Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LINKS to Hugo Chavez's "government" June 2001 - March 2002
I'm keeping track of Hugoland formally known as Venezuela. Please LINK any stories or add what you wish to this thread. The above LINK takes you to past articles posted before the new FR format. Below I'll add what I've catalogued since that LINK no longer could take posts.
(March 1, 2002)-- Venezuela's strongman faces widespread calls to step down
By Phil Gunson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
[Full Text] CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The man who won Venezuelan hearts three years ago as a strongman who could deliver a better life to the masses is now facing them in the streets.
More than 20,000 people turned out this week calling for the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, while some 2,000 supporters marched in a rival demonstration of support. The demonstrations come after months of building discontent with a president who has managed to alienate the labor class, the media, business groups, the church, political parties, and the military.
Four military leaders have publicly called for his resignation.
In November, Chávez introduced 49 "revolutionary" decrees. The package of laws - affecting everything from land rights and fisheries to the oil industry - unified virtually the whole of organized society in a nationwide business and labor stoppage that paralyzed the country on Dec. 10.
The protests this week have a note of irony, because they started out as a commemoration called by President Chávez. In his eyes, Feb. 27 is a milestone of his so-called revolution - "the date on which the people awoke" in 1989. That is when thousands of rioters and looters took to the streets in protest of an IMF-backed austerity plan, in which the government hiked gas prices.
In what became known as the caracazo, or noisy protest, thousands of rioters and looters were met by Venezuelan military forces, and hundreds were killed. Three years later, Chávez and his military co-conspirators failed in an attempt to overthrow the government responsible for the massacre, that of President Carlos Andres Perez. Chávez was jailed for two years.
"But the elements that brought about the caracazo are still present in Venezuela," says lawyer Liliana Ortega, who for 13 years has led the fight for justice on behalf of the victims' relatives. "Poverty, corruption, impunity ... some of them are perhaps even more deeply ingrained than before."
Chávez's supporters consist of an inchoate mass of street traders, the unemployed, and those whom the old system had marginalized. This, to Chávez, is el pueblo - the people.
"But we are 'the people' too," protests teacher Luis Leonet. "We're not oligarchs like he says. The oligarchs are people like Chávez, people with power."
On Wednesday, Leonet joined a march led by the main labor confederation, the CTV, to protest what unions say is a series of antilabor measures, including one of the 49 decrees dealing with public-sector workers.
Chávez won't talk to the CTV, whose leaders, he says, are corrupt and illegitimate. So he refuses to negotiate the annual renewal of collective contracts with the confederation, holding up deals on pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of union members like Leonet.
Across town on Wednesday, a progovernment march sought to demonstrate that the president's popularity was as high as ever.
"For the popular classes, Chávez is an idol," says marcher Pedro Gutierrez.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon, of the Datanalisis organization, warns that marches are no measure of relative popularity. "There is a lot of discontent among ... the really poor," Leon says, adding that so far the protests are mainly among the middle class.
But the middle class can be a dangerous enemy. It includes the bulk of the armed forces, and the management of the state oil company, PDVSA.
This month, four uniformed officers, ranging from a National Guard captain to a rear-admiral and an Air Force general, called on the president to resign, while repudiating the idea of a military coup of Chávez, himself a former Army lieutenant-colonel.
But senior "institutionalist" officers "are under severe pressure from lower ranks frustrated at the lack of impact" that these acts have had, a source close to military dissidents says. In other words, a coup cannot be ruled out, although the United States publicly denounces the idea.
Meanwhile, the president's imposition of a new board of directors on PDVSA this week sparked a virtual uprising by the company's senior management. In an unprecedented public statement, managers said the government was pushing the company "to the verge of operational and financial collapse" by imposing political, rather than commercial, criteria.
The political opposition remains relatively weak and divided. But in the view of many analysts, a president who offends both the military and the oil industry is asking for trouble. In the bars and restaurants of Caracas, the debate is no longer over whether Chávez will finish his term, which has nearly five years to run. It is when and how he will go - and what comes next. [End]
Shortly after he spoke, opposition supporters in the capital beat pots and pans, honked car horns and set off fireworks in a noisy demonstration to press electoral authorities to hold the recall vote against Chavez this year. Opposition leaders say they fear Chavez may try to block the referendum. Electoral authorities are due to announce in mid-February whether or not a poll will go ahead in May.
