "support cells" in Venezuela, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials. Left-wing guerrillas in neighboring Colombia also have training bases inside Venezuelan territory, they say. [SP Times emphasis]

The most serious claim, made recently in the pages of the news magazine, U.S. News & World Report, involves allegations that Venezuelan identity documents have been issued to foreigners, including some from "Middle Eastern nations that play host to foreign terrorist organizations."*** [More at LINK]

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