Venezuela split: Ruling party lawmakers hold session in park without opposition present

ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer Friday, June 6, 2003
(06-06) 20:14 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-AP) --

Meeting in a downtown park to avoid their rivals, lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez adopted parliamentary procedures that allow them to swiftly pass several new laws, including one that would tighten restrictions on the media.

The lawmakers, gathering in tents in a poor neighborhood of hard-core Chavez supporters, adopted new debate rules intended to make it more difficult to block legislation supported by the president. Opposition members of Congress said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the vote.

The bickering boded more turmoil for Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States convulsed by a brief coup in 2002 and a ruinous general strike earlier this year. It threatened to further delay efforts in Congress to choose election officials who would run a possible referendum on Chavez's presidency.

Under a recent pact brokered by the Organization of American States, Venezuela's opposition may seek to hold a referendum later this year on Chavez's mandate, which runs to 2007.

The president's supporters hold a slim majority in the 165-seat Congress, but they wanted to cut the opposition out of the debate by meeting Friday in a hostile neighborhood. They argued they were forced to do so after a shoving match with opposition lawmakers disrupted a session at the legislative palace Wednesday.

"I ask Venezuelans to applaud these legislators who have assumed their responsibility with courage and continued legislating," Chavez said of Friday's unusual outdoor assembly.

Opposition lawmakers called the session illegal and said it was a Chavez-sponsored attempt to undercut Congress. They tried to convene a separate session at the legislative palace, but the president's supporters ordered the doors locked.

"If the government persists in the progressive dissolution of the legislature, there will be no path left except popular rebellion," said opposition lawmaker Leopoldo Puchi.

The new parliamentary procedure would make it easier to move legislation through a key 21-member committee in Congress that is dominated by the opposition. Chavez supporters claim that the opposition has used this committee to block legislation.

The opposition plans to ask the Supreme Court to declare Friday's vote illegal.

The new media law would ban "rude" or "vulgar" language, prohibit depiction of sex or alcohol or drug use, and ban violence during daytime.

It would also require that 60 percent of programming be produced within Venezuela, half of which would have to be created by "independent producers" approved by the government.

Broadcasters, who tend to oppose the president, say the law will give too much influence to censors hand-picked by Chavez to crack down on the mostly opposition news media.