JOAQUÍN RIVERY TUR – Granma daily special correspondent –

CARACAS.— President Hugo Chávez successfully closed the World Solidarity with Venezuela Encounter; a four-day conference in the capital that demonstrated the strength of the Bolivarian people’s struggle to carry their dreams forward.

After greeting Carlos Lage and other visitors, President Hugo Chávez declared that neither the economy nor financial markets are able to dictate to the world because, to date, they have led the world down turbulent paths.

He expressed his gratitude at the clarity and passion of the ideas and suggestions expressed throughout the meeting, and stated that "the world is as important to us as Venezuela and if this wasn’t so, the Revolution wouldn’t be Bolivarian."

He emphasized that revolution and solidarity should be globalized, adding that this World Meeting had exceeded all expectations and should be repeated in the future, as it had been very fruitful.

Chávez mentioned that he and Evo Morales had discussed the idea of organizing a meeting in Venezuela for the continent’s indigenous populations. Some of the comrades in Miraflores Palace had also pressed for a campesino meeting and there were plans to stage a World Youth Festival in Venezuela as well.

He recalled that, shortly before he died, Bolívar had thought that he was not getting anywhere but, as Chávez pointed out, he is more alive today than ever before.

"Today we are commemorating the first popular victory of the 21st century," he stated. "And one of the reasons for this success can be attributed to what Túpac Amaru said when they were tearing him into pieces. He announced that he would return to the earth in a million different pieces."

Today the Venezuelan people cannot be manipulated by media campaigns and are taking up their own battles to defeat any internal or external attempt to set back the Bolivarian Revolution, he added.

The President stressed that today there is a driving force behind the Revolution and nothing or nobody can stop it. He went on to say, "we can only walk down the road of revolution, it is the only one allowed."

LAGE’S SPEECH

Carlos Lage made a brief speech on behalf of the Cuban delegation to express gratitude for the profound show of solidarity that Venezuela has given to the Cuban Revolution.

"It was almost impossible to walk the streets without someone approaching and saying ‘Viva Cuba,’ or sending greetings to Fidel and the Revolution. Even to the point of making unnecessary excuses for the terrorist aggression against the Cuban embassy in Caracas." He underlined that "the Cuban Revolution arose from our history, from our realities and the unity of our people and the wise leadership of comrade Fidel have beaten 40 years of imperialist blockade. The Bolivarian Revolution is born from Venezuela’s history, from the roots of the Venezuelan people, and it is here – and we must not forget this – that the struggle for Latin American independence began 200 years ago.

"Yesterday afternoon I saw the Bolivarian Revolution with my own eyes and I touched it with my own hands. I left the hotel where I was staying and I climbed the hills, Las Malvinas, Tamarindo, Gran Colombia. We visited people’s houses and when we came out there was a sea of children with their parents, chanting to us, ‘Ooo, aah, Chávez is not going.’ "

Pravda 04/15/2003 10:25

One year after the frustrated coup that briefly took him away from power, Chavez agreed to a plan for a referendum on his presidency

The OAS - Organization of American States - sponsored negotiations table between the government of Venezuela and its foes had its first positive results, one year after established. Both sides in dispute agreed last week to hold a referendum on Chavez presidency after August 19, the halfway point of his 6-year term. The background: the celebrations of the first anniversary of his return to power after the ridiculous coup of 2002 and the destruction of the negotiations table that brought to light the so-called referendum, due to a bomb attack to OAS headquarters in Caracas.

Despite OAS Secretary General, Cesar Gaviria, satisfaction on the outcomes of the talks, the political situation in Venezuela is far from being under control. Firstly, it is not clear when the referendum would take place, as both side are only committed to avoid delays in organizing it. For instance, there is now a first dispute over the validity of the collected signatures needed to call on the referendum. The opposition gathered 2.5 million, but the government says that signatures were invalid as were collected before August 19, so "they will have to get them again", said Chavez.

However, the President of Venezuela and self-denominated leader of the "Bolivarian Revolution" that rules the country does not look worried about the results of the voting. "We will win", said Chavez recently, to further add defiant: "If I lose I will go". The agreement to work toward a referendum signaled that the opposition abandoned other initiatives to force Chavez's ouster before his term ends in 2007.

In turn, the United States, that one year ago had welcomed the coup against the Venezuelan constitutional authorities, congratulated both sides for the referendum proposal. "We applaud the government's and opposition's dialogue teams for their extraordinary efforts to plot the path forward for Venezuelans to peacefully and democratically build a better tomorrow for themselves," the U.S. State Department said. It looks like Powell & Co. Do not want to get involved again in any new unspeakable operation to drive the "marxist threat" out of Latin America.

