Posted on 02/08/2002 1:20:38 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Another Venezuelan military officer blasted President Hugo Chavez on Friday as a threat to democracy as the president's supporters and opponents staged rival protests for a second day.
A day after Air Force Colonel Pedro Soto lambasted Chavez as a "tyrant" and demanded that he resign, National Guard Captain Pedro Flores accused the president of endangering the country's democratic system through corruption and attacks on the Catholic Church, the media and "the rule of law".
"All this is carrying us to the cliff edge," Flores told reporters.
The overt discontent from inside the armed forces posed a headache for Chavez, a firebrand ex-paratrooper who is facing falling popularity, a crisis of economic confidence in his oil-rich nation and widespread criticism from home and abroad.
In a square in eastern Caracas on Friday, a small crowd of supporters of Soto and Flores held a noisy anti-government protest for a second day. At the other end of the city, followers of the president gathered outside the Miraflores palace to stage a counter-demonstration in favor of Chavez.
Friday's demonstrations in Caracas were peaceful and considerably smaller than similar rival protests on Thursday.
But in the western oil city of Maracaibo, supporters and opponents of Chavez clashed in a running battle, hurling stones and other objects at each other, local television reported.
Saying his feelings were widely shared in the military, Flores called on other serving officers to join him and Soto in their public acts of defiance against Chavez.
Opinion polls show the president's popularity has fallen sharply since his landslide 1998 election, which he won six years after failing to seize power in a botched coup.
He has recently come under fierce criticism from business foes, the Catholic Church, the media and the United States but has insisted the country's armed forces are fully behind him.
The hostile outbursts from Soto and Flores indicated this military support was not as solid as he might think and their actions clearly emboldened Chavez' political opponents, who have been stepping up street protests against him.
"The increasingly deep political crisis in the country now has a military element that cannot be concealed," political analysis Teodoro Petkoff, who edits the TalCual daily, said.
Government officials, dismissing rumors of a possible coup, said all was calm in the country's military barracks.
They portrayed Soto and Flores as isolated misfits who did not represent the rest of the armed forces. Both officers were ordered to turn themselves over to military authorities.
Soto told reporters he would not give himself up.
CHAVEZ "WANTS TO IMITATE FIDEL CASTRO"
Flores, like Soto, accused Chavez of dragging the armed forces into politics and of trying to imitate Cuban president Fidel Castro. "At any moment, the president might try to become an exact copy of Fidel Castro, who is not exactly an object of devotion for us Venezuelans," the National Guard captain said.
Flores said he would present a written denunciation against Chavez to a human rights rapporteur from the Organization of American States (OAS) who was visiting Venezuela.
Chavez, who has stayed out of public sight since Soto's surprise outburst on Thursday, remained closeted on Friday in meetings with his ministers in the presidential palace.
In their criticism of the president, Soto and Flores echoed arguments used by Chavez' hard-line political opponents, who accuse him of trying to install a Cuban-style, authoritarian, leftist regime in Venezuela, the world's No. 4 oil exporter.
Cuba's President Castro, a friend and ally of Chavez, came to the defense of the Venezuelan leader on Friday, describing him as "the greatest democrat in South America".
Chavez faced the public acts of defiance from the two officers only days after celebrating the 10th anniversary of the failed Feb. 4, 1992 coup that made him famous.
The unrest, and fears of further political confrontation, has spooked investors and triggered escalating capital flight, draining the oil-rich country's foreign reserves and putting heavy selling pressure on the local bolivar currency.
For the second consecutive day, the currency fell 10 bolivars against the dollar, to 792/793 bolivars Friday.
The international rating agency Fitch said Venezuela could face a forced currency devaluation if it failed to tackle the capital fight and hemorrhaging foreign reserves.
Dissident Venezuelan Colonel Emboldens Chavez' Foes--[Excerpt] CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez faced mounting opposition on Friday from emboldened foes after a dissident air force colonel criticized the left-wing leader and led a noisy demonstration against him.
Days after celebrating the 10th anniversary of the failed Feb. 4, 1992 coup that made him famous, the outspoken paratrooper-turned-president is himself confronting an act of defiance from a serving military officer, Col. Pedro Soto.
Branding Chavez a "tyrant" and demanding that he end his three-year-old rule, Soto, a 49-year-old air force officer, led a crowd of some 4,000 supporters late on Thursday to besiege the president's official residence in Caracas.
The president, who was not at the residence at the time, held a cabinet meeting on Friday to analyze the situation created by the officer's blatant challenge to his authority. [End Excerpt]
Cuba is strongly supporting Chavez, of course. I would not be surprised if Cuban military people and arms are not already in place in Venezulea, a la Chile before Pinochet threw them out. The US had better intervene in this one and soon.
Hmmmm - sounds like us under a Dem Congress and President.
I wonder how close America came to this sort of thing during the clinton (mal-)administration.
Venezuelans protest against President Hugo Chavez in Caracas February 8, 2002. Another Venezuelan military officer spoke out against Chavez, condemning him as a threat to democracy as supporters and opponents of the maverick left-wing leader staged rival protests for a second day.
The sign shows the head of Chavez in a wok. REUTERS/Kimberly White
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