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]
More than 40 years of uninterrupted democratic rule almost came to an end April 12 when, in the aftermath of a popular uprising, the military took Chavez into custody. An attempt by businessman Pedro Carmona to form a replacement government collapsed, and Chavez was reinstated Sunday. ***
No doubt it will survive this brouhaha, and maybe even chalk it up to business as usual. But in fact it could have spared itself considerable grief had it not been so busy in the Middle East muddying signals about what its commitments in the War on Terrorism amount to. What seems to have escaped notice is that Hugo Chavez's survival and the huge embarrassment it has caused the administration mark an important setback in this war, particularly to U.S. credibility in dividing the post-9/11 world into those who choose to be with us, and those who risk annihilation if they choose not to be.***
The administration of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is among few in the hemisphere expected to side with Cuba and vote against the measure. Cuba backed Chavez's return to power on Sunday after a two-day military coup. "The government of the United States - using its preferred weapons of pressure and blackmail and with the humiliating servility of some governments in the region - seeks tomorrow in Geneva to execute a new maneuver against Cuba," the Communist Party daily Granma said Thursday.***
Castro said in the note appearing in the Juventud Rebelde newspaper that his foreign ministry contacted representatives of foreign missions in Cuba and Venezuela early April 12 to "prevent Chavez from immolating himself in the Miraflores Palace, as he was proposing, with the 300 Bolivarian cadre (supporters) and the Honor Guard accompanying him."
Chavez considers Castro a friend and at one point during the crisis did talk with him on the telephone, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque confirmed last week. He refused to give details. Castro's statements appeared to be in response to news reports from Spain, citing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar about contacts with Cuba during the Venezuelan crisis.***
Ali Rodriguez, secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has spent the week in Caracas, Venezuela, mulling Chavez's invitation to take the top job at Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Rodriguez had served earlier as energy minister under Chavez, and an OPEC source said there was a 70 percent likelihood that he would accept the president's offer.
Venezuela is the third-largest supplier of oil to the United States and a leading member of OPEC. Petroleos de Venezuela was at the center of a dispute that sparked last week's failed coup against Chavez.
As boss at OPEC, Rodriguez has shared Chavez's interest in trying to keep oil prices high by sharply limiting crude production by the group's 11 member countries. But Jan Stuart, head of research for global energy futures at ABN AMRO in New York, said Rodriguez would be more than just a Chavez puppet if he took the job at PdVSA.***
International audiences -- and in fact, many Venezuelans -- were baffled by Chavez's tumultuous overthrow and swift return to power between April 11 and April 14. Many have speculated that Chavez launched a controlled auto-coup to flush out his numerous opponents within the FAN and opposition political groups.
In fact, as Caracas returns to normalcy, it's becoming clearer that extremist groups on both sides that strongly support or oppose the Chavez regime likely took advantage of this situation -- the largest anti-government demonstration in Venezuela's history -- to trigger a violent confrontation that unseated Chavez, but ultimately restored him to power. STRATFOR has pieced together the following chain of events April 11-12 from public and private sources in Venezuela:***
....... We have an endless problem, contending with our superstitious assumption that a democratically elected leader is absolutely entitled to govern. He is presumptively entitled to govern. Allende was democratically elected in Chile, and in three years was busy subverting freedom of the press and the nation's Constitution, inaugurating years of despotism by Pinochet. The restored Hugo Chavez has said he will seek to cooperate with the policies of his opponents, and so far, he hasn't executed anybody, but democratic standards aren't automatically guaranteed by his restoration. The U.S. didn't engineer the attempted coup, but there is no reason to rejoice in its failure.***
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They need to go for the long term fix instead of the short term one. But it takes someone with leadership abilities, who won't be run out of office or one who won't pander just to stay in office. However, this is difficult, if not impossible, until the system of bribes and payoffs is stopped.
The same situation is on the horizon in Venezuela. I don't see Hugo stepping down. He's ruined the economy, as he's taken over the government and blames his problems on the middle class and the oil company while inciting class warfare. It isn't pretty what's happening and the time is ripe for communism to sweep this whole area.
...."In Europe there are heads of state, or entire peoples, who are going to think that the United States was involved in this. That would be very negative for the tranquility of the world, for democracy in the world," Chavez said. "It is important that this is cleared up." The Bush administration has maintained that it discouraged any talk of a coup, but it blamed Chavez for his own overthrow before criticizing the coup itself. Chavez said he hoped that U.S.-Venezuelan relations would reach "an optimum state" and reiterated that petroleum from the U.S.' third-largest supplier would keep flowing.****
Chavez's defenders sharply disputed the account Friday, depicting the coup as a carefully planned plot backed by anti-Chavez interests abroad and headed by opposition leaders willing to kill their own followers to get rid of the president.
