Venezuela Opposition Protests Suspension - Opposition members sleep next to a highway in Caracas, Venezuela,

www.timesdaily.com By STEPHEN IXER Associated Press Writer January 26. 2003 11:09AM

Sunday, Jan 26, 2003. Opponents of President Hugo Chavez renewed protests on a central Caracas highway after thousands slept under the stars to protest a Supreme Court decision suspending a referendum on Chavez's rule.

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez renewed protests on a central Caracas highway Sunday after thousands slept under the stars in a demonstration against a Supreme Court decision suspending a referendum on Chavez's rule.

Protesters who had set up tents and inflatable mattresses along 2.5 miles of asphalt stretched their limbs with early morning exercises.

Young and old danced to salsa music blaring from massive loudspeakers as countless red, blue and yellow national flags fluttered in the wind and a party atmosphere gripped the crowd.

The crowd's size, which fluctuated between 200,000 and 300,000 on Saturday, dwindled throughout the night, but tens of thousands were back on the highway Sunday morning and organizers said they would extend the protest.

More than 2000 soldiers, police and firefighters were on guard. Six people have been killed during protests since the strike began on Dec. 2.

The loosely grouped opposition is trying to recover from the blow of a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that indefinitely postponed a Feb. 2 referendum to ask Venezuelans whether Chavez should resign.

The president's opponents had gathered 2 million signatures to petition for the vote. They backed up their demand by launching the devastating strike and staging daily street protests.

Although the referendum wouldn't have been binding, opponents had hoped a negative outcome would have embarrassed Chavez into quitting.

Chavez harshly criticized his opponents Sunday after arriving in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the World Social Forum, where he was to meet with sympathizers among the 100,000 activists gathered in the southern Brazilian port city to protest American-style capitalism.

"Our struggle against the terrorists and fascists has further strengthened the will of the Venezuelan people," Chavez said at the airport. "One thing is to try to get rid of me, and another thing is to succeed. I have the popularity to remain in power."

The 56-day-old strike is strongest in the oil industry, which provides half of government income and a third of gross domestic product. But production in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter is slowly picking up.

The government claims most of the 40,000 employees at the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., have returned to work and Chavez said Sunday that production was up to 1.32 million barrels of oil per day.

Striking executives put the production figure at 957,000 and deny most employees are back to work. Output was 3 million barrels a day before the strike. It reached a low of less than 200,000 last month.

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that no referendum or election can be held until it decides whether elections council member Leonardo Pizani is eligible to serve on the panel.

Members of Chavez's ruling party filed a suit arguing that Pizani couldn't serve because he resigned from the council in 2000, only to rejoin last November. Pizani insisted he could rejoin because Congress had failed to formally accept his resignation, as it was legally required to do.

Searching for a new strategy, the opposition Democratic Coordinator movement was gathering signatures to demand a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for early elections. The amendment would involve cutting Chavez's six-year term, currently due to run until 2006, to four.

Amending the constitution requires a popular referendum. Citizens can demand such a vote by collecting signatures from 15 percent of Venezuela's 12 million registered voters.

Chavez was elected in 1998 with promises to fight corruption and ease poverty, which afflicts 80 percent of the population. Opponents say his leftist policies have steered the economy into recession and taken unemployment to 17 percent.