Prayers and peace songs rose up from a throng of thousands of Chavez opponents gathered Tuesday in a Caracas highway. Carlos Ortega, the president of Venezuela's largest labor confederation, urged residents to ring in Christmas at midnight by banging pots and pans to protest Chavez.
"Usually on Christmas Eve I would be decorating the house, cooking or singing songs, but this year it is completely different," said Lourdes Lopez, 34, at a Caracas plaza that has been occupied by bands of rebel military officers for two months.
The square usually boasts a giant Christmas tree.
"It's as if there's no Christmas, but it's worth it," Lopez said. "The people are waking up to democracy." ***
Venezuelans spend Christmas Eve searching for gasoline and cash as strike against Chavez continues ***Chavez has fired four PDVSA executives and promised more dismissals.
The president, who was democratically elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, rejects calls for an early vote, and he is not constitutionally obligated to submit to a recall referendum until August 2003, halfway through his six-year term.
The National Elections Council is organizing a nonbinding referendum asking Venezuelans whether Chavez should resign. The council scheduled the vote for Feb. 2 after accepting an opposition petition signed by at least 2 million people.
Thousands of students spent the weekend before Christmas playing dominoes and card games on Caracas sidewalks as they passed the time in hours-long registration lines.
"We're Venezuelan - we always leave everything to the last minute," Gerardo Sanchez, a council employee, joked as he supervised a line of people registering.
The Organization of American States is mediating negotiations, but OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria said Monday a solution was not close. Talks were to reconvene Thursday.***
A child waves a Venezuelan flag as he sits on his father's shoulders during a pray time held by foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at Christmas eve in Caracas, December 24, 2002. Thousands of Venezuelans spent Christmas Eve on Tuesday waiting in long lines outside gas stations as an opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez dampened the festive spirit and kept a chokehold on oil supplies. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
(February 27, 2001)-- Chávez's school plans ignite furor in Venezuela --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.
.......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.***
Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks during Elian Gonzalez (lower L) ninth birthday party in Cardenas, east of Havana, December 6, 2002. REUTERS/Rafael Perez