Oponents of Chávez release video

CARACAS, Venezuela - Opponents of President Hugo Chavez released a video Thursday showing Venezuela's oil minister urging state oil company workers to support Chavez's re-election bid. The opposition said the comments were political coercion.

During the 14-minute video, the minister Rafael Ramirez said the 40,000-member work force at Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, firmly stands behind Chavez ahead of the Dec. 3 vote. His comments were allegedly made during a closed-door meeting at the company's headquarters in the capital Caracas.

"It's a crime, a counterrevolutionary act for any manager here to try to curb the political expression of the workers in favor of President Chavez," Ramirez said in the amateur video. "Whoever doesn't feel comfortable with this orientation, it's necessary that they give up their seat to a Bolivarian."

Chavez calls Venezuela's brand of socialism the Bolivarian Revolution, a reference to the South American independence fighter Simon Bolivar.

In reference to the color of Chavez's ruling party, Ramirez said: "the new PDVSA is red, very red, from top to bottom."

Supporters of leading opposition candidate Manuel Rosales played the video at a news conference and said the minister's comments constituted clear proof of political coercion. They were unsure when the video was recorded, but said they believed it was taped within the last 10 days. They did not explain how they obtained the video.

Geraldo Blyde, one of Rosales' campaign aides, said Ramirez's statements clearly violated constitutional prohibitions on political discrimination and use of state resources in favor of a candidate.

"The (state) oil company should not be politicized," Blyde said, calling Ramirez's words a "promotion of hate, discrimination."

Soon after the video was aired on television, more than 100 PDVSA employees and contractors gathered for a rally outside the building where the video was allegedly taped, chanting: "Oh, No! Chavez Won't Go!"

Manuel Perez, a union leader, said no one had pressured any PDVSA employees politically.

"We've decided ... in a voluntary and conscious manner to step forward and organize ourselves in support of Commander Chavez," Perez said. The crowd responded with loud applause and cheers.

Rosales' allies plan to present the video along with complaints requesting investigations to the Organization of American States and the European Union, which have been invited to observe the election.

Officials of PDVSA, which Ramirez heads as president, could not be immediately reached for comment.

http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/hchavez/carta_chacal.asp

Letter from Chavez to "The Jackal":
Miraflores, 03 de Marzo de 1999
Citizen
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez
Present

Distinguished Compatriot:

Swimming in the depths of your letter of solidarity I could gather something of your thoughts and feelings; everything has its time: to gather stones, to throw them.... to give warmth to the revolution or to leave it aside; to advance dialectically uniting what must be united among the classes in the struggle or promoting confrontation among them, according to the thesis of Iván Ilich Ulianov. Time to be able to fight for ideals and time when you can do nothing but appreciate the struggle itself... Times of opportunity, of sharp perception and an instinct for reaching the most propitious psychological moment in which Ariadne, robed in the law, spins the thread that will allow her to escape from the labyrinth…

The Liberator Simón Bolívar, whose theory and praxis inform the doctrine that is the foundation of our revolution, in an enigmatic invocation to God, used this phrase when approaching his physical death: How can I get out of this labyrinth...! This phrase, .... recorded by his chief doctor, the Frenchman Alejandro Próspero Reverend in his Memoirs, is a profound flame to light the path we follow.

Another Frenchman, Alexander Dumas, closed his novel The Count of Montecristo with this line by Jesús: «The life of man is written in two words: Trust and Wait, inducing one to think that at the end of the battle there will appear some Supreme Someone who, robed in wisdom like the Abbot Faría who showed the way out, wrapped in the new revolutionary synthesis, approaching the God that each one carries in his heart.

We will say with Bolívar that time will work miracles only to the extent that we remain pure in spirit and we observe those necessary relationships that are derived from the nature of things. Humanity is one, and there is no space-time dimension that can stop the thoughts of the Hero of Caracas. We say with him:

"I feel that the energy in my soul rises, broadens, and becomes equal to the size of the dangers. My doctor has told me that my soul needs to feed on danger in order to preserve my sanity, in that when God made me he allowed this stormy revolution, so that I could live engaged in my own special destiny."

With profound faith in the cause and in the mission, for now and forever!

HUGO CHÁVEZ FRÍAS

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