Soldiers lob tear gas at Chavez opponents

www.ctv.ca Associated Press

CARACAS — Soldiers lobbed tear gas at tens of thousands of President Hugo Chavez's opponents who marched Sunday on a park outside a military base to demand the support of the armed forces for a 42-day-old strike.

Protesters regrouped as the gas clouds lifted, shouting "cowards" at hundreds of soldiers who faced them with armoured personnel carriers.

Troops also kept back dozens of Chavez supporters protesting nearby.

The first marchers to arrive at Los Proceres Park, which is outside the Fort Tiuna military base, had stomped down barbed wire blocking the entrance, but didn't try to break past security lines. The park is one of eight security zones in Caracas as decreed by Chavez. Protests are banned in those areas unless authorized by the Defence Ministry.

"All of this show of force is absurd," said Henrique Capriles, the opposition mayor of an eastern Caracas district. "People are tired of being assaulted and repressed."

The military -- purged of dissidents after a brief April coup -- has supported Chavez during the strike, which has paralysed the world's fifth-largest oil exporter but hasn't rattled the president's resolve to stay in power. Troops have seized oil tankers, commandeered gasoline trucks and locked striking workers out of oil installations. Top commanders have professed their loyalty to the government.

Speaking in his weekly radio and television address Sunday, Chavez dismissed his opponents as "fascists" manipulated by the media.

Venezuela's main television stations aren't broadcasting any commercials except opposition advertisements promoting the strike. Media owners say they have been pushed into this stance because Chavez incites followers to attack reporters.

Chavez threatened to revoke the broadcasting licences of TV and radio stations if they "continue with their irrational insistence on destabilizing the country by supporting this fascist subversion."

The president also said he has ordered the military to transfer salary deposits out of banks that are participating in the strike by opening only three hours a day.

Venezuela's largest labour confederation, business chamber and opposition parties called for the strike on Dec. 2 to demand that Chavez resign and call early elections if he loses a nonbinding referendum on his rule.

The National Elections Council scheduled the referendum for Feb. 2 after accepting an opposition petition signed by two million people.

Chavez says the vote would be unconstitutional, and his supporters have challenged it in the Supreme Court. He was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, and his term ends in 2007. Venezuela's constitution allows a recall referendum halfway through a president's term -- August, in Chavez's case.

Opponents accuse the president of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies. The opposition has staged dozens of street marches, called for a tax boycott and held a two-day bank strike last week.

Chavez has threatened to order troops to seize food production plants that are participating in the strike and to fire or jail striking teachers and have soldiers take over their duties.

He already has fired 1,000 oil workers after some 30,000 of 40,000 workers joined the strike, which has caused fuel shortages and slowed oil exports to a trickle.