“pugnacious” Chavez Rallies Supporters in Venezuela Poll Contest

Reuters, yahoo.comnews ^ | November 23, 2003 | Pascal Fletcher with Fabian Andres Cambero

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Near the square where the president signed, his supporters fired exploding firework rockets directly into surrounding apartments where anti-Chavez protesters had beaten pots and pans on balconies, witnesses said. Brushing aside opinion polls that show two out of three Venezuelans would vote him out in a referendum, Chavez insists he will win and serve out his term until the end of 2006.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday joined a signature campaign to unseat some of his enemies in parliament, rallying his supporters a week before a rival opposition referendum drive that aims to try to vote him out of office.

Cheered by followers in a square near the presidential palace in Caracas, the left-wing leader added his signature to a government-backed petition for a referendum to recall 38 anti-Chavez deputies from the National Assembly.

"We're two different teams .... But it's our turn to bat and we're scoring all the runs we can," he told reporters, evoking a baseball game to describe the rival referendum drives by his followers and foes in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

By trying to recall the 38 opponents, the government hopes to bolster its fragile majority in the National Assembly.

The government signature campaign, which started Friday and will end Monday, will test Chavez's support ahead of a four-day opposition signature drive starting next Friday that will try to trigger a referendum on the populist president's own rule.

Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria praised the peaceful start of the campaign, contrasting it with the violence that shook Venezuela during a brief coup last year and an opposition strike in December and January.

"I think the country has finally found the peaceful, electoral and constitutional solution that it needed to defuse the intense political tensions it has experienced," Gaviria, who flew in to monitor the signature drives, told reporters.

On the second day of the pro-Chavez signature collection, a steady trickle of voters passed through signing centers across the country. But there was no massive rush to sign.

As fireworks exploded overhead and the crowd chanted "Hey, hey, Chavez's here to stay," the president gave a thumbs-up sign after adding his name to the anti-opposition petition.

He was watched by some of the more than 40 international observers who are monitoring the referendum drives. Most are from the OAS and the Atlanta-based Carter Center.

BATTLE OF REFERENDUMS

In its upcoming Nov. 28-Dec. 1 signature drive, the opposition must obtain a minimum 2.4 million signatures for a referendum on the presidency to take place in April next year.

"When it's our turn to field, let's see if the other team can bat," Chavez said.

The pugnacious president, a former paratrooper, has governed Venezuela since he won elections in 1998, six years after failing to seize power in a botched coup.

To secure its own referendum against the 38 opposition deputies, several of whom had deserted Chavez's ruling coalition, the government side must obtain 20 percent of the registered voters in each relevant constituency.

Near the square where the president signed, his supporters fired exploding firework rockets directly into surrounding apartments where anti-Chavez protesters had beaten pots and pans on balconies, witnesses said.

Brushing aside opinion polls that show two out of three Venezuelans would vote him out in a referendum, Chavez insists he will win and serve out his term until the end of 2006.

Chavez's foes accuse him of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuba-style communism. He says his self-styled "revolution," including cheap credits and land grants for the poor, seeks to distribute Venezuela's oil wealth more equally.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuela's Chavez warns supporters of referendum their names will be remembered***President Hugo Chavez issued a warning Saturday to anyone planning to sign a referendum on his presidency, saying their names would be registered and remembered "forever."

Venezuela's elections authority this week said the opposition could gather signatures supporting a recall referendum from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. The constitution says a referendum request must be backed by signatures from at least 20 percent of the electorate.

But Chavez warned: "Their names will be recorded forever." "They should know that although they are not going to get (a referendum), their names will be recorded. Unlike in a vote, which is secret, they will sign. They will put their names and surnames, their national ID number and their fingerprint," he said.***

An army soldier stands in front of line of Venezuelans waiting to sign on the second day of a petition drive for recall referendums against opposition legislators in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003, hoping to boost President Hugo Chavez ahead of an opposition drive to force a vote on his own rule. The drive ends Nov. 24. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Uncle Fidel better dust off the couch.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuban journalist tells CPJ of physical and psychological torture***Arévalo Padrón was released from the Ariza maximum-security prison, in the central province of Cienfuegos, on November 13. The journalist said he had been physically and psychologically tortured while in jail. In April 1998, he said that two prison officers severely beat him in the face and back after he refused to chant pro-government slogans. Arévalo Padrón was then punished and placed in a small cell where he did not receive immediate medical attention. "There I stayed for one year and two months," the journalist said. As a result of the beating, his nasal septum was broken, and he can breathe only through his left nostril, he said.

Jailed for showing "disrespect" to Castro Arévalo Padrón, founder of the Línea Sur Press news agency, was sentenced in October 1997 to six years in prison for showing "disrespect" to President Fidel Castro Ruz and Cuban State Council member Carlos Lage. The charges stemmed from a series of interviews Arévalo Padrón gave in 1997 to Miami-based radio stations in which he alleged that while Cuban farmers starved, helicopters were taking fresh meat from the countryside to the dinner tables of President Castro, Lage, and other Communist Party officials. ***

November 1, 2003 Cuban President Fidel Castro criticized "US impreialism" in Iraq in a five-hour address to an academic conference on "The New World Hegemony(AFP/File/Rajesh Jantilal)

[Levante]

Chaves and Castro need the same thing.

An exorcism.