Venezuela's Chavez doubts crisis talks, foes march
CARACAS, Venezuela - More than 100,000 opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez marched in Caracas on Saturday after the populist threatened to quit talks aimed at ending a crisis over his leadership of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
Holding up flags and torches and banging drums, the huge nighttime rally snaked through eastern parts of the capital where protesters jammed a major highway clamoring for Chavez to step down and call elections.
"These torches light the way for the fall of this regime," Rafael Narvaez, representative of the Coordinadora Democratica opposition alliance, told reporters.
Chavez earlier warned the government could pull out of peace talks brokered by the Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria even as the international community stepped up efforts to break the South American nation's political deadlock.
The negotiations are trying to end the conflict behind a 48-day-old opposition strike that has slashed Venezuela's vital oil output, rattling global energy markets already nervous over a U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The opposition strike, started on Dec. 2, has stoked tensions as Venezuelans deal with serious shortages of gasoline, cooking gas and some food items. The shutdown has pushed Venezuela's oil-reliant economy deeper into recession.
A tough-talking Chavez blasted his opponents as "terrorists and fascists" and said there could be no negotiations with those who are leading the strike against his government. Chavez refuses to quit or call early elections.
"We in the government ... are considering withdrawing our team from the negotiating table because those people are showing no sign that they really want to choose the democratic path," the president said.
Opposition leaders, who accuse the former paratrooper of ruling like a dictator and charge his populist government has created economic chaos, said the OAS-backed negotiations remained the only solution to the crisis. They have vowed to stay on strike until Chavez quits.
The opposition is also demanding a nonbinding referendum Feb. 2 on Chavez's government. But the president says they must wait until August when the constitution allows a binding referendum on his mandate.
"Chavez is trying to wriggle out of this; he's cornered. He's trying to block all the international initiatives to help Venezuela," opposition negotiator Manuel Cova told Reuters.
International help, but from where?
Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, said his government would consult with Gaviria and decide over the weekend whether to stay in the 2-month-old OAS-brokered talks, which have made little progress.
Gaviria left for the United States for the weekend. The talks he chairs are due to resume on Monday.
While ruling out negotiations with strike leaders, Chavez said his government could talk to moderate "democratic" opposition representatives who were "not coup mongers."
The Venezuelan leader, who led a botched coup himself six years before his election victory, traveled briefly to Brazil Saturday for talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on international efforts to back the OAS negotiations.
Regional leaders this week created a six-nation "group of friends" to support OAS efforts to broker a deal on the key issue of the timing of possible elections.
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.
After meeting Lula, Chavez reiterated his calls for the group to include more nations. But he said the expansion could come later.
"We will give Lula and his government our vote of confidence to form this group to help Venezuela," Chavez told supporters during a speech in Caracas after his Brazil trip.
Chavez, whose leftwing reforms are aimed at easing poverty, has vowed to break the opposition strike by sending troops to take over oil fields, refineries and export terminals. But he has had only partial success in restoring oil operations.
Following Chavez's orders, troops Friday seized drink products from a bottling affiliate of Coca-Cola Co. and from a major local brewer.
The confiscation, carried out by a pro-Chavez National Guard general, was condemned as illegal by opposition leaders. U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, said the takeover could also strain ties with Washington and expressed concern over U.S. commercial interests.
But Chavez warned Saturday more raids could follow as his government tries to ensure food supplies. He has also threatened to take action against banks, schools and factories joining the stoppage.
Please send your comments or feedback to newsfeedback@abs-cbn.com