Venezuela's Power Struggle Hits NY Streets

reuters.com Wed January 15, 2003 11:30 AM ET By Hugh Bronstein

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Venezuelans brought their struggle for power to New York's posh Park Avenue on Wednesday, with opposition calls for the ouster of President Hugo Chavez clashing with the shouts of his supporters.

Members of the opposition told market analysts, investors, and Venezuelan expatriates gathered at the Americas Society that if their efforts succeed, the country would become a safer place to invest.

Outside the meeting, on the streets of Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side neighborhood, a dozen pro-Chavez demonstrators shouted slogans defending his presidency.

"It is a demonstration of what's going on in Venezuela, where two extremes are radicalizing their own positions," said Luis Oganes, a sovereign debt strategist at J.P. Morgan who attended the meeting.

Back home, Chavez's foes extended an ongoing strike aimed at forcing him to call early elections into its 45th day. In New York, they called on investors to ramp up pressure on Chavez to resign.

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

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 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.

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

But William Camarco, a 33-year old Venezuelan taxi driver who is studying journalism at Queens College, slammed the opposition: "They are guilty of economic sabotage."

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 as the country's corrupt elite and to 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.