Garcia, who was warmly applauded by Chavez at the handover ceremony, said he would enforce strict obedience in the armed forces to the president, who is commander-in-chief. "I will not allow coup-plotting or terrorist military officers to attack democracy and constitutional rule ... they will face a severe and effective response," Garcia said.***
As the banner-waving marchers flooded different parts of the capital, the country's top electoral official rejected charges that the referendum process was being delayed.
National Electoral Council President Francisco Carrasquero said that if a December opposition referendum petition passed legal requirements, a recall vote would be held in May.
Carrying banners reading "Yes, there will be a referendum," opposition demonstrators took to the streets in their first big rally of 2004, the latest in a turbulent two-year campaign to try to oust the populist president.
In a competing protest reflecting Venezuela's sharply polarized politics, Chavez supporters gathered outside the National Electoral Council to back the president's allegations that the opposition referendum bid was riddled with fraud.
Troops in riot gear sealed off the council headquarters as the president's followers set off firecrackers outside.
The broad but deeply divided opposition coalition of political parties and civic groups accused electoral authorities of dragging their feet in checking pro-referendum signatures delivered last month. ***
These hostages would likely be made available to the media with the intention of demonstrating the failure of the Bush policy and of creating public sympathy in the U.S. for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.
In the Americas, Mr. Castro has been using a deceptive political strategy and long-established relations with radical leaders who are not formally communist to establish a new axis with governments friendly to him. These now include 231 million people ruled by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Lula da Silva in Brazil, Lucio Gutierrez in Ecuador and the shadow power of Evo Morales and Felipe Quispe in Bolivia, who recently removed the elected president.***
Carter's three-day visit, which began Sunday, coincides with growing opposition concern over delays and alleged irregularities in the council's counting of the 3.4 million signatures that Chávez's foes claim to have collected last month.
After meeting with council officials and later with Chávez, Carter urged Venezuelans to trust the process and said he believed the electoral panel is handling the controversial referendum process in ``complete compliance with the laws and constitution.''
''The political future of Venezuela rests on their shoulders, and we are very gratified and satisfied with the performance of the CNE,'' Carter said, using the council's Spanish acronym.
Carter, who has long been trying to mediate a negotiated end to the political crisis racking Venezuela as opponents try to oust the leftist populist president, was scheduled to hold a news conference before returning to the United States.***
Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was asked at a business conference whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro can influence other Latin American nations to lessen their support for the President Bush-backed free trade area.
''I don't think any one country constitutes a roadblock on the FTAA,'' Noriega said. ``We'll just go around them.''
Chavez, a friend of Castro, has expressed his opposition to many aspects of the FTAA and has been accused by U.S. officials of stoking anti-American sentiment in Latin America. Communist Cuba is not included in the FTAA talks, but Castro has been singled out by Noriega for promoting policies to destabilize democratic governments.
''None of us is ignoring the negative aspects and the penchant for some to fish in troubled waters and cause trouble for other countries,'' Noriega said.
Steps toward the creation of the FTAA would be in place by January 2005, a move agreed upon by nations at this month's Special Summit of the Americas, Noriega said.
However, Isilio Arriaga, president of Miami's chamber of commerce, said Noriega was too evasive of how the ''Chavez-Castro axis'' can affect FTAA negotiations. He pointed out that Castro and Chavez have been guests of honor at several recent political inaugurations in Latin America.
''For the ambassador to say that we're just going to go around them and negotiate directly with others is practically ignoring the very important influence that these two gentlemen have over the Latin American nations,'' Arriaga said.
The FTAA's stated purpose is to eliminate trade barriers and spur economic growth, but critics say it would lead to corporate corruption, the exploitation of workers and the degradation of the environment.
Noriega also touched on the sensitive issue of Haiti after a speech before about 150 people at the Outlook for the Americas conference.
Haiti has been in turmoil since Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept flawed 2000 elections. Since mid-September, at least 50 people have been killed in anti-government demonstrations. Aristide was planning to meet regional leaders Saturday in Jamaica to negotiate an end to the long-standing political impasse.
Noriega said the situation in Haiti was a high priority for him and that the plight of the Haitians could be compared with that of the Cuban people, who have limited rights of expression and assembly.
''They're similar in as much as they are both countries that are trapped by willful leaders who do not want to give people an opportunity to make decisions for themselves and plan for their own future,'' Noriega said.
However, Noriega's statements are contrasted with existing U.S. immigration policies with both nations.
