Chavez backers attack Caracas city hall

www.bayarea.com Posted on Tue, Feb. 04, 2003

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Supporters of President Hugo Chavez opened fire today on the offices of Caracas' opposition mayor today, injuring four people in an attack that marred the government's commemoration of the 11th anniversary of a failed coup led by Chavez.

The brief assault on the offices of Mayor Alfredo Pena began after government officials, including Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, honored the coup anniversary at a nearby plaza.

When Rangel and the other officials left the area, about 20 Chavez supporters fired handguns and threw rocks at city hall.

Three police officers and a civilian were injured, said the head of the mayor's security office, Ramon Muchacho. A fire official said the injuries were caused by rocks and sticks and that nobody was hit by the gunfire.

National guardsmen fired tear gas to disperse the rioters and arrested several. The mayor was not at city hall at the time of the attack.

The incident raised tensions as a 66-day-old opposition strike against Chavez was winding down. Six people have died in political violence since the strike began Dec. 2.

Earlier today, a government official rejected an opposition proposal to cut Chavez's term and instead suggested a referendum on Chavez's rule later this year to end the country's political crisis.

Ronald Blanco la Cruz, a government negotiator at talks mediated by the Organization of American States, said that under the government's proposal, opponents can start collecting signatures for a so-called recall referendum in August, halfway into Chavez's six-year term.

That was sure to infuriate the opposition, which says it already has collected more than 4 million signatures for a constitutional amendment ending Chavez's term this year and calling new elections.

Chavez repeatedly has pledged that a recall vote can be held in August -- not just that it can start to be organized, as indicated by Blanco la Cruz.

Blanco la Cruz, governor of Tachira state, also said the government has rejected the opposition's proposals to amend the constitution.

``Otherwise, people would start collecting signatures as soon as a president is elected,'' he told the government's Venezolana de Television.

Venezuela's constitution requires signatures from 20 percent of 11 million registered voters -- roughly 2.2 million people -- to demand a recall vote.

OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria has been mediating talks since November to try to end Venezuela's political deadlock.

He received a boost when former President Jimmy Carter laid out two options for Venezuela: a recall vote in August, or a constitutional amendment shortening Chavez's term to four years with an early election.

Jailed for two years after the failed coup attempt, Chavez was elected president in 1998 on an anti-poverty platform and re-elected in 2000. His current term ends in January 2007.

Citing economic and political turmoil, Venezuela's opposition launched the general strike Dec. 2 to seek his ouster.

The strike crumbled this week as workers in all industries except oil returned to their jobs. The government, meanwhile, raised oil production to 1.2 million barrels a day, up from 1.1 million barrels over the weekend, according to dissident staff at the state oil company.

Venezuela produced 3.2 million barrels a day before the strike. It is a major supplier of crude to the United States and the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter.

Venezuela was expected to add 200,000 more barrels per day in the coming weeks, staff at Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. said.

Fear of bankruptcy and shortages of gasoline and other essentials prompted leaders to end the strike. But they proclaimed victory, saying the strike had drawn pressure from the international community on Chavez to resolve the stalemate.

Some analysts disagreed.

The strike reflected the disorganization of the opposition,'' said Riordan Roett, director of Western Hemisphere studies at Johns Hopkins University. It was anti-Chavez but never pro-anything. What were they going to replace Chavez with?''