Venezuelans protest arrest

examiner.com Publication date: 02/21/2003 BY CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press

    CARACAS, Venezuela -- Thousands of angry government opponents chanting "This is a dictatorship!" rallied in the capital's streets Thursday, protesting the midnight arrest of a strike leader by secret police.

    But President Hugo Chavez proclaimed that he authorized the arrest of Carlos Fernandez even though it threatened to reignite massive demonstrations and again paralyze the country.

    "One of the coup plotters was arrested last night. It was about time, and see how the others are running to hide," Chavez said at the foreign ministry. "I went to bed with a smile."

    Chavez said judges should not "be afraid to issue arrest warrants against coup plotters."

    Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business federation, Fedecamaras, was seized by about eight armed agents around midnight Wednesday as he left a restaurant in Caracas' trendy Las Mercedes district, said his bodyguard, Juan Carlos Fernandez.

    The agents fired into the air when patrons tried to prevent the arrest, the bodyguard said.

    Carlos Fernandez faces charges of treason and instigating violence for leading the two-month strike that began Dec. 2, seeking to oust Chavez and force early elections.

    The strike ended Feb. 4 in all sectors except the critical oil industry. Before the strike, Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter and a major U.S. supplier.

    Government allies warned that more than 100 opposition leaders, from labor bosses to news media executives, who supported the strike could be arrested.