Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A splintered alliance of opposition parties and groups hopes to gather 2.4 million signatures needed to trigger a vote against the former army officer who they say is steadily turning the world's No. 5 oil exporter into a communist tyranny.
After two years of conflict, opposition leaders believe their referendum campaign will succeed in ousting Chavez at the ballot box. A short-lived coup last year and a recent crippling two-month oil strike failed to topple him.
"This is the beginning and the end of this democratic fight. Here we have the dreams and hopes of millions of people," opposition leader Enrique Mendoza told reporters.
The opposition says it will collect signatures at more than 2,700 centers across the country and expects dozens of international observers to guarantee a fair process. But they fear Chavez may use violence to scuttle their campaign. ***
Hugo Cabezas and Tareck el Aissami were appointed last month as director and deputy director of the Identification and Immigration Directorate, in charge of border controls and issuing passports and national ID cards. The agency also works with electoral authorities on voter registration.
Both were top student leaders at the University of the Andes in the western city of Merida, described by senior school officials as a virtual haven for armed Chávez supporters and leftist guerrillas.
When El Aissami served as president of the student body from 2001 to 2003, his armed supporters controlled the university's dormitories, said Oswando Alcala, a professor and director of student affairs.
Cabezas and El Aissami declined several Herald requests for interviews. Calls to the Information Ministry in Caracas also failed to elicit an official response.
Their appointments to the passport office raised eyebrows both because of the reports of Arabs obtaining Venezuelan ID documents and the possibility of fraud in an ongoing drive for a referendum to recall Chávez. His popularity stands at less than 40 percent.
''These appointments raise suspicions,'' said Pompeyo Marquez, a former Cabinet minister for border issues and an opponent of Chávez opponent. ``The risk is that they can play tricks both as regards elections and with identity cards.''
MAGAZINE REPORT
Allegations that Chávez's leftist government issued ID documents to Islamic radicals surfaced most recently in the newsweekly U.S. News and World Report. ''Venezuela is providing support -- including identity documents -- that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups,'' the magazine reported last month, quoting senior U.S. military and intelligence officials.
Chávez has strongly denied previous opposition allegations of links to Islamic radicals and leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. Following the U.S. magazine's report, he accused the U.S. ''extreme right'' of trying to justify his ouster by ``anything: an assassination, a coup d'etat, an invasion.''*** [More at LINK]
Some in the community -- the local Venezuelan community, in particular -- also will be counting signatures in an effort to change the face of government in their country.
In a move reminiscent of the recall petition and election Californians recently held to replace Gov. Gray Davis with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Venezuelans are attempting to force a recall of President Hugo Chavez.
According to the constitutional framework, the opposition must gather the signatures of 2.4 million voters, 20 percent of the Venezuelan electorate, to force the referendum that would be expected next April. The four-day petition drive begins today.
A related petition drive is scheduled here Saturday (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) at Ray Miller Park, 1800 Eldridge Parkway.
That drive, named Reafirmazo Alternativo, may be rendered largely symbolic, because the Chavez government moved to exclude Venezuelans living abroad from participating in the recall petition. It's a move that, in essence, strips Venezuelans living here and elsewhere around the globe of their rights under the Venezuelan Constitution.
Nevertheless, organizers say they expect petitions to be signed by Venezuelans living in more than 100 cities around the world, including many of the estimated 1,800 Venezuelans in the Houston area.
The signatures gathered here will be witnessed, notarized and submitted, along with others from Venezuelans outside their country, to international human rights organizations. The signatures collected will accompany a formal complaint to be introduced before Venezuelan and international institutions, said local spokesperson Cristal Montañez. ***
……..Cabezas, 30, and el-Aissami, 28, are both radical "Chavistas" who emerged as student leaders at the University of the Andes in the city of Merida, about 300 miles southwest of the capital, Caracas.
The university city of Merida has for decades been a haven for guerrilla groups, both domestic and foreign. Venezuelan and Colombian guerrilla groups continue to maintain an armed presence at the university, with the alleged complicity of Merida state government officials, according to students and university officials.
Merida's governor is a former army officer close to Chavez, Florencio Porras. Cabezas was his private secretary until last year.
State officials deny the allegations. Even so, students and academics point to a dramatic upsurge in radical student activity during el-Aissami's two-year tenure as president of the student union. Prior to his departure in July, armed groups consolidated their presence in student residences, they say.
A report by the vice rectorate of academic affairs recently found that of 1,122 people living in a student housing complex, only 387 were active students. More than 600 are completely unconnected to the university.
While the university provides essential services at the residences, students have a say in room allocation and building security. Under el-Aissami's rule political control over the residences fell into the hands of extremists with criminal ties, according to students and university officials.
The current director of Student Affairs, professor Oswando Alcala, accused students under el-Aissami's leadership of turning the residences into a base for criminal activity.