While Cubans who reach the United States are generally allowed to remain in the country, efforts are made to return most Haitians who arrive illegally.
U.S. officials say they fear a mass immigration rush from Haiti, which they say would threaten national security, if Haitian migrants are given the same treatment.
Because of Cuba's communist government, the 1966 Cuba Adjustment Act lets Cubans be paroled into the community and apply for automatic legal residency one year after arriving, even if economics are the apparent reason for their leaving the island. [End]
"To see what is happening here makes me feel good all over," said King of Chavez's government and his efforts to bring social justice to Venezuela's poor majority.
"You are a president of the people, for the people and by the people and your magic lies in your people ties. You are the one concerned about the poor," King said during Chavez's "Hello President" program.
Chavez, a leftist former paratrooper who is facing a possible recall referendum this year, welcomed King as "a fighter of many years" and "a man of justice."
After a brief conversation in which the two recalled past boxing matches, Chavez and King hugged and called each other "brothers" in English.
King was in Venezuela for an anti-drug boxing tournament in Caracas. Boxing is one of the most popular sports in this South American country of 24 million.
Two weeks ago, actor Danny Glover also joined Chavez during the show and applauded his programs for the poor.
Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Sugar Ray Leonard were once clients of King, who has previously visited Venezuela to promote local bouts and boxers during his decades-long career.
On his program, Chavez also accused his opponents of committing widespread fraud in collecting signatures for the petition calling for a presidential recall referendum.***
Nevertheless, the island's economy is fragile, and Havana would be hard-pressed to find other sources of oil if Venezuela were to cut it off. Such a possibility would loom large if Chávez loses a proposed recall referendum. Leading opposition figures have already spoken out against the shipments.
''If Chávez loses in Venezuela it would be total devastation to the Cuban economy,'' said Jorge Salazar-Carrillo, a Cuba expert at Miami's Florida International University.***
The eye of the political storm is now centered on the National Electoral Council, due to decide by the end of next week whether to accept the opposition's petition for a recall vote to go ahead, possibly in May. Opposition leaders on Wednesday planned a rival, candle-lit march to "mourn" the anniversary of Chavez's coup bid and pressure the electoral officials to make a fair ruling on their referendum request. "We say there is nothing to celebrate today, Feb. 4, and especially not using the cash that belongs to all Venezuelans," said Elias Santana, an opposition leader. ***
Capella blamed political foes of Chavez for attempting to entice the doctors to leave their posts. "They are offering them places to study, posts in private medicine, cars, houses, cash and trips to the U.S," he told the state news agency Venpres. "It's a crime to ask a medical team to abandon their duty." The local El Nacional newspaper printed an interview on Thursday with one Cuban doctor it said had decided to leave despite fears of retaliation from the Cuban government. ***
A massive march demanding the recall is planned for today, when Súmate will give marchers scanned copies of their petition forms to take to CNE headquarters -- located in Chávez territory. Authorities have urged opposition leaders to change the march's route to avoid clashes. ''They're calling for a slaughter,'' Chávez said.***
Waving flags, banners and copies of their petition signatures, protesters streamed along a highway in the capital to demand the National Electoral Council allow them a chance to challenge Chavez at the ballot box this year.
Opposition leaders fear Chavez sympathizers in the council are trying to scuttle their referendum campaign in the latest political battle over his five-year presidency.
"We have to march to defend our signatures. We don't trust the electoral council and this is our only recourse, to protest," said Guillermo Goitia, a local opposition party representative.
Several thousand National Guard troops backed by armored vehicles along the route kept opposition protesters away from pockets of jeering Chavez sympathizers. A huge popular market set up by the government blocked the march path to the council headquarters in downtown Caracas.
After two years of conflict over the Chavez government, the opposition now hopes to vote out the former army officer whom they portray as a would-be dictator bent on turning Venezuela into a Cuba-style communist state. ***
"The United States firmly supports the work of the OAS and the Carter Center," he told reporters. But in a response that revealed sharp differences, Venezuela's vice president said the decision by local electoral authorities must be paramount. "We cannot accept . . . that the opinion of the Carter Center and the OAS be placed above the National Electoral Council," he said. "Let the United States, France, Britain, and the international community be clear about this," Rangel added.
Chavez, a former paratrooper who was elected president in 1998, has condemned the referendum petition as riddled with fraudulent signatures. He says the referendum petition should be rejected. After two years of intense political feuding that included a brief 2002 coup against Chavez and successive strikes and street protests, the president and his opponents appear to be heading again for a collision over the referendum issue.
