Venezuelan opposition demands vote

europe.cnn.com Sunday, February 2, 2003 Posted: 2337 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Hundreds of thousands of foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a petition calling for early elections on Sunday, while the leftist leader declared victory over a two-month opposition strike and demanded punishment for its organizers.

The signing campaign, organized as a nationwide poll, was the latest opposition challenge to the populist president nine weeks into a grueling strike which has failed to oust him but has crippled the oil-reliant economy.

One opposition leader, Antonio Ledezma, said he expected more than 4 million signatures backing a petition requesting a constitutional amendment to shorten Chavez's rule and trigger immediate elections.

But there was no independent confirmation of the numbers and the poll was privately organized by foes of the president.

State oil firm employees whose walkout slashed output and exports since December 2 in the world's No. 5 oil exporter were maintaining their stoppage in the vital petroleum industry.

But a confident Chavez announced that oil production was fast approaching 2 million barrels per day (bpd), around two thirds of pre-strike levels. Oil strikers put output lower, just over a million bpd, but they acknowledged it was rising.

Opposition leaders have scaled back the strike in non-oil areas. Shops and businesses across the country, many facing bankruptcy, have already reopened. Private banks and schools are also resuming normal operations.

"There is no strike here. We faced a terrorist coup plan and we've already defeated it," left-wing former paratrooper Chavez said in a broadcast on state radio and television.

He called on opposition leaders to abandon their efforts to oust him. "You've been defeated, recognize it," he said.

But leaders of the stoppage in the oil industry vowed no let up. "We will continue with the strike until our objectives are achieved," sacked state oil executive Juan Fernandez said.

Venezuela's oil-reliant economy is reeling from the impact of the strike and the government has announced stringent budget cuts and foreign exchange controls.

As Chavez spoke, opponents turned out in large numbers to cast a symbolic vote against his rule, which marked its fourth anniversary Sunday. They crowded polling points around the country to sign petitions seeking early elections, condemning the president and supporting defiant oil industry strikers.

The president said his government had scored a "popular victory" over the strikers, whom he called "terrorists."

"I demand in the name of the people the application of implacable justice against the traitors of the nation," he said in his weekly radio and television show, "Hello President."

His call for punishment could complicate international efforts to broker a solution to the crisis, which has rocked oil markets already nervous over a possible U.S. war on Iraq.

A potential major obstacle to a political agreement on elections is the fate of striking employees of the state oil giant PDVSA, more than 5,000 of whom have been fired.

Opposition leaders are demanding they be reinstated as part of any negotiated deal, but Chavez, who has replaced them with troops and loyal personnel, has refused an amnesty.

A "group of friends" appealed Friday for a peaceful end to the conflict through elections. Envoys from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal urged Chavez and his opponents to settle their differences in ongoing negotiations brokered by the Organization of American States.

Near one opposition polling point in Caracas, police fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to disperse Chavez supporters who pelted petition signers with stones and fireworks. Two policemen and two other people were slightly injured.

To trigger the constitutional mechanism for an early poll this year, the opposition needs to collect the signatures of at least 15 percent of the nation's nearly 12 million voters -- around 1.8 million signatures. Chavez rejects early elections, saying the opposition must wait until August when the constitution would allow a binding referendum on his rule