By the time those discussion were taking place, President Chavez was busy celebrating his victory over the frustrated coup of April 2002 and, indirectly, over the failed two-months strike (lock out, to be more accurate) organized by the opposition. On Sunday, Chavez presided over the closing ceremony of an international forum in support of his "Bolivarian Revolution," while thousands of his supporters gathered on a central Caracas avenue.

"God bless April 13," Chavez said at the forum. "A miraculous day, the miracle of the start of the century. The first great victory of the people this century in the whole world", said the pompous leader to an audience that had very interesting guests. Among them, the Nicaraguan former President and Sandinist leader Daniel Ortega, who talked about the end of the United Nations after the US invasion of Iraq. Ortega said, concerning the international relation system's crisis after this invasion, the need of trusting in the strength of the Venezuelan people, Hugo Chavez Frias, the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, the natives, and leaders such as Evo Morales from Bolivia and the Brazilian people of Lula Da Silva.

All in all, Chavez does not look worried about the referendum. The opposition says that a  February poll by U.S. firms Greenberg Quinlan and Rosner Research and Public Opinion Strategies suggested Chavez could lose a recall referendum. Almost 60 percent of Venezuelans would vote against him, while 38 percent would support Venezuela's President, the survey suggested.

Therefore, either the poll is a fake or Chavez has other recourses to stay in power. No matter the case, it is clear that the opposition will not topple him easily. Chavez enjoys the support of the Venezuelan working class that led him to two victories in one year against his foes. And, as the refrain says, if something happens twice, it will surely happen again.

By Larry Birns and Manuel Rueda <a href=www.upi.com>UPI Outside View Commentary From the International Desk Published 4/14/2003 5:38 PM

WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- A year ago, Venezuela's democracy narrowly survived a major test as rightist sectors of the middle-class-led opposition joined with several ranking military officers to briefly overthrow President Hugo Chavez, taking advantage of an ongoing popular protest that was peacefully calling upon him to resign.

Prior to last April's failed coup, Venezuela's opposition has had a list of both valid grievances and skeptical critiques on Chavez's commitment to democracy. These included a set of decrees issued by Chavez in November 2001 that critics maintained had undermined local authorities as well as the National Assembly's jurisdiction over projects small and large. These decrees allowed the president to appoint his political allies to senior posts at the national oil company, PDVSA, that could compromise that venerable institution's meritocracy.

At the time of the attempted coup, Chavez's narrow survival was mainly due to his close ties to certain factions of the military. Business federation head Pedro Carmona comedically declared himself the country's new leader. But he was unable to secure support from key senior officers and enlisted personnel at the air force base at Maracay and at other garrison sites in the interior, which declared that they would not recognize his rump government.

But ultimately, it was Venezuelans' high regard for non-violent solutions that allowed Chavez to return. Broad participation in the repeated protest marches that made up the opposition's core strategy preceding the coup indicated Chavez's rule had lost much of its popular support. But Carmona did not have sufficient elite backing or support of the poor to neutralize pro-Chavez generals in the country's interior.

This was the case even though Chavez was repeatedly being assailed by the media, particularly the country's four major television stations.

Since then, the opposition has continued to seek to bring down Chavez, most notably by the now-ended two-month general strike that paralyzed the government's main source of income, the national oil industry.

Venezuela's privately owned media once again joined the effort by churning out one-sided anti-Chavez coverage.

Once again, the opposition was inspired by a valid list of complaints against Chavez's commitment to plebiscitary democracy and its own interpretation of the rule of law. In recent months, it has mobilized around such issues as the inflammatory militarization of the Caracas metropolitan police, edicts that could restrict freedom of speech and the government's allegedly lax stance against Colombian rebels building staging sites on Venezuelan territory.

The opposition has provided a distinct service to the nation in reminding the government that democratic legitimacy goes much further than respecting electoral results. But, with the decline in the effectiveness of the now-disbanded general strike, even the most anti-government sector must realize that lasting changes in Venezuelan society should come about through an electoral solution and not by destroying the national economy.

The anti-Chavez movement has been rendered less effective because an abiding hatred for Chavez appears to be its only unifying credo. As a result, schisms are breaking out as various likely opposition presidential candidates jockey for the race, if a proposed referendum on Chavez's rule in August actually materializes.

The tough task of establishing a referendum date on Chavez's recall still lies ahead. Yet it should be remembered: none of the admittedly frustrating negotiations on mending Venezuela's democratic procedures could have been possible if the Bush administration had been successful in backing Carmona's White House-approved script to oust a constitutionally elected president, which would have all but guaranteed bloody class-warfare.

