Posted on 02/20/2003 1:07:09 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - Thousands of government opponents staged a street rally on Thursday to protest the arrest of opposition leader Carlos Fernandez, who faces charges of treason and instigating violence.
Chanting "Free Fernandez!" and "This is a dictatorship!" while waving red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flags, angry demonstrators marched round an air force base in eastern Caracas. Songs calling for peace boomed from loudspeakers while motorists honked horns.
President Hugo Chavez, speaking at the presidential palace, said he gave secret police the green light to detain Fernandez.
"One of the coup plotters was arrested last night. It was about time, and see how the others are running to hide," Chavez triumphed. "I went to bed with a smile."
Chavez said judges shouldn't "be afraid to issue arrest warrants against coup-plotters."
Government opponents at the rally accused the former paratroop commander of trying to establish a Cuban-style dictatorship in this South American nation of 24 million.
"This is an escalation of violence by the government, which has arrived at the extreme of repression," said Carlos Feijoo, 88, a retired oil worker at the demonstration. "He wants to copy Fidel (Castro)."
Government allies warned that more than 100 opposition leaders - ranging from labor bosses to news media executives - who supported a two-month strike to oust Chavez could also be arrested. The work stoppage ended on Feb. 4 in all sectors except the oil industry.
"More than one hundred are on the list to be captured," said Luis Velasquez, a ruling party lawmaker. It could not be immediately confirmed if such a list existed.
Eight armed secret police agents seized Fernandez at about midnight Wednesday as he was leaving a restaurant in Caracas' trendy Las Mercedes district, said his bodyguard, Juan Carlos Fernandez. He said the men fired in the air when patrons tried to stop them from taking Fernandez.
Fernandez and Carlos Ortega, president of the country's largest labor union, called the strike on Dec. 2 to demand Chavez's resignation and early elections.
Fernandez's wife, Sonia, spoke briefly with her husband by telephone and said that he was in good condition at secret police headquarters. Fernandez was meeting with his attorneys, she said.
Ortega was ordered to surrender, also on treason and instigating violence charges, said magistrate Maikel Jose Moreno. The tough-talking labor boss said he wouldn't turn himself in.
"We have nothing to fear," Ortega said in a telephone interview with the local Globovision TV channel. "The only one who has a date with justice is the president."
Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, has accused the two opposition leaders of plotting to overthrow his government with the strike and by orchestrating "an economic coup."
Cesar Gaviria, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, said Venezuelan judges have the autonomy to make such decisions.
But judicial decisions should be based on "independence, impartiality and conform in strict compliance with the laws and respect for rights consecrated in the constitution," Gaviria said in a communique.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said officials in Washington were worried the arrest could hinder efforts to end the stalemate between political rivals.
"We fear the act could undermine the dialogue process," said Boucher, adding "this increases our concerns about human rights in Venezuela."
Albis Munoz, vice president of Fedecamaras business chamber, which Fernandez leads, warned of another nationwide strike in response to the arrest. The Confederation of Venezuelan Workers said a 12- or 24-hour stoppage was possible.
Opposition leaders called for more street protests and appealed to the OAS, the United Nations (news - web sites) and the Carter Center, run by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, which have brokered talks here.
Chavez supporters gathered near the secret police headquarters and a downtown plaza to celebrate the arrest.
"It's what had to be done. These opposition leaders tried to destroy the country, now they must be punished," said Tomas Ordonez, a 49-year-old taxi driver.
Deja-freakin'-vu! You idiots, STOP CALLING CARTER, he is NOT YOUR FRIEND!!! Don't you remember the Sandinistas? Carter's natural and irrepressible response to a vangard lenninist regime is to nurture, coddle and protect it. Carter detests everything you represent. He wants Chavez to win this fight and he wants you to LOSE.
Bump!
He hadn't consolidated his power at that time. Now he has. Expect more of this.
Interesting you should say that.
The event last April wasn't actually a coup. His private militia opened fire and gunned down several dozen people. That provoked his generals to place him under arrest for murder.
They tried to establish a transitional government, to take them back to the pre-Chavez constitution. The problem is that Chavez has a fair amount of support among the younger officers, who it happens were the ones assigned to guard him.
When the militia and the pro-Chavist mobs seized the presidential palace, his jailers put him on a chopper and flew him back in. The "transitional government" was not prepared to fight, and simply folded.
The temporary "president" was arrested, and has since left the country.
The general who arrested Chavez was charged with treason, and tried by the Supreme Court, who were hand-picked by Chavez. They turned him loose. He was re-charged, and Chavez threatened the Supreme Court justices with arrest if they failed to convict him; they turned him loose again.
This indicates that Chavez's support has eroded mightily when his toadies are no longer obeying him, under threat of arrest.
The general in question went to one of the main plazas in town and announced that he was not going home until Chavez was gone. This was the start of the Altamira movement, which has been demanding Chavez's resignation since.
Since then the militias have continued to shoot and kill opposition demonstrators, and soldiers and officers who express dissent have been murdered.
Tue Feb 18, 6:34 PM ET |
A Venezuelan opposition supporter, wearing a Statue of Liberty headdress, shouts slogans against President Hugo Chavez during a demonstration against terrorism in Caracas, February 18, 2003. REUTERS/Jorge Silva |
That is what took place from the inaugural podium when Chavez took power. He canceled the constitution, fired the Supreme Court, and closed Congress.
Legally, obviously, he couldn't do it. But he did do it.
I would count that as the start of his dictatorship, but he continued to observe the niceties of democratic, if not legal, government for a while longer. Perhaps a better benchmark for the start of autocratic government came later, when he tired of having to pass everything through his supremely compliant Congress, and directed them to grant him rule by decree. From that day forward, he has been bound not even by his own hand-written constitution, nor by his own hand-picked Supreme Court.
When they arrested him last April, they announced a return to the pre-Chavez Constitution. Obviously, the post-Chavez institutions would be terminated. While that makes perfect legal sense, it was probably a political mistake, as even though the Court was a wholly Chavist creation, and the Congress had been packed with Chavists at its inception, by that April even they had turned on him. So if the transitional government left them alone, at least until the new elections, they would probably have supported the new "president". Firing them drove them back over to Chavez's side.
I think we've had this discussion before. Democracy depends on the rule of law to have any meaning. If you elect a president who is not bound by any law, if you elect a party that does not believe in liberty, you have already lost your freedom. The country is already in a state of revolutionary rule. Chavez is not a "democrat", he is a revolutionary, and he will not be voted out. Once rule of law has been suspended, and it has, you have to be prepared to fight. Your democratic institutions have been subverted and have become your jailers.
It is quite possible to vote yourself into slavery. It is not possible to vote yourself out of it.
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Uh, tell that to the thousands of 'enablers' that Chavez has imported from Cuba, the Middle East, China, and Brazil...
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