Posted on 04/30/2003 2:29:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's vice president on Tuesday rejected U.S. calls for President Hugo Chavez to sign an agreement for a referendum on his rule, saying the government did not "give a damn" about foreign pressure.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, a close ally of the populist leader, dismissed statements by U.S. officials that Chavez should accept the internationally brokered deal for a referendum after middle of August this year.
"Venezuela is not a colony. So, regarding what other people say about Venezuela, those who are not Venezuelans, we don't give a damn," Rangel told reporters. "An agreement will be signed voluntarily ... not under any foreign pressure."
Rangel did not mention the United States directly. But two U.S. officials on Monday expressed concern that Chavez would delay the accord for a poll on whether to end his mandate.
Venezuelan opposition leaders reached the referendum deal with government negotiators on April 11, a year after Chavez survived the brief military coup that triggered months of protests and street clashes over his rule.
But a week later the government backed away from signing the accord brokered by the Organization of American States (OAS). OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria is scrambling to patch up the agreement.
"It's time to give a demonstration of good faith under these negotiations; it's time for President Chavez to sign the agreement as it is," Curtis Struble, acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said in Washington on Monday.
Otto Reich, the White House special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, also urged the government not to delay the electoral agreement.
The United States is part of a six-nation "Group of Friends" that is backing the OAS negotiations.
Under Venezuela's constitution, a referendum can be held after Aug. 19, or halfway through the president's term in office. The opposition must collect signatures from 20 percent of the electorate to trigger the vote.
The Venezuelan leader has always insisted that he would agree to a referendum as foreseen under the constitution. But the opposition believes the government will scuttle the vote.
Chavez, elected in 1998 on promises to ease poverty, and his foes have been locked in a political struggle since last year's coup.
He'll block the vote.
As Venezuela Slides, the Poor Stand By Their Man****** "If there is more unemployment, more poverty, more crime, why are the poor still with Chávez?" asked Ana María Sanjuán, a sociologist at the Central University. "The reason is simple. Chávez is the only one who has addressed the poor, the one who gives a hope to the poor about a possible inclusion." Beyond his direct apeals to the poor, analysts note, Mr. Chávez has also carefully directed his assistance programs, like the one benefiting Mr. Montilla.
Taken as a whole, these programs fail to form a broad, coherent public policy, said Luis Pedro España, a poverty expert and director of the Institute of Economic and Social Studies at Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas. But they go a long way toward explaining Mr. Chávez's enduring popularity as the economy shrinks. The programs - ranging from new homes to subsidized food markets to mobile clinics - are welcomed in long-neglected barrios, deftly spread, and then their importance inflated, Mr. España said. "The government does not really have a social policy," he said. "What they have is social theater."
………….. The programs have the feel of old-style patronage. With them, Mr. Chávez has managed to erase doubt among followers by taking up the populist script in a way that has not been seen in Latin America in recent years, spending hours with crowds of followers. In Caricuao, a poor neighborhood of Soviet-style apartment blocks in southwest Caracas, his aides led a hunched group of elderly women from the crowd and provided them seating under a white tent, just feet from the president, who was there to inaugurate the first of what will be 100 markets across the city. Afterward, they expressed everlasting loyalty.
"He does not care if you are rich or poor," explained Irda de Belandria, 66. "His heart is so pure." But for the neighborhood, the affection for Mr. Chávez may outlast the material effect of the markets, which offer only a modest assortment of goods like canned products, powdered milk and sugar. Even the actual opening was unclear. The president left, and military officers shut the metal gates over the storefront. One woman asked when it would reopen. "I do not know," a military official said. "They told us tomorrow, maybe."***
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.