"They use the residences to hide stolen cars. There's drug trafficking, prostitution," he said. "There are always weapons there. . . . They leave the residences, put on ski masks and do hold-ups in the street."
He added that the students appeared to have political backing. "All this is done with the full knowledge of the university and (Merida) state authorities," he said.
University directors had tried to intervene, but local judicial and law enforcement authorities declined to act, he said.
When Alcala voiced objections in May, students in ski masks surrounded his office armed with gasoline and tires, threatening to burn it down. A former guerrilla himself, Alcala scared them off, saying he wasn't afraid of a violent confrontation.
El-Aissami was soundly defeated when he sought re-election in July, with opponents winning more than 70 percent of the vote. After the election, the new student council found the union offices ransacked, with phones, fax machines, computers and files all missing.
The windows of the student union offices are still full of holes made by rocks and bullets during election campaign violence.
Cabezas and el-Aissami belonged to a radical group called Utopia, of which Cabezas was a founding member. It is suspected of links with a clandestine armed paramilitary group, the Bolivarian Liberation Forces, or FBL, which professes allegiance to Chavez. ***
"There's no turning back," Chavez said.
Opposition leaders claimed Friday's turnout was overwhelming.
"I saw lines that extended several blocks today. It was impressive," said opposition lawmaker Geraldo Blyde, who called last week's pro-Chavez drive "small and sullen."
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel played down Friday's turnout, saying it was being exaggerated by opposition-aligned news media.
"They're trying to fool a lot of people using the media, but these ploys always fail," Rangel said.
The opposition also sought recalls against 34 pro-Chavez lawmakers.
Venezuela's labor ministry filed a formal complaint alleging that business owners were forcing employees to sign against Chavez. Opposition leaders accused state security forces of seizing petitions at some booths.
Election officials said they were investigating both claims.***
Chavez's statement raised questions about whether he would accept the results of the signature campaign. But international observers, who are monitoring the process, say it has gone smoothly except for a few isolated incidents. "People have been able to sign... and the process has been democratic and as far as our observers have been able to see, clean," said Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, who is leading the monitoring mission. Gaviria avoided being drawn on how the OAS would react if Chavez did not accept the results. But he said he was confident both sides would respect any decision by electoral authorities. The National Electoral Council, which is overseeing the process, has about 30 days to verify the validity of the signatures before deciding whether to allow a referendum, probably in April, on whether Chavez should end his mandate. ***
Speaking to several thousand cheering supporters at a late night rally, the leftist president repeated an accusation made over the weekend that his foes cheated massively in the four-day signature campaign, which ended Monday.
"Dr. Gaviria said he saw nothing abnormal. ... I think you overstepped the mark, Dr Gaviria," said Chavez, who also complained that the OAS Secretary General failed to seek a meeting with him during his stay.
Earlier Gaviria, who headed a mission of international observers monitoring the Venezuelan referendum process, directly contradicted Chavez's accusations by saying he had seen no evidence of widespread fraud.
Chavez, who has ruled the world's No. 5 oil exporter since 1998, questioned the OAS chief's impartiality, commenting that he "spent a lot of time with the opposition." The comments by the populist president stirred fears that he would refuse to accept a referendum against him. It also raised the possibility of a public dispute with Gaviria, a former Colombian president and leading diplomat in the Americas.
Opposition leaders hailed their pro-referendum drive as "a triumph of democracy," saying they believed they had collected enough signatures to trigger the referendum against Chavez. They say his self-proclaimed "revolution" is dragging Venezuela toward Cuba-style Communism.
Venezuela's National Electoral Council will have the sensitive job of verifying the signatures collected to see if they reach the 2.4 million legally required to secure a vote. If they do, a referendum could be held in March or April.
One opposition leader, anti-Chavez union boss Alfredo Ramos, told Reuters he estimated 3.7 million pro-referendum signatures had been gathered over the last four days. But senior government officials insisted the signatures collected had not reached 2 million. ***
Bump!
"This has been one of the best political operations we have carried out for years in the northern coast of Colombia," said Dairo Martinez, a local commander of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, in an interview with Reuters in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
His face covered by a red-and-black ELN bandanna, Martinez spoke to Reuters on Monday, soon after rebels freed Reinhilt Weigel, who is German, and Spaniard Asier Huegun. Because of the remote location, the interview could not be released until Friday.
The Cuban-inspired rebels kidnapped eight backpackers they snatched at Indian ruins on Sept. 12, and demanded a humanitarian commission investigate what they said was a blockade by far-right gunmen in the Sierra Nevada.***
The clashes, triggered by police seizures of illegal fireworks, raised tensions in the world's No. 5 oil exporter as electoral authorities prepared to evaluate an opposition request for a referendum on the rule of leftist President Hugo Chavez.
