Chávez critics claim 4m people signed petition

news.ft.com By Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas Published: February 3 2003 21:01 | Last Updated: February 4 2003 1:39

Venezuela's opposition alliance claimed on Monday to have collected 4m signatures supporting fresh legal attempts to remove President Hugo Chávez from office, marking the symbolic end of a two-month strike that has failed to unseat him.

Among a range of options, the petition aims to press for a constitutional amendment that would shorten Mr Chávez's mandate and allow early elections, and to appeal for a referendum to end his four-year rule. Hundreds of thousands of Chávez opponents gathered at makeshift polling centres on Sunday for what the so-called Democratic Co-ordinator called the "Big Sign-up".

The new initiatives will have to overcome a series of hurdles, such as approval by a yet-to-be-appointed electoral board and challenges by the government in the courts and the national assembly. But it could be months before the initiative bears fruit, if at all.

José Vicente Rangel, the vice-president, said yesterday that he saw no reason to believe that the electoral authority should validate the petition and that the government had already ruled out early elections.

A petition filed last November for a non-binding consultative referendum on whether Mr Chávez should resign, slated for Sunday, was in effect ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court, which opponents allege is tightly controlled by the president.

Diplomats from a six- nation "Group of Friends" - Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the US - urged both sides at the weekend to end the conflict through talks under the auspices of César Gaviria, the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States.

Businesses not bankrupted by the two-month strike prepared to open for trade on Monday - tacit acknowledgment that the stoppage has failed to dislodge Mr Chávez, who might be even stronger today. But an employee strike at Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the engine of the world's fifth largest oil exporter, has wreaked huge damage on the economy.

Economists predict that Venezuela will face a contraction of between 10 and 20 per cent this year, coupled with inflation in excess of 50 per cent and a sharp rise in unemployment.

Alí RodrÍguez, the chairman of PDVSA, said loyal employees had managed to increase oil production to 1.5m barrels per day - half of pre-strike levels - and that the company would be back to near-normality by the end of this month. But dissident PDVSA managers, 5,600 of whom have been dismissed, say oil output is currently at just 1m b/ d and the government does not have the technical capability to lift it beyond 1.5m b/d.