Foes of Chavez, who accuse him of dragging the country toward Cuba-style communism, threaten a campaign of civil disobedience if the recall poll is turned down. Tens of thousands of antigovernment marchers turned out in Caracas Saturday to presssure the electoral authorities to allow a vote.
The president, who dismisses critics of his self-styled "revolution" as rich, resentful "oligarchs," says that if electoral officials allow a referendum, he will fight the ruling in the Supreme Court.***
Chavez also accused the Bush administration of funding new attempts to oust him. He cited the case of Sumate, a Venezuelan group that organized the recall petition against him and received funds from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, which champions democracy efforts around the world.
The Venezuelan Workers Confederation, which led a 2003 strike that failed to topple Chavez, also has received endowment funds, Venezuela says, citing documents a lobbying group obtained from the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act.
Chavez told Washington to stay out of Venezuelan affairs - especially the recall effort. Venezuela's National Elections Council is determining whether the petition for a presidential recall referendum is valid.
On Monday, Peter DeShazo, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, visited the country and urged Venezuelan election authorities not to use technicalities to invalidate petitions for the recall.
But Chavez said Tuesday the real reason for DeShazo's visit was to support Venezuela's opposition. He also said DeShazo lied when he told reporters Monday that U.S. funds also have gone to support organizations allied with Chavez's government.***
''Chávez is pouring money on the streets,'' pollster Luis Vicente León said. 'Meanwhile, the opposition has three million people in its pocket -- but it needs one million more. They need not just the message, ``Out with Chávez! Chávez is a bad guy!' They need leaders.
``It's the only way to win.''
Polls show Chávez enjoys about 40 percent support, León said. The other 60 percent is deeply divided, meaning the opposition must put forward a single candidate if it wants to win.
Miranda state Gov. Enrique Mendoza is a favorite, but he has suggested that he is not interested in being an interim president. Other leading figures who have been dubbed ''presidentiables'' are former Carabobo Gov. Henrique Salas Rmer, who lost to Chávez in 1998, and Borges, a lawyer-turned-congressman. Many experts viewed labor union leader Manuel Cova's recent trip to Washington, D.C., as a campaign stop.
Salas Rmer has publicly proposed a primary to decide which of them should run.
''Does the U.S. Democratic Party have a leader? No opposition has a leader until election time,'' he said in a recent interview. ``Everybody is looking for a champion. We need a David, not a Goliath.''
Salas Rmer is one of five members of what was dubbed the G-5, the Group of Five, considered the nation's top opposition leaders. But even Juan Fernández, another G-5 member, has single-digit support in the polls, León said.
''They want an opposition that takes the reins,'' said Fernández, who does not plan to run. ``That's not leadership. That's a confrontation.''***
Others maintain that Chávez is mounting these attacks to avoid the referendum, while yet others think that he is trying to discredit the international observers so as to slightly reduce the pressure of the electoral climate against him. The Bush administration, the Group of Friends, and even OAS Secretary General César Gaviria have all been targets of the President's frenetic attacks on more than one occasion. But this time, it is expected that Chávez will resort to the pretext of national sovereignty to discredit the position of international players.
The view held by different sectors abroad on the Venezuelan political process does not suit Chávez. So, he accused DeShazo of "lying barefacedly" about the financing that foundations -with the support of the U.S. government- have given to organizations supporting opposition and government groups alike. On the other hand, Chávez did tell a barefaced lie when he said that if there were a referendum he would go to the polls, while he has been resorting to every trick in the book to avoid it.***
Tens of thousands of other forms have also been shelved because the style of handwriting in the signatures does not match personal details. Most of these forms were filled by assistants but signed by the handicapped and the infirm.
The OAS and Carter Center warned the CNE not to dwell on minor technicalities and to respect the will of the people. But the CNE appears to be taking its cue from Mr Chávez, who insists the signature collection procedure was a "mega-fraud", testing the patience of the opposition and foreign observers.
Mr Chávez on Wednesday extended his verbal attacks on the opposition to the OAS, charging that it was itself failing to detect evidence of what he claims is a fraudulent plot to overthrow him orchestrated by George W. Bush, US president.