Police said the demonstrators, some shouting slogans in support of Chavez, fired guns at officers and threw firecrackers. Bystanders ran for cover and downtown shopkeepers shuttered their premises.
"It seems as though some people are trying to create disorder in the capital, for some dark purposes," Metropolitan Police deputy director Orlando Gutierrez told Reuters.
He said one officer was hit on the head by a stone. Fire service chief Rodolfo Briceno said two officers were hurt.
The disturbances in the capital spread to the area outside the National Electoral Council, where national guard troops in full riot gear fired tear gas to disperse the protesters. Security was reinforced around the council with more guards and two armored vehicles. ***
o Mission Robinson, a $34 million project to teach one million people to read.
o Mission Rivas, aimed at getting high school dropouts to earn equivalency degrees.
o Mission Sucre -- a new university and $100 in monthly stipends for 30,000 high school graduates shunned by pricier schools. The location: former PDVSA offices.
o Barrio Adentro, 1,000 Cuban doctors who offer primary healthcare in urban slums.
o An increase in the minimum wage and a three-month Christmas bonus for government employees.
''What you have is an aggressive strategy to increase social spending,'' said Luis Vicente León, a political analyst and pollster. ``It's interesting that many of these programs began in July -- right when [Chávez] dropped several points in the polls. At the very least, it's suspicious.''
León calculates that Chávez has offered $2 billion in new programs this year. In one six-week stretch, his ventures totaled $1 billion.
SLIP OF THE TONGUE
Skeptics of Chávez's claims of good intentions got a boost when Education Minister Aristóbulo Istúriz accidentally said on a radio and TV program that the Mission Robinson plan is aimed at training ''new voters.'' He meant readers.
Opponents also allege the government has deliberately created lengthy sign-up lists for the various public aid programs, in order to scare people on the waiting list away from the petitions for the recall referendum. ***
Where Did Liberation Theology Come From?
Among Protestants, Liberation Theology was born within a group of theologians associated with the "Church and Society in Latin America" movement (ISAL in Spanish). Begun in 1962, ISAL determined to implement the social implications of the gospel for Latin America. Soon they began to believe that political revolution was the only answer to the ills; only a short step remained to the persuasion that revolution is the best way to express Christian love toward suffering neighbors. Later, believing that Marxism provided the only effective strategy for mass revolution, they concluded that God is using radical Marxist revolutionary movements to establish His kingdom of peace, justice, equality, and prosperity for Latin America. That belief is the essence of Liberation Theology in Latin America.
At the same time, a similar process of ferment and discussion took place among the area's Roman Catholic theologians at the Episcopal Conference of Latin America in 1968. They produced a document that analyzed many glaring problems in terms of Marxist philosophy and then proclaimed some of the basic beliefs of Liberation Theology. Although the Catholic church has exerted considerable pressure since that time to suppress the liberationist movement, it is still strong and growing. The Pope's attempts (*) at Puebla, Mexico, and later in Brazil to squelch the movement among priests and theologians have so far proved ineffective. Though Protestant theologians probably came up with the first primitive attempts at creating a theology of liberation, the Roman Catholics have now "taken the ball and run with it." It is now propagated in most major Protestant and Roman Catholic seminaries of Latin America.
What Does the Theology of Liberation Teach?
It is difficult to give a general picture that is really fair to the system's proponents. It is a new movement, and its advocates are still formulating their positions. One must look at each liberationist individually to understand his role. Three of the most important are Gustovo Gutierrez, Emilio Castro, and Jose Miguez Bonino.
Gutierrez is probably the most famous. His book, A Theology of Liberation, published in Spanish in 1971, remains the classic expression available in English. A Catholic priest and theology professor in the Catholic University of Lima, Peru, Gutierrez was influenced by Camilo Torres, the Colombian priest who left the Church to join Communist guerrillas warring against the Colombian government. The Colombian army killed Torres in a mountain shoot-out, but his belief lives on in the writings of men like Gutierrez. He taught that the only path for concrete expression of Christian love for Latin America's oppressed lies in joining the Marxist revolution.
In his books Gutierrez argues for Marxism's superiority over all other philosophies and systems, universal salvation (the belief that everyone will be saved), God's presence in the modern revolutionary movement, and the need for the church to work toward securing justice and social well-being for the oppressed.
Uruguayan Emilio Castro directs the Commission of World Mission and Evangelization of the World Council of Churches. More strategist than theologian, Dr. Castro stresses the need for participation in what he regards as the inevitable revolution in Latin America. As a universalist, he sees recruitment of people for involvement in bettering social conditions to be the primary task of the church, not evangelism as traditional evangelists teach. God works through Marxist revolution to bring all men together in Jesus Christ, he claims.
