Chavez Frias has promised to reconcile a deeply divided Venezuelan population

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 13, 2003 By: David Coleman

President Hugo Chavez Frias has promised to reconcile a deeply divided Venezuelan population as he celebrated the first anniversary of his return to power after the brief and unsuccessful opposition coup d'etat in April 2002 which served as a prelude to bitter feuding and an equally unsuccessful two-month labor-business stoppage aimed at forcing his democratically-elected government out of power.

The celebration came amid heightened tensions after a bomb blast at the central Caracas venue where government and opposition have just concluded final phases in protracted negotiations on legal procedures leading up to a revocatory referendum which may be launched mid-August with the election itself perhaps as early as December.

Chavez Frias had presided over the closing ceremony of an international forum supporting his Bolivarian Revolution with thousands of supporters thronging the streets outside. Speaking to international wire service reporters, one of the President's supporters described the events of last April 11 as "terrible for the country ... thank God that it was possible to restore democracy just two days later!"

Chavez Frias had been taken prisoner by right-wing extremist military officers who had had the support of the United States of America to install business leader Pedro Carmona as a "transitional" President of the Republic.  Once he was sworn in, however, Carmona Estanga proceeded to take upon himself dictatorial powers and immediately decreed the dissolution of  the National Assembly, Supreme Court and the nation's 1999 Constitution.

Although privately-owned TV channels had implemented a news black-out as the inevitable reversal of Carmona Estanga's fortunes came, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans converged on the Miraflores Presidential Palace demanding Chavez Frias' return ... they were told he had resigned and was being flown to Cuba ... but he was quickly located to an offshore military base at La Orchila and flew back home by helicopter to retake the Presidency in the early hours of April 14.

Carmona Estanga has since evaded trial for his part in the failed coup d'etat, escaping from house arrest to flee to the Colombian embassy from whence he was afforded asylum in Bogota.  Another coup leader, Trade Unions boss Carlos Ortega recently went fugitive before holing up at the Costa Rica embassy in Caracas to gain asylum in San Jose, and Carmona Estanga's replacement at the head of the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) has flown to the United States on the pretext of needing urgent medical attention for high blood pressure...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Organization of American States (OAS) had announced, Friday, that agreement had been reached to "pave the way for a midterm referendum" on Chavez' Presidential mandate which had been on the table since the nation's 1999 Constitution was ratified in a national referendum, December 1998.  OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria says an agreement is to be signed after Easter, although Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel says the agreement must first pass the formality of Executive approval.

Chavez Frias was elected to a 6-year term in 2000, accusing traditional elitists of opposing his plans to equitably distribute Venezuela's oil riches to millions of Venezuelans who have been held in abject poverty through more than 40 years of politically and economically mis-managed pseudo-democracy since the overthrow of the last military dictatorship.

Disenfranchised business and labor mafia leaders have accused Chavez Frias of imposing an authoritarian regime where they must pay regular taxes and agree to a series of judicial, land and labor reforms that would be considered self-evident elsewhere.

The main thrust of the OAS document, forced the disloyal opposition to play by Constitutional rules they have ignored with impunity for the last four years, while Chavez Frias will accept the fact that if the democratic will of the people is that he should leave office, he will do so, handing over to a democratically elected successor as prescribed in Constitutional regulations ... "I'm sure that we will win any referendum, but if the people choose that I should go, I have no other option but to obey the people," Chavez Frias has said.

Meanwhile the privately-owned opposition media is unrelenting in its anti-government propaganda hyping up theories that Saturday's bombing, which destroyed three floors of the Teleport building at Plaza Venezuela was intended to intimidate the opposition while, for its part, government sources were claiming that blame should be apportioned to "coup-plotting sectors of the opposition."

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