In that scenario, Venezuela's democracy would have been most likely engulfed in political violence, akin to that being witnessed in neighboring Colombia.

No one can deny that Venezuela's democracy still requires a fibrillater. But the slow rehabilitation of the country's democratic institutions and the population's almost visceral respect for non-violent solutions to political differences have at least given it an opportunity to confirm its heritage and move on. This is a lesson that hopefully Washington will take to heart.

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-- Larry Birns is director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent, non-profit, tax-exempt research and information organization. Manuel Rueda is a research associate at COHA. They can be contacted at: coha@coha.org.

-- Outside View commentaries are written for UPI by outside writers on subjects of public interest.

STEPHEN IXER, <a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-Associated Press Writer Sunday, April 13, 2003
(04-13) 18:33 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) --

President Hugo Chavez looked beyond Venezuela's simmering political crisis Sunday to celebrate the first anniversary of his return to power following a brief military coup.

The festivities came one day after a bomb ripped through the building where Venezuela's government and opposition have been negotiating a proposed referendum on Chavez's presidency.

No one was injured in the pre-dawn blast but it renewed tensions in Venezuela just as rival groups appeared to be close to resolving some political differences.

Chavez addressed tens of thousands of his supporters gathered on a central Caracas avenue after presiding over the closing ceremony of an international forum in support of his so-called "Bolivarian Revolution."

"Nobody is leaving! We will stay for ever, fighting battles," Chavez said to the cheering crowd. He promised to remain in power until 2021.

Chavez railed against global imperialism and "savage neoliberalism," and claimed the coup against him had been promoted by foreign interests and carried out by "the fascist oligarchy" within Venezuela.

"God bless April 13," Chavez said. "A miraculous day, the miracle of the start of the century. The first great victory of the people this century in the whole world."

Ricardo Perez, a 62-year old carpenter waiting to hear Chavez at the rally, said he was glad Chavez's left-wing movement was not toppled for good.

"Those days (of the coup) were terrible for the country. Thank God the loyal armed forces managed to restore democracy," Perez said as Venezuelan folk music blared out from huge loudspeakers and barbecue smoke drifted over the crowd.

Chavez was ousted by dissident military generals after 19 people were killed during an opposition demonstration on April 11, 2002. Pedro Carmona, a businessman who swore himself in as president the next day, immediately dissolved the National Assembly, the Supreme Court and the constitution.

A popular backlash against the coup began and thousands converged on the presidential palace to demand Chavez's return to office. Carmona resigned on April 13 and loyalist troops restored Chavez to power in the early hours of the 14th.

Chavez promised to reconcile the deeply divided population but never succeeded. The opposition began a two-month strike in December demanding early elections or Chavez's resignation. The strike briefly crippled Venezuela's crucial oil industry and cost the country $6 billion.

The Organization of American States announced Friday that the two sides agreed to pave the way for a midterm referendum on Chavez's presidency. The OAS has been sponsoring the peace talks since November.

OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said Friday the agreement would be signed after Easter, but Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said the deal still awaits Chavez's approval.

In the document, both sides agree to play by the rules as the opposition works toward a midterm referendum on Chavez's presidency. The government said it will not obstruct such a vote.

But tensions have heated up again since Saturday's bombing, with each side blaming the other of being behind the attack that destroyed three floors of the Caracas building.

An opposition negotiator said the blast was intended to intimidate his delegation at the talks, while the government blamed "coup-plotting" sectors of the opposition.

Chavez, elected to a six-year term in 2000, accuses Venezuela's traditional elite of seeking his ouster and foiling his efforts to distribute Venezuela's oil riches to the poor.

His opposition accuses the former army paratrooper of imposing an authoritarian regime and ruining the economy.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 13, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Organization of American States (OAS) general secretary, Cesar Gaviria has condemned  the explosion of a 5-kilo C4 explosive at the Caracas Teleport tower, which has been used as the meeting place of government-opposition negotiations aimed at solving Venezuela's longstanding political crisis. 

Calling the incident a "terrorist attack," Gaviria says such actions are the work of a "radical minority that has no vision for Venezuela's future ... more than ever, it is imperative to seek democratic means." 

The general secretary, who is not in Venezuela, says he is confident the bomb will not intimidate the government or the opposition and much less the Venezuelan People. "We will continue to work hard to maintain political will on both sides to reach an agreement that Venezuela needs to preserve its pacific tradition and democratic coexistence." 

Both sides of the political spectrum had announced a pre-agreement but have not released details. 

Meanwhile, President Hugo Chavez Frias has been playing cat and mouse, commenting to foreign correspondents that he is not sure whether it is worthwhile keeping the negotiating process going. "It started off badly because the opposition was represented by coupsters and minor political players."

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