Diplomats said it was now only a matter of time before the OAS and the Carter Center walked away - if Mr Chávez did not expel them first.***
Much of Venezuela is watching nervously as the National Election Committee reviews the signatures. Two members of the opposition, Timoteo Zambrano and Mauel Cova (part of a formal negotiating process with the government that cleared the way for the recall petition), traveled to the United States recently and met with editors at The Washington Times. Messrs. Zambrano and Cova charged that the Chavez government had tried to block monitors from the Organization of American States (OAS) from observing part of the review and had tried to invalidate signatures on bogus pretenses.
They also claimed that the OAS held firm against these government moves, maintaining it would not certify the review process if their team wasn't guaranteed observation of the committee's review. A recent statement by the OAS alludes to some of the claims made by the opposition: "During the observation of this process, the OAS and the Carter Center have detected technical and administrative defects ... Problems have been noted during the physical verification of signature collection forms, and during the initial days of the work of the second-level review Technical Committee, which was overwhelmed by the large volume of problem signature forms sent to it." The OAS attributed these "defects" to "the novel nature and complexity of the process." The OAS is being too diplomatic. Clearly, the Chavez government didn't want the world to see them trying to fix the election.
Mr. Chavez has a lot to be nervous about. The OAS has been a tenacious observer. Brazil's left-leaning president, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, who has enormous clout in the region, has called on Mr. Chavez to respect the decisions of the electoral committee. And Amnesty International has called Mr. Chavez to account for railing against the pro-democratic efforts of NGOs and human rights groups.
The Chavez government had accused some NGOs and human rights groups of committing "treason" for having received some funding from U.S. agencies.
The electoral committee has set a Feb. 28 deadline for deciding whether the required 2.4 million Venezuelans petitioned for a recall vote. Feb. 28 will, therefore, be a watershed date for the country. Mr. Chavez would be wise to acknowledge how closely he is being watched and respect the decision of the electoral committee. Regardless of the outcome, that decision must be the final word on the current political standoff. [End]
The barracks coup he has planned has few original elements. To start, the official propaganda apparatus would accuse the opposition of concocting plots to overthrow the government in cahoots with the American Embassy, those perfidious, oil-thirsty Yankees. Immediately thereafter, all constitutional guarantees would be suspended, and martial law and curfews would be imposed.
At once, in the name of the fatherland and the defense of its oil interests, the troops and militias loyal to Chávez, directed from the shadows by Cuban officers and commissars, would seize Parliament, ports and airports, banks, means of communication -- especially telephones, newspapers and television stations -- and would arrest their owners and round up the principal leaders of the opposition, the industry and labor unions, which number about 2,000.
Simultaneously, Chávez's forces would encourage the looting of commercial establishments to terrorize the whole of society. Thus, the images of the events seen worldwide will depict widespread public disorder, with undertones of a class struggle, that Hugo Chávez, responsibly, is trying to put down.
Why has Chávez not put into action his sinister project? Because he's not sure that he has the necessary forces. Every time he takes a genuine inventory of his probable defenders, he finds he can count unconditionally with only about 4,800 Cuban ''special troops'' strategically situated in various command posts, plus about 12,000
Venezuelan soldiers dispersed throughout various units under the command of a few dozen officers who are totally loyal to the president. To them, one could add 25,000 chavista militiamen, hurriedly armed during the first 48 hours of the conflict.
Therein lie Chávez's fears: What will probably happen -- if the military coup is launched -- is that the armed forces will split and the coup will trigger a civil war of uncertain results that could put an end to his government and even his life.
But his plans move ahead, and that bloody outcome could be prevented only by the vigorous action of the international forces, especially the two people who may have the fate of Venezuelans in their hands: César Gaviria and Jimmy Carter.***
CNE member Jorge Rodríguez said he had ''no problem'' with studying the suggestion.
''The OAS and The Carter Center consider the concern legitimate in that it is necessary to determine whether one person signed for another, clearly violating the rules,'' the organizations wrote in a statement.
Diplomats here say OAS representatives, upset over perceived government stonewalling, are close to declaring the referendum hopeless.
Such a move would be a black eye to the government, which had promised to permit the recall referendum without excessive red tape.
The statement signed by both groups said they are committed to staying to the end.
Vice President José Vicente Rangel urged the organizations to speak out against opposition groups that he alleged are planning a ''coup against the constitution'' by not recognizing the CNE.
''The CNE has not expressed its will to invalidate every signature,'' Rodríguez said. ``But nor are we going to bow to blackmail and validate every signature just because.'' ***
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