www.miami.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 03, 2003 BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@herald.com

SIGN HERE: Venezuelan citizens gather Sunday in Caracas for a signature drive asking them to renounce Hugo Chavez's rule. So many people headed to signing tables that a number of stations ran out of petitions. LESLIE MAZOCH/AP

CARACAS - With its leverage severely weakened with the virtual end of a two-month commercial strike, Venezuela's opposition held a massive signature drive Sunday with the anticipation of finding a legal end to President Hugo Chávez's rule.

Nearly two million signatures were required for nearly a dozen different petitions, requesting a range of options including an assembly to draft a new constitution and a recall referendum to oust Chávez.

So many people headed to signing tables around the nation that many stations ran out of petitions.

''I signed them all,'' said Rene Piñango, whose entire family signed Sunday. ``If the first doesn't work, we'll go to the second and then to the third until we go though every last one. They are the only options we have left.''

PART-TIME OPENINGS

The signature drive took place a day after civic leaders trying to oust Chávez announced that malls, schools and franchise restaurants would open at least part-time beginning today, signaling an end to the commercial portion of a 63-day strike.

While opposition leaders tried to save face by painting the strike's final steps as a goodwill gesture to international mediators here, analysts said it was the last breath of a dying cause that failed in its principal mission.

''They may be lifting the strike, but we are not lifting the struggle,'' said Julio Borges, a leading opposition legislator. ``A person can die for their country, but the country can't die for one person. We're dealing with someone who is absolutely irrational and selfish; we couldn't let the country be destroyed.''

Opposition leaders declared a strike on Dec. 2 with the goal of toppling Chávez, a leftist firebrand who has been in office since 1998.

Many Venezuelans firmly believe Chávez is instituting a quasi-communist regime that does not respect private property or the separation of powers.

He took on major sectors of the community -- labor unions, business groups, the oil industry -- until they banded together to demand his removal from office.

PHASE SAID OVER

But both sides underestimated the other's strength, and Chávez remained in office, despite the loss of $4 billion in oil revenues alone. The state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., remains on strike despite the easing of the national work stoppage.

''Today, in my opinion, we're seeing the end of a phase,'' said political analyst Alberto Garrido, author of nine books on Chávez. 'The phase of the general strike is over, whether they call it `flexibilization' or whatever name they choose to use.''

With only the oil company on strike, the opposition is now faced with coming up with their next strategy.

Lacking strong leadership and a political platform, the effort appeared to be losing steam as even striking oil workers acknowledged that the government produced nearly 1.1 million barrels of oil Friday, a third of normal.

''Today is a victorious day,'' Chávez said Sunday in his weekly TV and radio program. ``We have beaten once and for all a new destabilizing attempt, a new malevolent and criminal attempt to sink Venezuela.''

Opposition leaders insisted the strike succeeded because it brought international attention to their cause.

'FRIENDS' MEETING

A six-member ''Group of Friends'' -- the United States, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Brazil -- now sits at the negotiation table trying to hammer out a solution to the political crisis. Sunday's petition drive was intended to guarantee signatures for whatever solution the ''Friends'' draft.

''You have to give strikers some credit. They put Venezuela in the international spotlight,'' said Miguel Diaz, a political analyst in Washington, D.C.

``I don't think the strikers lost. I think Venezuela lost.''

Special correspondent Phil Gunson contributed to this report.

www.whittierdailynews.com246371153875,00.html Car crash kills 1, hurts 3 U.S. troops

A member of the U.S. military died from a head injury and three others were injured after a traffic accident on Saturday. The other three soldiers were in stable condition at a military medical facility at the al-Udeid U.S. airbase in Qatar.

The troops were stationed at Camp As Sayliyah, a base 15 miles outside Doha that would be used as operational headquarters for a war against Iraq. They were returning to their base at about 5:30 p.m. after conducting official business in Doha, said Army Capt. David Connolly.

The military would not release the victims' identities or their units. There were no other injuries in the accident, which was still under investigation Sunday night.

This is the second fatality the American military has suffered in the Gulf state of Qatar since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said. In October 2001, Master Sgt. Evander Earl "Andy' Andrews died in a construction accident.

Czech president Havel ends his term

PRAGUE, Czech Republic

Vaclav Havel, the former dissident playwright who led the revolutionary movement that peacefully toppled communism here 13 years ago, marked the end of his final presidential term Sunday.

"I bid you farewell as your president,' Havel said at the end of his address on state television just hours before his term's expiration at midnight. "I remain with you as your fellow citizen.'

