Petitions aim to oust Chávez - `They are the only options we have left'
www.miami.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 03, 2003 BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@herald.com
SIGN HERE: Venezuelan citizens gather Sunday in Caracas for a signature drive asking them to renounce Hugo Chavez's rule. So many people headed to signing tables that a number of stations ran out of petitions. LESLIE MAZOCH/AP
CARACAS - With its leverage severely weakened with the virtual end of a two-month commercial strike, Venezuela's opposition held a massive signature drive Sunday with the anticipation of finding a legal end to President Hugo Chávez's rule.
Nearly two million signatures were required for nearly a dozen different petitions, requesting a range of options including an assembly to draft a new constitution and a recall referendum to oust Chávez.
So many people headed to signing tables around the nation that many stations ran out of petitions.
''I signed them all,'' said Rene Piñango, whose entire family signed Sunday. ``If the first doesn't work, we'll go to the second and then to the third until we go though every last one. They are the only options we have left.''
PART-TIME OPENINGS
The signature drive took place a day after civic leaders trying to oust Chávez announced that malls, schools and franchise restaurants would open at least part-time beginning today, signaling an end to the commercial portion of a 63-day strike.
While opposition leaders tried to save face by painting the strike's final steps as a goodwill gesture to international mediators here, analysts said it was the last breath of a dying cause that failed in its principal mission.
''They may be lifting the strike, but we are not lifting the struggle,'' said Julio Borges, a leading opposition legislator. ``A person can die for their country, but the country can't die for one person. We're dealing with someone who is absolutely irrational and selfish; we couldn't let the country be destroyed.''
Opposition leaders declared a strike on Dec. 2 with the goal of toppling Chávez, a leftist firebrand who has been in office since 1998.
Many Venezuelans firmly believe Chávez is instituting a quasi-communist regime that does not respect private property or the separation of powers.
He took on major sectors of the community -- labor unions, business groups, the oil industry -- until they banded together to demand his removal from office.
PHASE SAID OVER
But both sides underestimated the other's strength, and Chávez remained in office, despite the loss of $4 billion in oil revenues alone. The state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., remains on strike despite the easing of the national work stoppage.
''Today, in my opinion, we're seeing the end of a phase,'' said political analyst Alberto Garrido, author of nine books on Chávez. 'The phase of the general strike is over, whether they call it `flexibilization' or whatever name they choose to use.''
With only the oil company on strike, the opposition is now faced with coming up with their next strategy.
Lacking strong leadership and a political platform, the effort appeared to be losing steam as even striking oil workers acknowledged that the government produced nearly 1.1 million barrels of oil Friday, a third of normal.
''Today is a victorious day,'' Chávez said Sunday in his weekly TV and radio program. ``We have beaten once and for all a new destabilizing attempt, a new malevolent and criminal attempt to sink Venezuela.''
Opposition leaders insisted the strike succeeded because it brought international attention to their cause.
'FRIENDS' MEETING
A six-member ''Group of Friends'' -- the United States, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Brazil -- now sits at the negotiation table trying to hammer out a solution to the political crisis. Sunday's petition drive was intended to guarantee signatures for whatever solution the ''Friends'' draft.
''You have to give strikers some credit. They put Venezuela in the international spotlight,'' said Miguel Diaz, a political analyst in Washington, D.C.
``I don't think the strikers lost. I think Venezuela lost.''
Special correspondent Phil Gunson contributed to this report.