Chavez govt says it may consider early election, but opposition says resign

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

After the mobilizations of  the last few days, the oppositionists seem to
doubt they can win an election unless Chavez has already been toppled and
they hold government and military power once again.

Today, their unpopularity plus the fact that their former grip on the
military and the cops has been greatly weakened, to put it mildly,  does not
bode well for them. The battle for the streets seems to have been won once
again by the working people.

If an election is held, Venezuela will still know no peace. Destabilization,
bosses strikes and ship captain's mutinies  and  other political and
economic disruption  efforts will continue apace -- they are the only hope
for an opposition victory, along with the millions that will come in from
the National Endowment for Democracy and similar  U.S.  governmental and
"nongovernmental" sources. I hope and believe that if Chavez decides to hold
the umpteenth vote in a couple years on his regime, the revolution will not
be put on hold for the duration.
Fred Feldman

Dec. 13 New York Times
Venezuelan May Consider Early Election
By JUAN FORERO


ARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 10 - The administration of President Hugo Chávez has
for the first time expressed a willingness to discuss a timetable for an
early presidential election, government allies said today, as an
increasingly punishing antigovernment strike went on for a ninth day.

But opposition leaders, doubtful of the government's sincerity and enraged
by what they view as the government's strong-arm tactics, said they instead
called for the left-leaning president to resign.
Those close to Mr. Chávez said he would not, leaving the country in a
stalemate that negotiations mediated by the Organization of American States
have been unable to break.

Concerned about "a deteriorating political and security situation," the
State Department today offered free flights home for United States Embassy
dependents and some nonessential staff members, and advised Americans to
consider leaving Venezuela or putting off travel here.

The developments came as jittery Venezuelans gathered in long lines today to
withdraw money from banks that on Monday joined the national strike, which
is intended to weaken Mr. Chávez's four-year-old government. The oil
industry, lifeblood of the economy and supplier of petroleum to the United
States, continued to founder, with exports largely frozen.

Eight of the 20 members of Venezuela's Supreme Court said they were
suspending their own work except in the most urgent of cases, citing
political manipulation by the National Assembly. The assembly, where a
slight majority is allied with the president, decided last week to fire the
court's vice president, arguing that he did not have the necessary
qualifications.

Anti-Chávez leaders today decried what they called government-coordinated
attacks on the news media. On Monday night several pro-Chávez demonstrators
protested outside private television stations, all of which are ferociously
anti-Chávez, ransacking the newsroom of one of them.

The United States and other countries, worried about the increasing tensions
and potential for violence, have called on the two sides to find a
negotiated electoral solution to the turmoil. "The failure to do so has
grave and drastic consequences," an American diplomat said.

Some diplomats are pressing the government to open the way for a change in
the Constitution to allow early elections, as opponents demanded. Nicolás
Maduro, a congressman who represents the government in talks with the
opposition, said that in formal talks on Monday, the government expressed a
willingness to discuss a timetable for elections.

But the opposition has hardened its stance, particularly since a gunman
killed three people at an antigovernment rally on Friday. The gunman
appeared to be deranged, but opposition leaders have blamed Mr. Chávez for
the attack.

"The country demands the resignation of Chávez, or that early elections be
staged in the first quarter of 2003," said Manuel Cova, a union leader who
has negotiated for the opposition.

Ricardo Gutiérrez, a pro-Chávez legislator who has met with the president to
discuss the crisis, replied, "We cannot negotiate with them when we have a
gun to our head."

A proposal by Rafael Simón Jiménez, the first vice president of the National
Assembly, to introduce an amendment to change the Constitution to allow an
early election was thwarted today when opposition legislators boycotted
deliberations.

"This is the ideal way," Mr. Jiménez said of his proposal.







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