Chavez Foes Petition for Elections in Venezuela
reuters.com Sun February 2, 2003 08:48 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez cast a symbolic vote against him Sunday, signing a petition calling for early elections.
Ignoring the initiative, the leftist leader claimed victory over an opposition strike that has lasted nine weeks but was scaled back Sunday to continue only in the vital oil sector.
The signing campaign, billed as an unofficial plebiscite, was the latest opposition challenge to the populist president.
The strike has failed to oust Chavez, elected in 1998 and due to rule until early 2007, but has crippled the economy of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
Opposition leaders said more than 4 million people had signed the petition seeking a constitutional amendment to shorten Chavez's rule and trigger elections. There was no independent confirmation of the results of the poll organized by foes of the president.
"Our civic protest is evolving, closing the democratic circle around the government and leaving it only one way out -- elections," opposition leader Timoteo Zambrano said.
Zambrano said state oil firm employees, whose walkout has slashed output and exports in South America's biggest oil producer, would maintain their damaging stoppage.
But in non-oil sectors, where support for the shutdown had already crumbled, the strike call was lifted and replaced with plans for limited stoppages and go-slows as required.
Brushing aside the opposition challenge, a confident Chavez announced oil production was fast approaching 2 million barrels per day (bpd), around two thirds of pre-strike levels.
"There is no strike here. We faced a terrorist coup plan and we've already defeated it," the brash former paratrooper 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.
Oil strikers have put current oil output lower, just over a million bpd, but they have acknowledged it is rising again.
ECONOMY REELING
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 to be introduced next week.
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.
To trigger the constitutional mechanism for an early poll, the opposition needed 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.
In what could be a tortuous and controversial process, the signatures have to be verified by the National Electoral Council. A Supreme Court ruling last month ordered the council to refrain from organizing elections and recommended that the National Assembly appoint a new electoral body.
In his six-hour broadcast, Chavez angrily demanded that the organizers of the opposition strike be tried and punished.
"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 obstacle to an 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 demand that they be reinstated as part of any negotiated deal.
But Chavez, who has replaced the oil strikers with troops and loyal personnel, has refused an amnesty for them.
A "group of friends" appealed Friday for an 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 Sunday to disperse Chavez supporters who pelted petition signers with stones and fireworks. Two policemen and two other people were hurt. (Additional reporting by Silene Ramirez, Fabian Cambero)