[A-List] Venezuela: Chavez strengthens position

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Troops seize police HQ for Chávez
By Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas
Financial Times: November 18 2002

Troops loyal to Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez seized control of the
Caracas police force from the capital's mayor - one of his most vocal
opponents - at the weekend in a forceful display of apparent authority.

Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister, decreed early on Saturday that the
8,000-strong metropolitan police force must report directly to the
government and not to Mayor Alfredo Pen~a.

Mr Cabello, who is seen as a hardliner in the Chávez administration, said
that the government had taken over the police to "restore law and order" and
that a new but temporary chief police commissioner would be appointed.

For several weeks a group of police officers had barricaded themselves in
the headquarters in protest at alleged non-payment of bonuses by the mayor.

Mr Pen~a, who claimed that the striking police officers were being
deliberately disruptive on direct orders from Mr Chávez, denounced the
seizure of the autonomous city police as a Chávez-inspired coup against his
authority.

In recent weeks Caracas has been the setting for several violent clashes
between Chávez supporters and the police that have left two people shot dead
and dozens injured. Shooting broke out near the police headquarters late on
Saturday as Emigdio Delgado, the newly designated police chief, reaffirmed
his loyalty to the mayor, triggering a power struggle over who would remain
in charge.

The capital remained tense on Sunday as Venezuelan troops fired tear gas and
shotgun pellets to clear anti-government demonstrators outside a police
station. Armoured cars with mounted machine guns were deployed at several
road junctions on the outskirts of the city.

The battle for control of the Caracas police appears to be the latest phase
in Venezuela's increasingly anarchic political and military stand-off.

Army General Enrique Medina Gómez, leader of a group of senior officers who
last month declared themselves in "legitimate disobedience" against the
Chávez government, called on military officers not to obey "illegal" orders.

Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is in a deep recession,
and analysts say the country has become ungovernable under Mr Chávez's
government.

The government takeover of the Caracas police is expected to overshadow
talks between the government and Democratic Co-ordinator, the loose alliance
of opposition groups, which are due to resume on Monday.