Chavez followers in show of strength in Venezuela

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

13 Oct 2002 18:15
Chavez followers in show of strength in Venezuela
By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez, ignoring renewed opposition pressure for him to
resign six months after surviving a coup, led hundreds of
thousands of supporters on Sunday in a big show of strength
for his self-proclaimed "revolution."

The rally was held to commemorate the day last April when
the leftist former paratrooper was dramatically restored to
office by loyal troops and supporters after being deposed
for 48 hours by rebel generals and admirals.

The pro-Chavez rally was also a response to a large
opposition march in Caracas on Thursday. The mass turnouts
in both events reflected the intensity of the sharply
polarized political conflict that is shaking the world's
fifth largest oil exporter.

Chavez's government and its opponents are deadlocked over
how to resolve the crisis and have waged a war of words and
competing marches since the chaotic but short-lived coup, in
which more than 60 people were killed in street violence.

Blowing whistles and wearing mostly red, the color of
Chavez's self-styled "Bolivarian Revolution", Sunday's
marchers chanted slogans in support of the populist
president as they streamed through poor neighborhoods in
western Caracas.

Mobbed by supporters, Chavez, who wore a red jacket,
described the rally as "a human river" and said it was a
clear response to hardline foes who wanted to force him from
office.

"If some minority sectors of crazy oligarchs don't want to
understand, then the people have the power to impose their
will," Chavez said. He added two million supporters attended
Sunday's march but no independent estimates were available.

In east Caracas, his opponents held a smaller demonstration
near the residence of the president, who says he is inspired
by Venezuela's 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Chavez, an outspoken nationalist who was democratically
elected in 1998 six years after staging a botched coup bid,
is refusing opposition demands that he quit the presidency
and bring forward elections.

STRIKE THREAT

Opposition leaders, who include business and labor chiefs,
media owners and dissident military officers, accuse the
president of dragging the oil-rich country toward
Cuban-style communism. They condemn his interventionist
economic reforms and confrontational leadership style as
dictatorial.

Despite escalating anti-government street protests and
swirling coup rumors, Chavez insists he still enjoys support
from the majority of Venezuelans, most of whom live in
poverty in a nation racked by inequality and social
tensions.

"If there are elections, we'll still win," Chavez supporter
Edith Soto, a 36-year-old textile worker, told Reuters on
Sunday.

"We are the majority," read one banner carried by the
demonstrators.

Opposition groups say they will stage a national strike on
Oct. 21 if the president does not resign or call early
elections before Wednesday. But workers in the oil industry,
mainstay of the Venezuelan economy, say they will not
support such a stoppage.

Chavez, whose current mandate ends in 2007, has shrugged off
the strike threat and accuses hardline opponents of plotting
another coup against him.

"There is not going to be another coup or a strike or
anything like that ... The people are in the streets and
that is a warning to coup-plotters," Vice President Jose
Vicente Rangel told reporters at Sunday's pro-government
march.

Although the opposition movement has gained momentum since
the April coup, divisions over strategy and the absence of a
clear, charismatic leader to confront Chavez have created
visible frustration within its ranks.

"Chavez is driving them crazy," was the most popular chant
yelled by the pro-government marchers Sunday.

Chavez, who says his left-leaning reforms are aimed at
reducing the power of corrupt and wealthy elites and at
closing the gap between rich and poor, has told his foes
they must wait until August, 2003 -- half-way through his
current mandate -- to hold a referendum on his rule allowed
by the constitution.

Several dissident senior military officers, most of them
facing court martial inquires for their alleged role in the
April coup, have recently spoken out against Chavez, stoking
fears of another possible military putsch against him.

But government leaders played down these fears, saying most
of the armed forces were behind the president, or at least
would not move to try to overthrow him unconstitutionally.
(Additional reporting by Silene Ramirez)









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