Venezuela opposition shifts power struggle to NY

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.15.03, 9:51 AM ET By Hugh Bronstein

NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The Venezuelan opposition moved its struggle against President Hugo Chavez to the international stage on Wednesday, urging Wall Street players to pressure the leftist leader into calling early elections.

As Chavez's foes extended a national strike aimed at ousting the beleaguered president into its 45th day, members of the opposition told an audience of market analysts, investors, and Venezuelan expatriates here that if their efforts succeeded, Venezuela would become a safer place to invest.

"The international community can no longer be passive. It has to take on a greater role," said Timoteo Zambrano, a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela, at a meeting sponsored by the Americas Society.

As the domestic standoff, which has crippled oil production in the world's fifth largest petroleum exporter, intensifies, both sides in the conflict have appealed for international support. Chavez is set to hold talks on Thursday with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York.

Opposition leaders argued that while Chavez was elected fairly in 1998, he has since veered off the democratic course, putting basic liberties, such as freedom of the press and property rights, in jeopardy.

"It is not only necessary for the president to be democratically elected, but also that he continue along the democratic pathway," said Carlos Fernandez, president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Caracas.

Outside the gathering on the streets of New York's posh Park Avenue a dozen pro-Chavez demonstrators shouted slogans defending his presidency.

The protesters' voices drifted through the meeting room's second floor window even as Fernandez blasted Chavez for his poor handling of the Venezuelan economy. He said poverty has increased 25 percent during Chavez's administration, and sharply criticized him for describing the opposition as coup-plotters.

"We have proven that we want a constitutional and democratic solution," he said.

Chavez, notorious on Wall Street for his fiery rhetoric and brash leadership style, was elected in 1998. He vowed to wrest control from what he branded the country's corrupt elite and enact reforms to help the poor. But opposition has grown amid charges the president wants to establish a Cuban-style authoritarian state. Chavez weathered a short-lived coup last April.

Fellow opposition leader Carlos Ortega, president of the confederation of Venezuelan workers, or CTV, also addressed the Americas society.