Chavez 'Walking on Glass' in Divided Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - "I was rescued by the people and by the people's soldiers," a relieved President Hugo Chavez told cheering supporters and loyal troops last weekend after they ended a short-lived coup against him.

But a week after the flip-flop coup and counter-rebellion that deposed and then restored him to power in the space of 48 hours, Chavez's tempestuous three-year rule of the world's No. 4 oil exporter looks even shakier than before.

"He's walking on a sheet of glass," political analyst Alberto Garrido told Reuters.

After being forced to resign last Friday by military officers who blamed him for the deaths of unarmed opposition protesters, Chavez was swept back into the presidency two days later by loyal troops and fanatical, often violent, supporters who rampaged through the capital Caracas.

While Chavez hailed his return as the vindication of his self-proclaimed "civic-military revolution," many observers said the dramatic and bloody events of April 11-14 had inflamed rather than healed the raw political and social tensions and military splits that triggered the coup in the first place.

"This pot is still boiling," said Garrido, who has written several books about Chavez and the way he has tried to make the military a central pillar of his left-wing populist rule.

Members of the broad but diffuse coalition of business, labor and civilian opponents who had challenged Chavez with a huge protest march to his palace a week ago were licking their wounds and mourning the deaths of 17 people shot down during the march. But they vowed to continue their struggle.

"We're going to regroup. The fracture in our society is not healed and is now also open in the armed forces," said Cipriano Heredia, president of a grass-roots opposition group called "Emerging Vision" that took part in the April 11 march.

Far from presenting a solid base of support for the reinstated Chavez, the country's armed forces, which were directly involved in both ousting him and restoring him, were still seething with divisions and dissent.

"He (Chavez) is the cause of this situation, and he should watch out," Army Gen. Nestor Gonzalez, who had spoken out against the president a day before the failed coup, told Mexican television from a hiding place somewhere in Venezuela.

Gonzalez accused Chavez of ordering armed forces commanders to deploy troops against the anti-government demonstration and he said the commanders' refusal had triggered the original decision to remove the president to avoid bloodshed.

Following his triumphant return on Sunday, an apparently chastened Chavez, clutching a crucifix and a tiny blue copy of the constitution, promised to seek a national consensus. Many foes, who had accused him of ruling like a dictator and trying to steer the oil-rich country toward a Cuban-style regime, were skeptical, saying they wanted action not words.

Launching on Thursday what he said would be a national dialogue between all Venezuelans, the tough-talking president said he would "sheathe his sword" and also never again wear the camouflage paratrooper's uniform that had been his trademark.

This was a concession to military critics who had demanded that Chavez, a former paratroop lieutenant colonel who won a landslide election in 1998 six years after failing to seize power in a botched coup, should stop wearing his uniform in public.

Some opponents have called for Chavez's resignation and others demanded elections. Analysts said the very least that opponents would be satisfied with would be a toning down of the firebrand president's confrontational leadership style, visible reforms to existing policies, and changes to his Cabinet.

Economist Orlando Ochoa said Chavez would have to alter his government's left-leaning statist economic policies to win back the shattered confidence of local and foreign investors.

"Economically, Venezuela does not look recoverable if he keeps the same program as now," Ochoa, a professor at Catholic University in Caracas, told Reuters.

In the months before Friday's coup bid, business and labor opponents had clamored for Chavez to modify laws including one reasserting state control over the oil sector and another to distribute idle private rural estates to the poor. Critics had said the laws would destroy jobs and investment.

However Chavez acts, there seems to be no doubt that the armed forces will be looking over his shoulder.

Garrido said the same armed forces that removed Chavez because they could not accept the killing of unarmed civilian demonstrators also ousted interim president Pedro Carmona because they felt he was violating the constitution when he abolished the parliament.

"They've all told him: you were elected democratically, now rule democratically," Garrido said.

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Bush encourages Chavez to respect democracy - 'learn' lessons *** The U.S. Southern Command said two dozen U.S. Army trainers who were supposed to have gone to Venezuela April 12 as the coup was unfolding were first put on hold, then told Sunday the trip was off for the time being. The two countries also have joint annual exercises in navy and coast guard maneuvers. The Pentagon is watching how the situation in Venezuela develops day to day, defense officials said. "We are postponing military-to-military activities there until the situation on the ground stabilizes," said Capt. Riccoh Player, a Pentagon spokesman for hemisphere issues.

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. ***

July 2001- More Cuban trainers in Venezuela***But the former army officer who led a failed coup in 1992 has touched an especially raw nerve by insisting that the reforms in the education sector should be aimed at ensuring the ``irreversibility'' of his revolution. parents and teachers' unions complain that Chávez is not merely fixing problems, but rather trying to establish a Cuba-like system of political indoctrination for young minds. Among the controversial actions:

A new constitution written by Chávez supporters requires all schools to teach ``Bolivarian principles'' ---- a code phrase for Chávez's brand of leftist populism ---- and the pro-Chávez majority in the legislative National Assembly is preparing a bill laying out the exact curriculum. Last month, the president issued Decree 1011, creating a corps of ``itinerant inspectors'' empowered to close schools and fire teachers that don't follow government-set procedures and standards.

``Political commissars,'' Agudo called them. Jaime Manzo, head of the national teachers' union, called it ``a sword hanging over the head of any teacher who refuses to sing Chávez's praises in the classroom.'' Parents' groups and the teachers' union have appealed to the Supreme Court to block the decree and submitted to the assembly an alternate education reform plan that guarantees a ``pluralist education'' and bans ``partisan politics'' from the classroom.

New history texts for fourth- and sixth-graders published in 1999 praised Chávez's coup attempt and branded as ``corrupt oligarchies'' the two parties that ruled Venezuela since the late 1950s, Democratic Action and COPEI. Chávez has also greatly expanded a system of paramilitary classes in public high schools that had long been on the books but were seldom held, portraying them as ``the founding stones of the new Venezuelan man.''

``He is promoting militarism, infecting texts with viruses that foster class hatreds ... and speak against globalization and privatization,'' Raffalli said in an interview. Chávez recently signed a deal with Cuba under which Havana will train Venezuelan teachers and provide educational materials, and Education Minister Hector Navarro last year approved a nationwide essay competition on the life of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto ``Ché'' Guevara.***

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