From the International Desk Published 1/5/2003 7:08 AM View printer-friendly version

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Police, the military and the national guard Sunday braced for more gunfire in the streets, after two days of death and woundings have darkened the character of the vast civil divide over whether President Hugo Chavez should go or stay.

Two police officers were hit by ricocheting bullet fragments Saturday in Caracas during a wake held by Chavez supporters for one of two people shot to death Friday, the BBC reported.

CNN reported a woman was also wounded in the jaw Saturday, hit by one of the sniper bullets fired at the funeral home where a Friday's victim was taken.

Although both sides have charged the other with escalating the violence, the source of Friday's deadly gunfire has not been determined.

Pro-Chavez protesters said that on Sunday they would carry the two caskets past the hotel where Organization of American States negotiators have made their headquarters.

During Friday's demonstrations Chavez met with the OAS representatives who have so far have made no progress in trying to mediate the increasingly violent power struggle.

Police have been responding to handgun fire with shotgun pellets, rubber bullets and tear gas.

In the civil unrest now a few days into its second month, the Caracas police try to separate the camps of street demonstrators, but not necessarily as strong allies of the national government, which tried to take control of the police force last last year. Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena opposes Chavez.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel Saturday accused the police of being implicated in Friday's two deaths of what CNN reported were pro-government demonstrators.

Chavez, who shows no sign of stepping down, has said the first opportunity provided under the country's constitution for a referendum vote on his future is August. His government has gone to court to block a non-binding vote Feb. 2 being paid for by private donations. Protestors want him to either resign or schedule a new election.

The demonstrations oon each of the past 35 days had been disorderly up until Friday but not deadly, as managerial and middle class marchers protested Chavez moves toward a left leaning government more resembling that of Cuba as well as of corruption and mismanagement.

As increasing numbers of supporters, mostly drawn from Caracas' strongly pro-Chavez poor, turned out to counter the opposition, gunfire has become more frequent and news videotape after Friday's confrontations showed one man appearing to fire a handgun in the direction of demonstrators.

The street unrest has accompanied the crippling strike by oil industry workers that has sharply cut the OPEC member's oil output, the mainstay of government revenues.

In recent days, Chavez opposition has also begun calling for a boycott of sales tax payments, to further weaken his government. In turn, the government has raised the possibility of martial law.

Chavez has reportedly begun efforts to import a few oil industry workers from Algeria and elsewhere.Five people were injured Friday by the same gunfire that killed two demonstrators outside Caracas' Fort Tiuna, as Chavez supporters threw bottles, fire crackers and rocks at opposition marchers. The opposition demonstrators were showing support for an army general under house arrest inside.

More than six dozen people including seven police officers suffered injuries other than gunshot wounds in Friday's melee.

The government is estimated to be losing about $35 million a day in oil revenues with production at low levels, between 150,000 and 800,000 barrels a day.

Yet the food supply has not been hurt, many small businesses keep operating in the capital city and some gasoline is still being sold to long lines of motorists.

The civil impasse has pressured the world price of oil even as the Venezuelan currency has weakened, getting the attention of countries far removed from South America.

Al menos dos personas murieron y más de 20 resultaron heridas el viernes en Venezuela por choques violentos, que incluyeron tiroteos, entre partidarios y opositores del presidente Hugo Chávez, en el día 33 de un paro general contra el gobierno.

La confusa balacera ocurrió durante manifestaciones de ambas partes en los alrededores de la base militar Fuerte Tiuna, en el suroeste de Caracas, en medio de una ráfaga de gases lacrimógenos y perdigones lanzados por policías y tropas para separar las protestas contrarias.

El secretario de salud de la Alcaldía Metropolitana de Caracas, Pedro Aristimuño, informó que durante la noche murieron dos hombres de los seis heridos de bala, cuando eran intervenidos en un hospital.

Además de esos heridos, el comandante de los bomberos de Caracas, Rodolfo Briceño, dijo a Reuters que se registró uno por perdigones; otros 20 con contusiones, especialmente por piedras; y 75 que sufrieron los efectos de los gases.

El viernes por la tarde hubo escenas de pánico cuando tanto los manifestantes como los efectivos de seguridad se arrojaron al piso para protegerse de los disparos que atacaron a las personas congregadas en la Avenida Los Ilustres, cercana al Fuerte Tiuna y hasta donde pudo avanzar la marcha opositora, llamada "La Gran Batalla".

"Estamos tirados en el piso, están disparando. No sé de dónde vienen los tiros", dijo una reportera de Reuters en el sitio. Agregó que ambos bandos se lanzaban piedras, palos y fuegos artificiales.

El origen de los disparos no fue identificado de inmediato por las fuerzas del orden. Los testigos dijeron que vieron personas de ambos lados sacando armas después que comenzaron los tiros.

