Foes, Followers of Venezuela's Chavez Pack Streets

Thu May 1, 2003 02:09 PM ET By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=asia.reuters.com>Reuters) - Tens of thousands of opponents and supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez packed the streets of Caracas on Thursday, crisscrossing the capital in rival Labor Day marches over his populist rule.

The rallies were the largest since February, when the opposition ended a two-month strike and protest campaign that failed to oust Chavez, a champion of the dispossessed they say has edged Venezuela toward dictatorship and economic ruin.

In a huge fluttering sea of banners, placards and national flags, thousands of Chavez opponents snaked along a Caracas highway in what they billed as a renewed campaign for a referendum to unseat the leftist president.

"Everyone on the streets again to democratically resolve this crisis. We will defeat him. ... From today the people will take the streets," barked Manuel Cova, an anti-Chavez union chief and opposition leader.

Across the western part of the unruly Caribbean capital, a stronghold of Chavez backing, the pro-government rally jammed another highway chanting "Hey ho, Chavez will not go."

National guard troops and police in riot gear kept rival protesters apart when the opposition rally passed through pro-Chavez neighborhoods. Troops sealed off the Miraflores Presidential Palace.

More than a year after Chavez survived a brief military coup in April 2002, this South American nation remains mired in economic crisis and bitter political strife. Dozens have been killed or wounded during street protests in the last year.

A loose alliance of parties, unions and private sector leaders, the opposition remains without clear leadership while Chavez appears determined to press ahead with the self-styled revolution he says aims to ease the plight of the poor.

But Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, is battling one of the worst recessions in its history and as much as 80 percent of the population still lives in poverty despite its huge oil wealth.

Opposition leaders hope to trigger a referendum to force Chavez from office after Aug. 19, when the constitution allows for a poll on the president's mandate half way through his current term of office, which ends in early 2007.

"We will have a referendum this year; we will have a new president this year," opposition negotiator Timoteo Zambrano said at the rally.

But internationally backed negotiations over the referendum remain deadlocked after the government backed away from signing an accord that would have paved the way for a vote.

The Organization of American States, which brokered the deal, is scrambling to bring the two sides back to the talks. Representatives from a six-nation group, led by the United States and Brazil, are scheduled to arrive next week in Caracas to back OAS efforts to revive negotiations.