The battle of words bodes ill for Venezuela's goal of reconciliation. A poll published Friday suggested Caracas residents believe they'll never know who was responsible for the bloodshed at an April 11 anti-Chavez march hours before the coup.
At least 16 people died that day. In all, more than 100 people died and hundreds more were wounded during subsequent riots and looting.
A military judge on Friday ordered five high-ranking officers to indefinite house arrest pending formal charges of rebellion. The decision could deepen rifts within the armed forces.
"We still consider this to be an illegitimate government," said Rear Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo as he was whisked away by military police. "The armed forces are very beaten down and divided." Tamayo had denounced Chavez in February.
Asked if Chavez was reorganizing the military to his liking, Molina Tamayo replied: "Maybe. But he can't remake the country to his liking."
Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco, the army's former second-in-command, greeted reporters with a crisp salute outside the military courtroom. "The general acted out of respect for human rights, respect for the law," Vasquez's lawyer, Rene Buroz, said after a hearing on rebellion and mutiny charges that carry a 30-year maximum sentence.
Defense lawyer Hidalgo Valero said that as many as 3,000 officers supported or participated in the uprising against Chavez. Hundreds of lower-ranking officers have testified before military intelligence officers.
Army Gen. Nestor Gonzalez has defended the coup as "a humanitarian act meant to avoid having the army attack the people and produce a massacre." Gonzalez said generals balked at Chavez's order to activate "Plan Avila," calling out troops to defend the palace by any means necessary during the march by hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Chavez was confronted by his high command after the bloodbath. Asked why the generals didn't grant Chavez's request to flee to Cuba, Gen. Hector Gonzalez said the army was afraid of taking the blame for the dead.
"If the president had been allowed to leave, he would have left all of these deaths and this tremendous conflict for us to clear up, that was implicit," Gonzalez said. "What would society have thought?"
Chavez's chief ideologue - Guillermo Garcia Ponce, whose official title is director of the Revolutionary Political Command - insists that dissident generals, local media and anti-Chavez groups in the United States plotted his overthrow. He claims they even hired sharpshooters to fire on the anti-Chavez demonstrators.
"The most reactionary sectors in the United States were also implicated in the conspiracy," Garcia Ponce told Globovision television on Friday. Asked to explain the April 11 shooting of opposition protesters, purportedly by Chavez's own activists, Garcia Ponce blamed provocateurs.
"The people planning it placed sharpshooters at strategic points to open fire on pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez marches," Garcia Ponce said. "It was a provocation, part of the coup, to create this massacre to justify the coup."
Garcia Ponce did admit that members of the Bolivarian Circles, pro-Chavez neighborhood committees, were sent to newspaper and television offices after the coup to pressure journalists "to tell the truth." With gunfire crackling around their offices, several newspapers failed to publish editions that day.
Comar, a private survey firm, said 56 percent of Caracas residents polled said they'll never know what happened; 33 percent said they will; and 11 percent were uncertain. The poll of 500 people had a 5 percent margin of error and was published by El Universal newspaper.[End]
Although he has proffered public apologies and opened talks with opponents of his three-year rule since his return, he seemed far from contrite in the interview, taped on Wednesday, and his words seemed unlikely to persuade rivals that he would change his style or the left-leaning policies that put him on collision course with business leaders and the middle class. Some in the opposition have said they do not recognize him as legitimate president of the world's No. 4 oil exporter. To them, Chavez's message was blunt: "Either they change their attitude and join negotiations ... or they'll be isolated." But launching talks on Thursday with governors, ministers and mayors designed to chart Venezuela's future, he said anyone who did not accept the supremacy of the 1999 Constitution, a copy of which he constantly waves in public, could go home.
REFERENDUM 'NOT NECESSARY'
Asked about opposition calls for a referendum on whether early elections should be held -- the next are scheduled for 2006 -- Chavez said: "I don't think that's necessary." He slammed such calls as outside the "framework of logic" and said they "do not have deep roots in reality." Opposition groups earlier met to chart a course ahead. "There are going to be more street initiatives because people have to express themselves," Elias Santana, founder of the "We Want to Choose" opposition group, told Reuters.***
[Full Text] CARACAS - Pedro Carmona, president for a day, insists that he was catapulted into the position last week -- however briefly -- as a spontaneous act of bravery, not the result of a monthslong conspiracy.
In an interview with The Herald on Friday, Carmona denied ever plotting to oust Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, saying he never suggested the idea to U.S. officials in Washington or Caracas. If he made any mistakes -- and he's pretty sure he did -- he apologizes to the nation.
''I was not involved in any conspiracy,'' Carmona said. ``I cannot accept any conjecture or soap operas. I categorically deny it.''