Los enfrentamientos comenzaron cuando cientos de simpatizantes de Chávez colocaron barricadas para impedir el paso de los miles de opositores, que se empeñaron en no abandonar la marcha y rompieron una barrera policial.

Venezuela, quinto exportador mundial de crudo, enfrenta una aguda crisis política en medio de un paro que ha casi detenido las actividades de la vital industria petrolera y exaltado los ánimos en las calles desde su inicio el 2 de diciembre.

El paro petrolero ha generado la pérdida de millones de dólares en ingresos y llevado al gobierno a reducir a la mitad sus estimaciones de crecimiento económico para el 2003 y plantear un recorte de entre 3,0 y 9,0 por ciento en el gasto público, dijo a Reuters el Ministro de Finanzas, Tobías Nóbrega.

SI ME OBLIGAN, ESTADO DE EXCEPCION: CHAVEZ En medio de los choques, Chávez dijo el viernes que si se viera forzado declararía un estado de excepción, que implica la suspensión de algunas garantías constitucionales, pero agregó que de momento no hay condiciones para ello.

"Estoy obligado a proteger el pueblo; yo estoy obligado a proteger el orden público, obligado a proteger la seguridad, la soberanía y la defensa del país, así que si me obligan pues yo tendré que hacerlo", dijo en el palacio presidencial.

Las protestas de ambos bandos, radicalmente polarizados en torno al teniente coronel retirado que asumió el poder hace casi cuatro años, se han vuelto cotidianas en Venezuela.

"No tenemos miedo, no tenemos miedo", gritaban los opositores que marchaban entre las nubes de gas exigiendo la libertad del general disidente Carlos Alfonso Martínez, quien fue detenido el lunes y sigue bajo custodia militar a pesar de que un tribunal ordenó su liberación.

El general no comanda tropas y es acusado de participar en el alzamiento contra Chávez en abril. Integra un grupo de oficiales que el 22 de octubre se declaró en "desobediencia" y llamó a sus compañeros de armas a desconocer al gobierno.

El "chavismo", por su parte, se congregó también en las cercanías del Fuerte Tiuna para apoyar al gobierno y pedir cárcel a los "golpistas", entre los cuales incluyen a algunos militares, líderes opositores que llamaron a la desobediencia tributaria y a trabajadores de la estatal Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) que se sumaron al paro.

"Ellos arruinaron mi futuro pero el futuro de mis hijos no se lo van a robar, eso es un golpe petrolero", dijo el comerciante informal Angel Navarro, de 42 años, uno de los cientos de "chavistas" que se congregó en el lugar.

La medida de fuerza ha perdido vigor entre el sector comercial e industrial, pero ha sido sostenida por los trabajadores petroleros, a quienes Chávez llama saboteadores.

Los promotores del paro --empresarios, sindicalistas, dirigentes políticos y organizaciones civiles-- reiteraron el viernes que no lo levantarán hasta lograr su objetivo: la renuncia de Chávez y el adelanto de elecciones.

"Resistiremos hasta el final", dijo Carlos Ortega, presidente de la poderosa organización sindical opositora, Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV), tras condenar los hechos de violencia de los que culpó al gobierno.

La oposición acusa a Chávez de haber sembrado el odio social entre los 23 millones de venezolanos con sus mensajes de corte izquierdista, de querer instalar un sistema socialista como el cubano, así como de llevar la economía a la ruina.

Ana Isabel Martínez Reuters 3 de Enero de 2003

Reuters Posted January 2 2003, 1:34 PM EST

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelans seeking an extra bang for their New Year's parties or political protests have found a noisy new ally -- the Bin Laden.

The name of Osama bin Laden, leader of the militant Islamist al Qaeda network and suspected mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, has been borrowed by Venezuelans to describe a particularly loud, powerful -- and dangerous -- type of firecracker.

As in many countries in South America and Asia, Venezuelans use fireworks and firecrackers to add zest to feast days, Christmas and New Year celebrations -- and political marches.

At a New Year's party in Caracas held early on Wednesday by tens of thousands of foes of leftist President Hugo Chavez, the thunderous clap of exploding ``Bin Ladens'' punctuated a barrage of firecrackers and fireworks.

In ear-splitting decibel power, the ``Bin Laden'' tops the bewildering arsenal of fireworks sold at this time of year by street vendors in bustling downtown Caracas.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the noisy explosives went Spanish names like ``Tumbaranchos'' (Hut-destroyer) or ''Matasuegras'' (Mother-in-Law killer).

But the Bin Laden, a battery-sized cylinder wrapped in colored paper and packed with gunpowder, has passed into the popular Venezuelan vocabulary.

``The Bin Laden is the most dangerous ... that is powerful gunpowder,'' said 22-year-old Juan Diego Ramirez, selling fireworks at a small stand in central Caracas.

``Bin Laden was someone who really made a bang, which resounded around the world,'' said fellow vendor Javier Lopez.

