Venezuela's Chavez Woos Support of Latam Leaders

asia.reuters.com Wed January 15, 2003 05:04 PM ET By Phil Stewart and Patrick Markey

QUITO/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought backing from fellow Latin American leaders on Wednesday to resolve a six-week-old opposition strike that has crippled his country's vital oil exports.

Arriving in Ecuador's capital for the inauguration of President Lucio Gutierrez, the populist Venezuelan leader branded his opponents "fascists" and "terrorists" and said he was fighting the same campaign that Jesus Christ had.

"The whole world is divided," the embattled leader told a reporter in Quito. "Why do you think that Christ came to the world 2,000 years ago to fight for the poor against the powerful? We are waging this battle."

Former paratrooper Chavez said he would discuss Venezuela's conflict with the region's presidents later Wednesday.

Venezuela's opposition strike, which began Dec. 2, has threatened to engulf the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter in economic turmoil and pushed up global oil prices to two-year highs. Strikers, including rebel state oil firm managers, have vowed to keep up the stoppage until Chavez quits.

U.S. oil futures on Wednesday settled up 84 cents at $33.21 as energy markets were rattled by Venezuela's strike and fears over a United States attack on Iraq. Venezuela usually supplies about one sixth of U.S. oil imports.

Venezuela's bolivar currency, battered by political and economic uncertainty, fell 6.1 percent on Wednesday against the dollar amid heavy demand for the U.S. greenback.

EYES ON LATIN AMERICAN LEFT

Latin American leaders including the presidents of Brazil, Peru and Chile planned a battery of sideline meetings on Venezuela after Gutierrez was sworn in.

They were expected to discuss an initiative to set up a so-called "friends of Venezuela" group of regional nations to help broker an end to the standoff.

The diplomatic effort aims to complement so-far fruitless talks in Venezuela by the head of the Organization of American States, former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, who is also in Quito and will be attending some of the meetings.

"The goal of the countries grouped as 'friends of Venezuela,' is to find a calm, peaceful solution which would above all satisfy the people of Venezuela," said Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Chavez can expect ideological sympathy from several of the presidents, including Lula -- a former metalworker who is Brazil's first democratically elected leftist leader.

Left-leaning Gutierrez, the son of an Amazon river-boat salesman, has assured investors that he is far more financially and politically orthodox than Chavez, whose foes accuse him of ruling like a dictator and of driving Venezuela into chaos.

The Venezuelan opposition has cautiously accepted the "friendly nations" initiative as long as it supports the OAS negotiations. But it remains unclear which nations would be acceptable to both the government and the opposition.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter arrived Wednesday in Venezuela, where he plans to hold talks with both sides next week.

Venezuela's opposition leaders, anticipating the Supreme Court will block their proposed nonbinding Feb. 2 referendum on whether Chavez should quit, on Wednesday started to examine alternatives in their campaign for elections.

Venezuela's Supreme Court is still studying the legality of the referendum on whether Chavez should step down. The government has dismissed the poll plan as unconstitutional.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in April, has said he will ignore the referendum if it goes ahead. It was unclear when the court would hand down a ruling.

While a consultative referendum could not force Chavez from power, the opposition hopes that a decisive rejection of his government would strengthen their legitimacy.

Chavez, whose reforms aim to ease poverty, accuses his opponents of trying to illegal topple him by destroying the oil sector.