The 60-year-old business group leader was named president of Venezuela last week when a joint military-civic alliance forced Chávez from office. Carmona's appointment followed two turbulent days that saw hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans marching in the streets, and at least a dozen of them getting killed.
Carmona lasted less than two days.
His controversial decision to suspend the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, and parts of the constitution led military allies to break away from him, at the same time that opposition members were bickering internally. While they quarreled, Chávez loyalists surged forward and put him back in office.
HOUSE ARREST
Now the diminutive and soft-spoken civic leader is under house arrest, accused of inciting rebellion.
''Mine was an act of courage and valor to avoid a vacuum,'' he said. ``People are saying the interim government was dictatorial. They perceived it was a dictatorship. It wasn't that way.''
The rumors of a coup to oust Chávez were being whispered, if not shouted, for months before the revolt.
The former paratroop commander had alienated the middle class, the church, the business sector, the unions and the media. As far back as January, Chávez publicly accused Carmona of plotting a revolt against him.
Carmona steadfastly denies it, despite the admission from Washington that Venezuelan leaders approached diplomats with the idea of a coup. Carmona attended at least two U.S. embassy meetings where the idea came up, but the business leader himself never mentioned it, a diplomatic source told The Herald.
LOW-KEY ATTITUDE
Even Chávez describes Carmona as straightforward and low-key -- until schemers manipulated him.
''They put it in his head that he would be president,'' Chávez said Monday. 'They told him, `You're the man! You're the man to solve Venezuela's problems!' ''
Carmona said he has been misunderstood because in his brief tenure as head of state, the opposition wasted too much time forming a cabinet and naming the high military command. Had the coup been hatched in advance, those key decisions would have already been made, Carmona said.
The one-day president regrets not emphasizing that he planned a 35-member representative council to help him run the nation. Elections, he said, would have been held in 90 days for the assembly and by December for the presidency. He would not have been a candidate.
The pro-Chávez assembly was suspended, he said, because the new government would never have accomplished its goals with a congress so stacked to favor one party. Carmona denies any connection to businessman Isaac Pérez, who the local press says financed the operation.
''There is no connection between me and him,'' Carmona said emphatically. ``I did not receive one cent from him. I am not manipulated.''
Political analysts here say Carmona, former president of a business chamber called Fedecámaras, became more aggressive as Chávez did.
''Pedro Carmona was always moderate, conciliatory,'' said Margarita López Maya, a professor at the University of Central Venezuela. ``As he rose in Fedecámaras, he became more aggravated, a situation which got worse because the government was provoking everyone.''
His short-lived reign as president, she said, was a total failure.
''I never cease being amazed at the mistakes and stumbles,'' López said. ``These were irresponsible people. They had no proposal for the country. It was a step back.''
But others point out that many were rejoicing in Carmona and singing his praises -- until his interim government collapsed.
`THE FALL GUY'
''A week ago everybody was saying what a great guy he was, professional, straight, ethical. Now everyone is pointing fingers at him for being a dope,'' one western diplomat said. ``He's the fall guy.''
Carmona said he will continue to be a civic activist but will stay out of politics. The Chávez administration has so far treated him ''with respect,'' he said, and he hopes his criminal case will be free of political influence.
''I have never been a politician; that is not my world,'' Carmona said. ``As for Venezuela, we will continue the struggle.''[End]
But the Bush administration's failure to demand a constitutional resolution to the crisis early on was a major blunder, which threatens to overshadow the public memory of the role played by recent U.S. administrations in defense of democracy in countries such as Haiti, Paraguay and Peru. Perhaps, the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 embrace of military leaders such as Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf and other U.S. allies in the war on terrorism led top U.S. officials to forget that -- whatever the U.S. policy in the rest of the world may be -- there is a treaty for the collective defense of democracy in the Americas. It was rightly used against the Venezuelan coup plotters, and it should be used against Chávez if he crosses the line of democratic rule.***
"Venezuela has a government that was legitimately elected and enjoys popular support. I might even say that it enjoys more popular support than any other country in the American continent," he said. He claimed the news media were "putting on a show" with the officers.
Adding weight to the dissidents' argument that they speak for a silent majority in the ranks, a Bush administration official said Tuesday that some Venezuelan officers have sounded out U.S. diplomats about how Washington would react to a coup. They were told the U.S. stridently opposes any subversion of Venezuela's democratic process, the official said on condition he not be identified.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the United States has made no secret of its concerns that Chavez has tried to stifle dissent. "We believe that all parties should respect democratic institutions," said the spokesman, Richard Boucher. "That applies to whatever direction the attacks on democracy might be coming from," he added. [End Excerpt]
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March 7, 2002- U.S. Gets Tough on Chavez, Will Not Back His Ouster -(Bets on he won't be in office much longer) [Excerpt] U.S. administrations have taken a wait-and-see view since the former military coup plotter was elected with massive support in 1998, and have tolerated his anti-American rhetoric and visits to Cuba, Libya and Iraq. ………….Washington did not want to rock the boat or stoke nationalist sentiment in the South American country, which supplies the United States with 1.5 million barrels a day of oil and has the largest reserves outside the Middle East. But the Bush administration adopted a tougher line after the Venezuelan leader criticized the United States for bombing innocent people in Afghanistan in its war on terrorism.