During the prerecorded five-minute speech, he thanked the Czech people for their support and asked their forgiveness for his mistakes. He also alluded to the dramatic events that have marked the nation's transition from communism to democracy since he first took power in 1989.

Chavez declares victory in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez declared victory Sunday after his opponents agreed to ease a two-month national strike, but thousands of Venezuelans still lined up for a petition drive seeking his ouster.

Strike organizers, who began the protest Dec. 2 to pressure Chavez into accepting a referendum on his rule, said Friday they would ease the work stoppage, already waning, this week to protect businesses from bankruptcy.

However, the strike will continue in the vital oil industry, where production was cut from 3 million barrels a day to 150,000 at the height of the strike. Chavez said Sunday the government boosted production to 1.8 million barrels a day, but striking workers put the number at 1 million.

"Today is a victorious day,' the president said in his weekly television and radio program. "We have beaten once and for all a new destabilizing attempt, a new malevolent and criminal attempt to sink Venezuela.'

Rioters clash with police in Abidjan

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast

In their biggest protest since this West African nation's civil war began five months ago, hundreds of opposition supporters clashed with police on Sunday after the discovery of a body thought to be that of a key opposition figure.

Supporters of the opposition Rally of the Republicans said the body of Kamara Yerefe, a popular comedian known as "H,' was found in a Dumpster near an auto junkyard early Sunday. Yerefe, a northern Muslim, was a key political figure in the party.

Yerefe's family accused paramilitary police of assassinating him. A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said agents of the internal security service had picked up Yerefe on Saturday night.

Police said the body had not been identified.

Rioters stormed through Abidjan's crowded Adjame neighborhood, erecting barricades and burning tires. Police fired tear gas and shots in the air to disperse the demonstrators, who set a bus ablaze in the middle of a highway.

Suspected radicals arrested in Greece

ATHENS, Greece

Three suspected members of a radical far-left group including the mayor of an Aegean Sea island were arrested in weekend raids by police, authorities said Sunday.

The raids were part of a major police effort to smash shadowy Greek terror groups ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The suspects, arrested Saturday and Sunday, were identified as Angeletos Kanas, the 52-year-old mayor of the Aegean Sea island of Kimolos, Constantine Agapiou, 56, a civil engineer and 49-year-old Irene Athanasaki.

Police spokesman Lefteris Economou said the three were accused of participation in a terrorist group, the Revolutionary Popular Struggle, or ELA, which has eluded authorities since it first appeared in 1975.

All three were being questioned at Greek police headquarters in central Athens and were to appear before a public prosecutor. Police also questioned more than a dozen people, none of whom were held.

ELA claimed responsibility for the murder of two police officers and more than 100 bomb attacks including many American commercial targets before it officially disbanded in 1995.

:- From wire reports

www.globeandmail.com By PAUL KNOX Monday, February 3, 2003 – Page A14

CARACAS -- Hundreds of thousands of President Hugo Chavez's foes turned out across Venezuela yesterday to sign recall petitions aimed at kicking him out of office and annulling laws passed during his four years in power.

But their leaders drastically scaled back a two-month-old strike in the world's No. 5 oil-exporting country, and the flamboyant President said the campaign against him had failed.

Mr. Chavez threatened legal action against oil-refinery workers and others guilty of what he called "sabotage" during the strike, which has sharpened a serious economic downturn in this country of 24 million.

"They've been defeated," he said on his weekly television program, referring to opposition leaders. "They have F for failure stamped on their foreheads."

But supporters of the petition said they still hope to force an early electoral test of the President's rule, which opponents say has brought Venezuela to the brink of economic ruin.

"The only way out of this is to have elections as soon as possible," said accountant Luis Benavides, 55, as he waited to sign the petitions in the middle-class Chacaito district.

Mr. Benavides said he voted for Mr. Chavez in 1998, but he feels betrayed.

"This is an autocratic, authoritarian government with communist tendencies."

Long lines formed in middle-class and affluent sections of Caracas, as residents, many wearing clothes depicting the yellow, blue and red Venezuelan flag, waited to sign the petitions.

Turnout was scant in the working-class Petare district.

"The rich don't like this government. The poor do," said Pedro Rojas, 29, an autobody painter who said he would not sign.

Mr. Chavez, a former paratrooper who led an abortive military coup d'état in 1992, but later won election as a civilian, said he has boosted school enrolment by more than a million and lowered infant mortality since taking office.

Banks, shopping centres and supermarkets are set to reopen this week in what opposition leaders bravely described as "giving flexibility" to the strike, which began on Dec. 2.