Jose Miguez Bonino is one of the most widely published liberation theologians in the world today, especially in English. He has written more than twelve books and sixty articles on the subject. From Argentina, he began his ministry as a Methodist pastor and was elected to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in 1975. Miguez believes that Marxism is the only scientific method to understand poverty and oppression. He also believes that Marxism offers the best way to express Christian love in modern society. He advocates violence for toppling repressive Latin American governments.***
In Cuba almost half a century ago, a few months before the nation's leaders joined the glorious socialist camp, they cranked up the firing squads, confiscated the media and jailed or exiled a good number of journalists. After that, life was a piece of cake.
Chávez defends himself as best he can from these charges of revolutionary incompetence, or ''pussyfooting,'' as Cuban Col. Lázaro Barredo -- a policeman who pretends to be a journalist -- likes to say.
Of course, Chávez would love to shoot at dawn 400 Venezuelan enemies of the people. How could anyone question his Leninist instincts? Didn't he leave some 500 lifeless bodies on the streets during his raid on Miraflores Palace in 1992? The problem is that he's impotent. He has no strength. His enemies do not fear him.
He also does not enjoy the trust of his own army. His political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, is a sack filled with scrawny cats. His legislators lack experience. Three quarters of the power structure devote themselves to plundering the public treasury.
Chávez would have loved to cancel the ''re-signing,'' but how could he do it with such a weak government? Nobody would have joined him in that adventure, not César Gaviria (head of the Organization of American States) or former President Jimmy Carter. In fact, not even President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who has indicated that the legalities must be observed. ***
Rodriguez was expected to join other Cuban and Venezuelan musicians Saturday for the event, which coincides with a large street rally marking Chavez's 1998 presidential win.
Chavez, who was re-elected in 2000, invited Rodriguez for the festivities.
"I'm here because I believe in revolutionary processes," said Rodriguez, whose songs of love and social justice have won over fans throughout Latin America.
"There have been difficulties, but it must be given a vote of confidence," Rodriguez said at a news conference Friday.
Opponents of Chavez are seeking a recall referendum on his term next year.
Musicians specializing in trovas - songs focusing on social problems that often recall U.S. protest tunes of the 1960s - will join Rodriguez at the concert. [End]
Chavez claims the opposition resorted to fraud during the recent drive to collect signatures for a presidential recall vote that would be held next year. On Sunday, Chavez vowed to personally review every signature - by some estimates, more than 3 million - and said he would reject any that he considers fake, even if the National Elections Council decides they are legitimate. "I would lay the bat down at home plate and say 'There's no game,'" Chavez said. "They must convince me, signature by signature ... for there to be a game."
Opposition leaders claim at least 3.6 million people signed the presidential recall petition - well above the 2.4 million needed to trigger a vote. They plan to turn in the signatures by next week. The elections council would then have 30 days to verify the petitions and decide whether to authorize a vote. ***
In a letter written from his French prison, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, best-known for taking hostage a dozen OPEC oil ministers in Vienna in 1975, reflected on the recent death of his father, a communist who named his children after Soviet leaders. It was written in August and published this week by the government-run Caracas daily Vea.
Most of Ramírez's 20-year streak of terrorism, which made him as notorious as the Palestinian Abu Nidal, was carried out on behalf of Arab groups. He was captured in Sudan in 1994 and is now serving a life sentence for the murder of two French policemen in the mid-1970s.
''My first two conspiratorial experiences were with my father, in Bogotá in 1960 and in Miami in 1961,'' he wrote. He lived with his father in ``an apartment with a backyard in the Latinoquarter of Miami, just two blocks from the Orange Bowl stadium.''***
"The rule of law has disappeared in this country," says Joel Silva, who claims ownership of the 10,000-acre El Britero hacienda on which the Zambranos settled. "[Chávez's] 'revolution' has us on the road to Castro communism."
Mr. Silva says that at the time of the campesinos' arrival he had about 15 employees and 3,000 cattle on the El Britero hacienda.
But Ricaurte Leonett, president of the National Lands Institute, known as the INTI, says that his institute redistributes only idle lands belonging to the government.
"Don't get nervous," he told farmers. "If your land is productive, even if it belongs to the government, there's no danger."
The land on which the Zambranos want to farm is part of one of the nation's highest-profile disputes. Last February, the INTI issued an "agrarian letter" declaring the 77,000 acres to be idle government-owned land and giving a group of families permission to organize a farming cooperative and occupy the land. The government assisted them with tractors, combines, and seed, and provided low-interest loans.
But several local businessmen, including Silva, claimed they owned parts of the land and filed lawsuits.
In November, both a local court and the nation's supreme court issued decisions supporting the plaintiffs, and police evicted the squatting campesinos. Authorities are appealing the decisions and promise the campesinos will return to the land. ***
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.