"There was a change when he attacked us for our military actions in Afghanistan. We decided that we would not let that pass," a Bush administration official told Reuters. But he added: "We don't want Venezuelans to fall into unconstitutional temptations to reach a quick solution." "The line that we only cared about what he does and not about what he says has clearly been exhausted," said Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank.
In the first public criticism of Chavez by a top U.S. official, Secretary of State Colin Powell questioned his democratic values and his visits to "despotic regimes" during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Feb. 5. The next day, CIA director George Tenet expressed concern with the buildup of discontent inside the United States' third-largest supplier of oil. "The crisis atmosphere is likely to worsen," Tenet told a Senate intelligence hearing. …………..
Political analysts in Washington believe Chavez's days are numbered, unless he drops his confrontational style and reaches out to sectors of Venezuelan society he has annoyed.
"Not too many Venezuela watchers in Washington think he is going to be there at the end of this year, though it may be a little longer," said Mark Falcoff, the Latin America specialist at the American Enterprise Institute. "He is his worst enemy. He is obviously living in a bubble." Falling oil prices, incompetent management of the economy and corruption has fueled widespread unrest, Falcoff said. On Tuesday, Venezuela's leading business and labor groups forged a rare alliance against Chavez, making clear they are seeking a way to force him out within the framework of the country's constitution.
Options under study are the impeachment of the president on the grounds of mental incapacity or a referendum, though under the constitution that cannot be called until January 2004. "If Chavez can't fix the situation, he will not finish his term. The situation is really serious," the Bush administration official said. "He has enraged everyone he needs to govern."[End Excerpt]
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March 20, 2002- Bush to Be Tough on U.S. Aid During LatAm Trip-[Excerpt] During his talks with world leaders at the conference, Bush will promote his initiative to help poor nations that respect human rights, root out corruption, open their markets, and have education and health care systems. "I'm going to be tough about it," Bush told a group of regional reporters Tuesday in a preview of his trip. "I'm not interested in funding corruption."
Bush separately had some tough talk about Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. The image of the world's No. 4 oil exporter has taken a beating in recent months as opponents of the maverick left-wing president have stepped up protests against his three-year rule, raising fears that political confrontation may worsen and even turn to violence.
"We are concerned about Venezuela," Bush said, citing the long-term U.S. relationship with the country, particularly in the oil business. "We are concerned any time there is unrest in our neighborhood. We are watching the situation carefully. This man was elected by the people. We respect democracy in our country, and we hope he respects the democratic institutions within his country," the president said. [End Excerpt]
Gen. Luis Acevedo was flying back to Caracas late on Friday after attending a ceremony at Venezuela's naval academy when the Super Puma helicopter came down in heavily forested mountains just north of the capital. Three other generals and three lieutenants were among the 10 victims of the crash, which is being investigated.
"I don't have enough elements to make a judgment, but, until now, we are handling it as bad weather," Rincon said. "The helicopter had no mechanical faults at any time." Rincon was in another helicopter caught in the same poor weather and had to make an emergency landing. No one was killed or injured on that flight, and a third helicopter carrying the head of the National Guard also landed safely.-----Chavez, who himself led a failed coup in 1992, reshuffled his armed forces this week, promoting loyalists like Acevedo while prosecuting others who took part in the military rebellion against him.***
Ortega won one of the few political victories over the president by defeating Chavez-backed rivals in a union vote last year. Chavez then refused to recognize the union leaders, who were also upset by several laws he enacted by decree. Ortega on Saturday welcomed Chavez's appointment of Ali Rodriguez, secretary-general of OPEC, as the new head of Venezuela's state oil monopoly. "He has been capable of good work ... we have had a relationship with him in the past," Ortega said. He demanded that the company's yet-to-be-named board of directors be "broad" and include civic leaders. Chavez sparked a crisis in the company, known as PDVSA, by attempting to pack the previous board with supporters and political appointees.
Ortega confirmed that during a recent labor trip to the United States, the subject of dissatisfaction with Chavez came up, but he said U.S. officials said they would not back a coup. "The State Department said they wouldn't support any kind of coup, and that any change that occurred in the country had to come from a democratic viewpoint," Ortega said. He pledged to lead his unions in a traditional May 1 march, but said it would not become the kind of political demonstration held on April 11.***
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