Caracas Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno says Bin Ladens can maim and kill. He says fireworks killed nine people and injured over 200 in December. Fireworks started at least 400 fires in the last two months, including a big Nov. 18 blaze in Caracas that killed three people and injured more than 50.

www.arabnews.com 5 January 2003

The general strike in Venezuela, already disastrous in economic terms, is threatening to turn even uglier, now that the first two lives have been lost in a mysterious shooting into a crowd of demonstrators. The strike has already polarized Venezuelan society into the predominantly poor supporters of President Hugo Chavez and the middle classes and the upper class elite, who are resisting the president’s proposed reforms.

Venezuela needs reforms, but the president chose the wrong strategy. He chose to confront the entrenched interests of the country’s superrich, when a wiser man would have sought to negotiate and compromise. By picking battles that did not need to be fought, Chavez has sabotaged the implementation of his on radical political agenda. The result is the chaos into which this important oil-producing country has sunk.

Part of Chavez’s problem is that he is a military man, used to giving orders and having them carried out. A modern industrial democracy does not work that way. What he has very probably achieved by his headstrong behavior is throw away the chance to engineer long-overdue changes. It seems inconceivable that any sort of settlement of this bitter general strike will lead to the sort of consensus necessary to implement more than the most superficial of reforms.

The concern now is that the strikers are now calling on the armed forces to join them. This is the point where their protests depart from the legitimate. It is not the business of armed forces to involve themselves in politics. Latin America has suffered enough from the maladministration of military men. If the strikers cannot attain their aims by protest, then they should acknowledge they have failed and return to their jobs.

By seeking to involve the military, they are placing their country in the gravest danger. Some units may be persuaded to intervene while others will rightly see it as their duty to stay loyal to the democratically elected president. If the military splits, the result could be civil war. Such a thing ought to be unthinkable to all parties. But the first blood has already been drawn and tempers are running higher. If the strike does not collapse soon, the government’s own stocks of fuel will start to run out and public order could evaporate completely.

Chavez may still be the elected head of state but the time is fast approaching when he must consider his own position. Can he really continue to occupy his office if, by doing so, his country will be plunged into armed conflict? His reform program is in ruins, Venezuelan society has been split into two rival camps and paralyzed by the general strike.

The answer may be that the president calls a snap election, to renew the reform mandate. Such a contest is likely to be as violent as it would be bitter, but it may be the least of the evils facing the country. If Chavez loses, then, the reform agenda will have been halted, but it will not go away. Other wiser heads can take up the torch of reform at a later date. If, however, he wins, then his political opponents will have lost ground, to the extent that their will to resist change will have been broken. Either way, by returning to the ballot box, Venezuela will have been steered away from civil war.

By GINGER THOMPSON

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 4 — Venezuela's foreign minister said today that the government regretted the violence that erupted Friday during a march against President Hugo Chávez, and acknowledged that the monthlong strike aimed at forcing Mr. Chávez out of office had taken a serious toll on the nation's economy. Advertisement

But the minister, Roy Chaderton, accused strike leaders — particularly executives at the state-owned oil company — of shutting down the heart of this nation's economy in an effort to overthrow the government. He also insisted that Mr. Chávez would not give in to opposition calls for early elections.

"Democracy cannot be subject to the rises and falls in the polls," Mr. Chaderton said, referring to Mr. Chávez's declining approval ratings. "So, just because today is a bad day is not a reason to call for immediate elections and to pressure with violence, to paralyze a country, and strangle the economy just to force out a president."

"It is true that this government has made many mistakes," the minister said. "But errors in a democracy are paid in elections, within the norms of the Constitution."

On Friday, a protest by Mr. Chávez's opponents turned into a street fight that lasted most of the day. Tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators marched toward a military base to demand the release of a dissident general who was a leader of a failed coup last spring and urge the military to support the strike.

Supporters of Mr. Chávez confronted the marchers, and a fight ensued. Later, shots rang out.

Newspaper reports said two men, one 22 and the other 24, were killed and five other people were wounded by the gunfire. Dozens of others suffered injuries from rocks thrown by the battling protesters and from rubber bullets and tear gas fired by national guard troops.

The streets of the capital returned to calm today, and an estimated 20,000 supporters of Mr. Chávez turned out to demonstrate their support for the government.

Mr. Chaderton said Mr. Chávez was trying to prevent a repeat of a coup attempt last April, when the Venezuelan president was forced by the military to leave office for 48 hours after a violent protest outside the presidential compound.

He suggested that the opposition, frustrated that it had not been able to force Mr. Chávez out of power, had begun provoking violence as a way to turn up the pressure on him. But Mr. Chaderton said this effort, like last year's coup attempt, would fail.

"Despite the problems, the country is moving forward except for the oil industry, which has been hit the hardest," he said. "But the country is going forward. The stores are open. People are going to work."

Venezuelan Leader Says He'll Weather Strike by Opponents  (December 16, 2002)