Posted on 01/15/2003 12:29:39 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's vice president said the government would respect the high court if it rules to allow a Feb. 2 referendum on President Hugo Chavez's rule.
However, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel warned that such a ruling would create chaos in this country of 24 million coping with a general strike called by opponents to overthrow Chavez.
"If the Supreme Tribunal confirms the referendum is constitutional we will accept this verdict," said Rangel. The government, he added, complied with a ruling exonerating the leaders of an April 11 coup against Chavez.
Anger is growing on both sides as the strike drags into its sixth week. It has hurt oil production in the world's fifth largest exporter and depleted store shelves. Chavez's opponents call him authoritarian and unfit to govern, while supporters of the leftist former paratrooper accuse strikers of trying to force a coup.
On Tuesday, an airliner headed to the Dominican Republic was forced to return to Caracas when passengers staged an on-board protest targeting an ally of Chavez.
They shook fold-out trays and shouted to protest the presence of retired Gen. Belisario Landis, Venezuela's ambassador in Santo Domingo, shortly after the Aeropostal-Alas de Venezuela flight left the ground. The pilots returned to Caracas, and everyone on board was evacuated.
The Boeing 727 took off again an hour later, after passengers promised not to disrupt the flight again.
Another incident occurred inside the airport on Tuesday when an unidentified man threw a tear gas grenade at a group that was shouting "Assassins! Assassins!" at three pro-Chavez lawmakers.
After a few minutes of confusion, the airport continued functioning normally.
On Nov. 6, opposition groups fought through tear gas and bullets to present election authorities with the 2 million signatures required to convoke the nonbinding referendum on Chavez's rule.
Under Venezuelan law, citizens can convoke a referendum by gathering signatures from at least 10 percent of the nation's 12 million registered voters.
If high court magistrates declare the referendum legal, Rangel said, the government will urge "Chavistas," as the president's supporters are called, to abstain from casting ballots.
Allies and adversaries of Chavez have presented the Supreme Tribunal with 14 cases for and against the plebiscite.
Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and re-elected two years later, argues the only way he can be removed from office is through a recall referendum in August, halfway through his 6-year term.
Chavez says his government won't transfer $22 million required by election authorities to organize balloting until the court decides if the vote is legally sound.
While the fate of the referendum remains in limbo, opponents of Chavez claim the former paratrooper is building an authoritarian regime and riding roughshod over public institutions.
The Bloque de Prensa, the nation's largest association of newspapers, issued a statement Tuesday accusing Chavez of "violent repression of peaceful marches" and preparing "to close television and radio stations" critical of his government.
Leaders of the Democratic Coordinator opposition movement said they would intensify the strike in response to a government takeover of the Caracas police force.
Soldiers loyal to Chavez seized riot gear from the police department Tuesday in what Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, an opposition supporter, called a deliberate effort to undermine him.
Pena said the raid stripped police of their ability to control street protests that have erupted almost daily since the strike began Dec. 2. Five people have died in strike-related demonstrations.
Police used tear gas Tuesday to separate pro- and anti-Chavez protesters. Caracas Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno said one protester was wounded by gunshots and another hit by a vehicle. Both were in stable condition, he said.
Rangel said the seizure was part of an effort to make police answer for alleged abuses against pro-Chavez demonstrators. The government accuses police of killing two Chavez supporters during a melee two weeks ago.
Troops searched several police stations at dawn, confiscating submachine guns and 12-gauge shotguns used to fire rubber bullets and tear gas, said Cmdr. Freddy Torres, the department's legal consultant. Officers were allowed to keep their standard-issue .38-caliber pistols.
Chavez ordered troops to take control of the force in November, but the Supreme Court ordered it restored to Pena last month.
Also Tuesday, seven people died and four were burned when improperly stored gasoline exploded in western Venezuela on Tuesday. Officials said they didn't know what caused three containers of gas to explode.
Fuel shortages caused by the strike have prompted many Venezuelans to stockpile gasoline using containers unfit for such purposes. Warnings by state authorities against inappropriate storage and transportation of gasoline have been largely ignored by the population.
Anti-President Hugo Chavez marchers carry religious statues, oversized Catholic rosary beads, and national flags through Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003, in the second month of a nationwide work stoppage intended to oust Chavez. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch)
Chávez's dominance of government, which already extends from the Supreme Court to Congress, is one of the principal motives cited by supporters of a nationwide strike that enters its 45th day today. By taking heavy arms away from the police loyal to his nemesis -- Peña -- Chávez weakens one of the only forces friendly to the opposition and strengthens his own grip on power. In eight pre-dawn raids, the military seized 581 submachine guns, 1,712 shotguns, 14 riot-control rifles equipped to fire nonlethal bullets, as well as tear gas launchers and ammunition clips, the police said. The 10,000 officers were allowed to keep their .38-caliber revolvers.
''Instead of disarming the criminals, they disarm the police,'' Police Director Henry Vivas complained. ``It's unprecedented.'' Chávez's opponents said officers were being left defenseless in a nation that registered 9,244 homicides last year, about 2,000 of those in the capital. ''I cannot assume the responsibility of sending a police officer to his death so he can confront delinquents with just a .38 [pistol],'' Peña said. ``The delinquents carry laser[-sighted] guns, bazookas, rifles and machine guns.***
We were part of a peaceful demonstration of several hundred thousand Venezuelans who were marching to demand early elections as a democratic solution to the current political crisis. Near the end of the route, we were ambushed by armed civil groups who attacked us with tear gas, stones, sticks and guns. All of this took place before the indolent eyes of the military police, who at first were just strolling along as the armed gangs were shooting. But soon we saw with astonishment that the police were handing more tear-gas grenades to our attackers and coordinating their moves. When I later saw the events reported by CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press and The New York Times as a ''confrontation'' between government supporters and the opposition, I was appalled. What confrontation? I said to myself while remembering the terror in my daughter's eyes and in the thousands of unarmed demonstrators who were forced to flee.
Armed civilian groups responding to government orders are not new. Fascist and communist regimes have used them for the same purpose as the Chávez government: to intimidate opponents and to disguise government repression under a civilian facade. The armed Bolivarian Circles have already been denounced by Organization of American States Secretary General César Gaviria, who has found deaf ears not only in Chávez and his cabinet members but in the attorney general and the ombudsman as well.
The foreign press has failed to report the truth about events in Venezuela such as the march in which I participated. On Christmas Day, Boston Globe correspondent Marion Lloyd described the Circles as ''watchdog groups to support the Chávez government.'' No mention was made of their role as an illegal armed militia. The Circles terrorize those who dare to dissent with the government.***
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