Workers at the state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela remain on strike. But more than 5,000 of them, including 700 senior executives, have been fired for walking out. The work stoppage was aimed at forcing Mr. Chavez to agree to a non-binding referendum on whether he should continue in office.

He refused but has agreed to discuss the country's political future in talks involving foreign facilitators.

Under discussion are proposals for a binding recall referendum in August and a constitutional amendment to cut his term to four years from six. Either measure would lead to elections this year.

Petitions calling for such measures were among those being signed yesterday.

Another aimed to revoke 47 emergency decrees passed by Mr. Chavez.

Opposition leaders said they were confident of obtaining the 2.4 million signatures needed to force a presidential recall vote.

washingtontimes.com By Stephen Ixer ASSOCIATED PRESS

     CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez declared victory yesterday after his opponents agreed to ease a two-month national strike, but thousands of Venezuelans still lined up for a petition drive seeking his ouster.

     Strike organizers, who began the protest Dec. 2 to pressure Mr. Chavez into accepting a referendum on his rule, said Friday they would ease the work stoppage, which was already waning, to protect businesses from bankruptcy.

     However, the strike will continue in the vital oil industry, where production was cut from 3 million barrels a day to 150,000 at the height of the strike. Mr. Chavez said yesterday the government had boosted production to 1.8 million barrels a day, but striking workers put the number at 1 million.

     "Today is a victorious day," the president said in his weekly television and radio program. "We have beaten once and for all a new destabilizing attempt, a new malevolent and criminal attempt to sink Venezuela."

     But opposition leaders — who accuse Mr. Chavez of ruining the economy with leftist policies and trying to accumulate too much power — were far from conceding defeat.

     Thousands of Venezuelans waited hours in the tropical sun to sign petitions at tables nationwide in support of various measures renouncing Mr. Chavez's government and seeking his ouster.

     Four persons were injured, including two police officers, when pro-Chavez activists threw stones, fireworks and tear gas canisters near two petition tables in downtown Caracas, Police Chief Henry Vivas said. A car belonging to a private local television channel also was set alight.

     The opposition hopes one petition in particular — a constitutional amendment reducing Mr. Chavez's term from six to four years — will succeed, paving the way for general elections later this year.

     Under the constitution, organizers need signatures from 15 percent, or about 1.8 million, of the country's 12 million registered voters — a number they expect to surpass easily.

     "We're looking for the fastest way to get out of this crisis," said Freddy Hurtado, 56, an advertising agent who complained of poor business even before the strike began. "Given that the president is the cause of the crisis, we're going to get rid of him with our signatures."

     The amendment was one of two proposals made by Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President Jimmy Carter. The other calls for a recall referendum on Mr. Chavez's rule halfway through his six-year term, in August.

     Mr. Chavez has indicated he is open to both solutions, but said yesterday he never would give in to his opponents, whom he labeled "coup-plotters, fascists and terrorists." He vowed to hold strike leaders accountable in the courts and again threatened private media outlets, which he accuses of supporting opposition efforts.

     Oil makes up a third of Venezuela's economy and provides half of government income. Before the strike, Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States.

     The strike has cost the nation at least $4 billion in lost oil revenues alone by government estimates. The Santander Central Hispano investment bank has warned that the economy could shrink by as much as 40 percent in the first quarter of this year.

asia.cnn.com Monday, February 3, 2003 Posted: 3:06 PM HKT (0706 GMT)

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuelan opposition leaders staged a massive petition drive Sunday, collecting thousands of signatures endorsing a number of demands including the immediate ouster of president Hugo Chavez.

Chavez's removal had been the linchpin of a 63-day general strike which has crippled the economy and sparked huge, sometimes violent demonstrations.

Thousands of oil workers said they'll continue the walkout until new elections are held, but opposition members said the general strike will be eased in other ways. (Opposition to ease strike)

Most businesses would open for restricted hours, while schools and banks would function normally.

"El Firmazo" -- "The Great Signup" -- listed several demands, including removal of Chavez and the National Assembly from office, a constitutional amendment to change the six-year presidential term to four and support for striking oil company (PDVSA) employees.

Under Venezuela's constitution, 15 percent of registered voters -- approximately 1.8 million people -- can call for any given amendment and then it becomes mandatory to hold a referendum.

The strike began December 2 and has forced Venezuela -- the world's fifth largest oil producer -- to buy gasoline from Brazil and Trinidad.

-- Journalist Adrian Criscaut contributed to this report.