Chavez says government may quit talks

www.cnn.com Saturday, January 18, 2003 Posted: 10:41 AM EST (1541 GMT)

Chavez delivers annual state of the nation address to Venezuela's congress on Friday.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday his government was considering withdrawing from negotiations with opposition leaders about solving his country's political crisis.

His comments, made by telephone to a late night state television news program in Caracas, raised doubts about the future of peace talks with opposition leaders currently being brokered by Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria.

The negotiations are trying to end the conflict behind a 48-day-old opposition strike that has slashed oil output and shipments by the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.

The strike, called by the opposition to press left-winger Chavez to resign and hold early elections, has caused serious shortages of gasoline, cooking gas and some food items and pushed Venezuela's oil-reliant economy deeper into recession.

Noting that opposition strike leaders condemned him as a "tyrant," Chavez blasted them as "terrorists and fascists," and said there was "no possibility of conversation with them."

He added: "We in the government ... are considering withdrawing our team from the negotiating table because those people (the opposition) are showing no sign that they really want to choose the democratic path."

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a short-lived coup in April, said his government would consult with Gaviria and decide over the weekend whether or not to stay in the OAS-brokered talks, which have been going on for two months.

While ruling out talks with what he called "terrorist and fascist" strike leaders, he said his government would be willing to talk to more moderate "democratic" opposition representatives who were "not coup mongerers."

The Venezuelan leader spoke shortly before flying to Brazil for talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on international efforts to back the OAS peace negotiations.

Latin American leaders this week created a six-nation "group of friends" to support OAS chief Gaviria's efforts to broker a peace deal on the key issue of the possible timing of elections in Venezuela to solve the political crisis.

The group comprised the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. But Chavez, who held talks this week with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York, said he wanted the "friends" group to be expanded to include other nations like China, Russia and France.

Troops raid Coca-Cola plant

Venezuelan National Guard Gen. Felipe Acosta, center, inspects the storage area of a Coca-Cola - Panamco bottling plant Friday.

Chavez has vowed to break the opposition strike, now in its seventh week, sending troops to take over strike-hit oil fields, refineries and export terminals. But the government has had only partial success so far in restoring oil operations.

Following Chavez's orders, troops Friday seized drink products from a bottling affiliate of Coca-Cola Co. (KO.N) and from a major local brewer in Carabobo state, west of Caracas.

The confiscation, carried out by a fiercely pro-Chavez National Guard general who said he was acting against alleged hoarders, was furiously condemned as an illegal attack against private property by opposition leaders.

Chavez was unrepentant about the military raids on the drinks plants, saying they would be repeated if necessary to ensure food supplies were not disrupted by the strike.

"We can't be sitting wasting our time at a table while they (the opposition) try to generate chaos in the country," he said in his comments early Saturday.

Three opposition leaders traveled this week to the United States where they met U.S. government officials and accused Chavez of ruining Venezuela's economy with his populist reforms. Chavez says his self-styled "revolution" aims to help the country's poor majority.

Rejecting opposition calls for early elections, Chavez has told them they must wait until after August 19, when the constitution allows for a binding referendum on his rule. His current term is scheduled to end in early 2007.