Chavez Foes Seek Foreign Push for Venezuela Poll

abcnews.go.com — By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, struggling to maintain the momentum of a 54-day-old strike, lobbied on Friday for international pressure to push the leftist leader to accept early elections.

As the strike moved toward its ninth week, opposition negotiators were in Washington, where a group of six nations formed to tackle the Venezuelan crisis was due to hold its first meeting at the Organization of American States.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was due to outline proposals to end the crisis at the Washington meeting.

The opposition shutdown has slashed oil output by the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter, pushing up world prices. It has also triggered a fiscal crisis for the Venezuelan government, forcing it to suspend foreign exchange trading and cut back budget spending by 10 percent.

But, in a sign that Chavez is making some headway in his efforts to break the strike, oil production and exports have been rising again. Still, oil exports, the country's economic lifeblood, were only a quarter of normal levels.

The six-nation "group of friends" comprises the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal.

Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States, normally over 13 percent of total U.S. oil imports, have been disrupted by the strike, just when the United States is preparing for a possible war on Iraq.

The "friends" group was created last week to back ongoing efforts by OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria to broker a peace deal between Chavez and his opponents, who are pressing the populist president to resign and hold early elections.

FEAR OF INTERNAL CONFLICT

Opposition negotiators said they hoped the group could exert pressure on Chavez to accept the idea of a negotiated electoral solution to end the crisis, which has raised fears of a violent, uncontrollable internal conflict in Venezuela.

"We must be optimistic ... The group can be very important to strengthen the civilized, peaceful option (of elections) to solve our problems," Alejandro Armas of the Coordinadora Democratica opposition coalition told local radio in Caracas, speaking by telephone from Washington.

The opposition negotiators were planning to meet with foreign ministers from the "friends group," which included Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who survived a brief coup last year, is resisting calls for early elections and has vowed to beat the strike. He accuses his opponents of trying to topple him from power by wrecking the economy.

"We do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not negotiate with coup-mongers. We defeat them," he told tens of thousands of supporters who rallied in central Caracas Thursday.

Chavez has also expressed objections to the six-nation "friends" group, saying he thinks it should be expanded to include other nations like Russia, China and Cuba, which he views as friendly to his government.

His opponents say the president, who Thursday threatened to close hostile private television channels and take over banks which joined the strike, is ruling like a dictator. They accuse him of trying to install Cuba-style communism in Venezuela.

The polarized positions and increasing outbreaks of violence have added urgency to international peace efforts.

CLASHES BETWEEN PROTESTERS

Police said a grenade exploded Thursday near the pro-Chavez rally in Caracas, killing one man and wounding 15. At least six people have died in shootings and clashes between rival protesters since the opposition strike began on Dec. 2.

Anger and frustration have also been stoked by shortages of gasoline and some food items caused by the shutdown, which has closed many private business, shopping malls and franchises.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, is proposing two options: one for an amendment to Venezuela's constitution to trigger early elections and the other for an Aug. 19 referendum.

Chavez has already said he is willing to abide by the result of the binding revocatory referendum on his rule which the constitution foresees after Aug. 19, half way through his current term due to end in early 2007.

He has also agreed to the constitutional amendment proposal provided that it follows the correct legal procedures.

But his foes say they do not trust him and that the crisis-hit country cannot wait until August for elections.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998, has proved many pundits wrong by resisting the crippling strike for so long.

"Time ticks on and weeks go by and, if anything, the opposition is showing signs of weakness," Arturo Valenzuela, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Patrick Markey)