Venezuelan opposition leader held

www.miami.com Posted on Fri, Feb. 21, 2003 BY PHIL GUNSON Special to The Herald

CARACAS - Members of the political opposition Thursday condemned the arrest of one of its leaders, calling it arbitrary and illegal and charging President Hugo Chávez with stepping up plans to turn Venezuela into a Cuban-style totalitarian state.

Carlos Fernández, head of the businessmen's Fedecámaras alliance, was accused of treason and criminal conspiracy. He remained in jail Thursday after being arrested at gunpoint as he emerged from a restaurant the night before. Carlos Ortega, leader of the organized labor movement and a key opposition figure, went into hiding after a judge issued an arrest warrant against him.

Leaders of the opposition umbrella group, the Democratic Coordinator, declared a 15-minute work stoppage at midday and a protest march that interrupted traffic on the freeway through Caracas.

The moves against two of Chávez's most prominent critics came only days after Chávez threatened to close down Venezuela's largest TV networks, imposed strict currency exchange controls that are likely to hurt opposition media, and fired nearly 10,000 striking workers from the state oil company.

AT HEADQUARTERS

Fernández was being held at the headquarters of the Intelligence and Preventive Services Directorate (DISIP), variously referred to as the government's secret police or spy agency.

''We demand that the government guarantee his safety,'' said Albis Muñoz, the Fedecámaras vice president, adding that Fernández had been ``virtually kidnapped.''

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said officials in Washington were worried the arrest could hinder efforts to end the stalemate between political rivals.

''We fear the act could undermine the dialogue process,'' Boucher said. ``This increases our concerns about human rights in Venezuela.''

''This is an escalation of violence by the government, which has arrived at the extreme of repression,'' said Carlos Feijoo, a retired oil worker at an anti-Chávez demonstration on Thursday. ``He wants to copy Fidel [Castro].''

Fernández was one of three main leaders of the two-month-long strike aimed at ousting Chávez that began on Dec. 2. Chávez has accused the leaders of the strike -- which remains in effect in the oil industry -- of sabotage and of seeking to overthrow his government by force.

However, the accusations against Fernández stem from an investigation into last April's abortive coup, led by the then-president of Fedecámaras, Pedro Carmona.

During his regular, Sunday morning TV and radio program this week, the president had exhorted judges and public prosecutors to take action against opposition leaders, referring to them as ``coup-plotters.''

Since the end of the non-oil part of the strike, an emboldened Chávez has several times announced a ''revolutionary offensive'' against the opposition.

In a speech Thursday, he said he had ''gone to bed with a smile,'' on hearing the news of Fernández's arrest. ''It seems there are brave judges emerging now,'' Chávez said.

After Fernández's arrest, Ortega, president of the main trade union confederation, the CTV, went into hiding, according to fellow CTV leader Manuel Cova.

Speaking to a radio station, Cova said Ortega was in hiding because ``we cannot allow the government to humiliate him . . . as of now the rule of law does not exist in Venezuela, and neither the life of Carlos Fernández nor that of Carlos Ortega can be guaranteed.''

The judge who issued the arrest warrant for Fernández, Maikel José Moreno, listed a series of accusations against him, including treason, rebellion and criminal conspiracy. Moreno was only recently appointed a judge, after acting as the defense lawyer for one of the pro-government gunmen involved in the firefight that preceded the April coup.

ARMED MEN

According to spokesmen for Fedecámaras, the armed men who detained the business leader presented neither identification nor a warrant.

They fired into the air to disperse a small crowd before arresting Fernández.

Ombudsman German Mundarain -- regarded by the opposition as a government sympathizer -- said police ''wore vests identifying them as DISIP'' and told the business leader he was under arrest.

Sonia Fernández, the business leader's wife, said she was able to speak to him, that he was physically unharmed and was talking with lawyers.

Lawyer Jesus Ramon Quintero said under the country's new penal code, Fernández could be held for 45 days before being formally charged.

''This is the first time a major opposition figure has been treated this way,'' Quintero said, adding that there were ``plenty of indications that this is political.''

'The oil workers' leaders should prepare themselves,'' he warned. ``Next week they could all be arrested.''

The latest moves come just days after the torture and murder, in circumstances that have yet to be clarified, of three soldiers and a young woman involved in a four-month-old anti-government protest by military officers.

This report was supplemented with material from Herald wire services.