Venezuela's Chavez firm, foes seek overseas backing
www.alertnet.org 11 Jan 2003 22:07
(Adds Chavez, opposition comments paragraph 9, 13-14, 19) By Patrick Markey
CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Opponents of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez sought on Saturday to shore up international support for their fight to force the embattled leftist leader to resign and call elections in the Latin American nation, the world's fifth largest petroleum exporter.
Opposition leaders, staging a six-week strike that has crippled Venezuelan oil exports and rattled energy markets, said they welcomed U.S. backing for a proposal that would involve other nations in efforts to break the stalemate over the president's rule.
Opposition negotiator Timoteo Zambrano and union boss Carlos Ortega, a bitter Chavez foe, planned to travel to the United States on Saturday for meetings with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the U.S. State Department.
"This is to explain the Venezuelan conflict, to intensify our international actions, and to make sure there is more attention to the Venezuelan problem from the international community," Zambrano told Reuters by telephone from Caracas airport before leaving.
The strike, started on Dec. 2, has stoked tensions between the president's supporters and opponents, who have been locked in a fierce struggle since April when Chavez survived a short-lived coup by rebel officers.
The United States said on Friday it supports forming a group of key regional nations who could nudge both sides to an electoral solution to end their bitter impasse. U.S. officials said they hoped to bolster talks brokered by the Organization of American States that have so far failed to reach an accord.
Increased U.S. backing for the peace initiative came after the strike helped push oil prices to two-year highs of over $30 a barrel at a time when Washington is preparing for a possible attack on Iraq. Venezuela usually supplies more than 13 percent of U.S. oil imports.
'FASCISTS AND TERRORISTS'
Chavez, who accuses his foes of trying to illegally topple him, said he had also spoken with the U.N. chief to explain he was fighting against a group of "terrorists, coup mongers and fascists." He vowed Saturday to defeat the strike.
"The government will take all measures that it must within the boundaries of the constitution," he told supporters in a speech peppered with revolutionary rhetoric and threats.
Chavez, elected in 1998 on a populist platform of social reform, portrays himself as a champion of the poor abandoned by corrupt elites. Most Venezuelans still live in poverty in spite of their nation's huge oil wealth.
But opposition leaders say Chavez, rather than live up to his election promises to ease poverty, has driven Venezuela toward economic and political chaos through mismanagement, corruption and dictatorial rule.
They want Chavez to accept elections within the next three months and agree to a nonbinding referendum on his rule in February. But the combative president refuses and has challenged the poll in the supreme court. He says the constitution only allows a binding referendum in August.
"If we want to go to the vote, it's because we want to fight the poverty and misery that this regime forces us to live with," said anti-Chavez business leader Carlos Fernandez.
Fernandez urged opposition sympathizers to take to the streets again on Sunday for a march in Caracas near the capital's military headquarters. Two people were killed and dozens wounded by gunfire in a similar march earlier this month during clashes involving rival protesters, police and troops.
BATTLE OVER OIL, FOOD, EDUCATION
The political conflict has now essentially become a war over the oil industry, which provides for about half of the government's revenues.
Crude and product exports have fallen to less than a fifth of the 2.7 million barrels per day sold before the shutdown and production has dropped to about 450,000 bpd from 3.1 million bpd in November, officials said.
Chavez has sent troops to take over installations and substitute workers to replace striking crews. He has fired more than a thousand workers at state oil firm PDVSA and started to restructuring the company to try and break the strike.
But strike leaders, including rebel PDVSA managers, say returning operations to normal would take months. They have vowed to stay out until the president resigns.
Facing food supply disruptions, Chavez threatened on Friday to send troops to take over food warehouses to guarantee supplies. With some schools closed for the strike, Chavez also pressed parents to demand they open and said teachers who failed to show up for work would be dismissed. His foes condemned both measures as illegal threats.