Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LINKS to Hugo Chavez's "government" June 2001 - March 2002
I'm keeping track of Hugoland formally known as Venezuela. Please LINK any stories or add what you wish to this thread. The above LINK takes you to past articles posted before the new FR format. Below I'll add what I've catalogued since that LINK no longer could take posts.
(March 1, 2002)-- Venezuela's strongman faces widespread calls to step down
By Phil Gunson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
[Full Text] CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The man who won Venezuelan hearts three years ago as a strongman who could deliver a better life to the masses is now facing them in the streets.
More than 20,000 people turned out this week calling for the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, while some 2,000 supporters marched in a rival demonstration of support. The demonstrations come after months of building discontent with a president who has managed to alienate the labor class, the media, business groups, the church, political parties, and the military.
Four military leaders have publicly called for his resignation.
In November, Chávez introduced 49 "revolutionary" decrees. The package of laws - affecting everything from land rights and fisheries to the oil industry - unified virtually the whole of organized society in a nationwide business and labor stoppage that paralyzed the country on Dec. 10.
The protests this week have a note of irony, because they started out as a commemoration called by President Chávez. In his eyes, Feb. 27 is a milestone of his so-called revolution - "the date on which the people awoke" in 1989. That is when thousands of rioters and looters took to the streets in protest of an IMF-backed austerity plan, in which the government hiked gas prices.
In what became known as the caracazo, or noisy protest, thousands of rioters and looters were met by Venezuelan military forces, and hundreds were killed. Three years later, Chávez and his military co-conspirators failed in an attempt to overthrow the government responsible for the massacre, that of President Carlos Andres Perez. Chávez was jailed for two years.
"But the elements that brought about the caracazo are still present in Venezuela," says lawyer Liliana Ortega, who for 13 years has led the fight for justice on behalf of the victims' relatives. "Poverty, corruption, impunity ... some of them are perhaps even more deeply ingrained than before."
Chávez's supporters consist of an inchoate mass of street traders, the unemployed, and those whom the old system had marginalized. This, to Chávez, is el pueblo - the people.
"But we are 'the people' too," protests teacher Luis Leonet. "We're not oligarchs like he says. The oligarchs are people like Chávez, people with power."
On Wednesday, Leonet joined a march led by the main labor confederation, the CTV, to protest what unions say is a series of antilabor measures, including one of the 49 decrees dealing with public-sector workers.
Chávez won't talk to the CTV, whose leaders, he says, are corrupt and illegitimate. So he refuses to negotiate the annual renewal of collective contracts with the confederation, holding up deals on pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of union members like Leonet.
Across town on Wednesday, a progovernment march sought to demonstrate that the president's popularity was as high as ever.
"For the popular classes, Chávez is an idol," says marcher Pedro Gutierrez.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon, of the Datanalisis organization, warns that marches are no measure of relative popularity. "There is a lot of discontent among ... the really poor," Leon says, adding that so far the protests are mainly among the middle class.
But the middle class can be a dangerous enemy. It includes the bulk of the armed forces, and the management of the state oil company, PDVSA.
This month, four uniformed officers, ranging from a National Guard captain to a rear-admiral and an Air Force general, called on the president to resign, while repudiating the idea of a military coup of Chávez, himself a former Army lieutenant-colonel.
But senior "institutionalist" officers "are under severe pressure from lower ranks frustrated at the lack of impact" that these acts have had, a source close to military dissidents says. In other words, a coup cannot be ruled out, although the United States publicly denounces the idea.
Meanwhile, the president's imposition of a new board of directors on PDVSA this week sparked a virtual uprising by the company's senior management. In an unprecedented public statement, managers said the government was pushing the company "to the verge of operational and financial collapse" by imposing political, rather than commercial, criteria.
The political opposition remains relatively weak and divided. But in the view of many analysts, a president who offends both the military and the oil industry is asking for trouble. In the bars and restaurants of Caracas, the debate is no longer over whether Chávez will finish his term, which has nearly five years to run. It is when and how he will go - and what comes next. [End]
Chavez ordered the militarization of Caracas' 9,000-member police force on Nov. 16, claiming a police labor dispute jeopardized public security. The order outraged the opposition, which called it a Chavez power grab, and was a catalyst in their call for a strike beginning Dec. 2. The strike, in which the opposition is demanding Chavez resign or call early elections, sent Venezuela into political crisis, crippled its giant oil industry and fueled sometimes violent street demonstrations.
Many police officers have refused to recognize the new police chief Chavez appointed, and Pena said violent crime has risen 40 percent since the militarization. Pena went to Venezuela's highest administrative court to appeal the takeover, and Friday evening the court ruled that he has control over police installations while they make a final ruling in the case. But Pena said the government wasn't obeying the order.
"I don't have tanks or bazookas or airplanes to make the head of the military in Caracas obey a court order," he told The Associated Press. "All I can do is denounce it to you."
Chavez has anchored his political support, now at 30 percent, largely on accusations that the old political bosses had squandered or stolen the country's oil wealth to the detriment of its poor majority. Now, as the crisis plays out, the embattled president may be driven from office by losing control of oil.***
….. The nation's gasoline inventories are down from a year ago, but the inventoried volumes increased during the most recent week and are pretty much in line with the five-year average. Refineries are making a half-million barrels per day more gasoline than they were last year, supplemented by plentiful imports. "The market is well-supplied," Kloza said. Sustaining a price rally at the pump this time of year would be difficult, unlike during March or April when a Venezuelan strike would be cause for alarm.
The wholesale markets were reacting not only to Venezuela's woes but to news that Saudi Arabia will cut back on January crude output, to reports of a problem with a catalytic cracker in Valero's Texas City refinery, and the typical pre-weekend jitters when the war drums are beating, he said. Companies with significant exposure to Venezuelan crude reductions include the Lyondell-Citgo refining joint venture in Houston, Murphy Oil, Exxon Mobil, Valero, ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips, according to Tyler Dann, analyst for Banc of America Securities. Tulsa, Okla.-based Citgo, owned by the Venezuelans, is one of the nation's biggest gasoline marketers. The situation in Venezuela is so serious that Dann wouldn't be surprised to see the United States shipping gasoline there.***
A two-week-old nationwide strike has crippled Venezuela's vital oil industry, and the tankers stalled offshore for days have been a symbol of the opposition's drive to remove Chavez. The government replaced dissident captains on the striking ships last week, but the tankers still have not moved and the situation on board remains unclear. The seaborne demonstration came after the opposition held its biggest rally yet Saturday night, when as many as 1 million people clogged a main highway in Caracas, many shouting, "Chavez get out!" Along the march route, protesters filled bridges, overpasses and parks, waving giant Venezuelan flags and blowing whistles. ***
Pressure for Vote Mounts on Venezuela's Chavez*** CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday faced intense pressure from home and abroad to call early elections, as his government fought to counter a two-week-old opposition strike that has crippled the national oil industry. The embattled populist leader, who survived a brief coup in April, seemed bent on trying to defeat the strike and holding on to his 4-year-old rule of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
But in another sign that the government was struggling to break the strike, authorities failed in a pre-dawn attempt on Sunday to replace the striking crew of an oil tanker anchored in the oil and shipping hub of Lake Maracaibo. The navy put a replacement captain and crew aboard the Pilin Leon tanker, whose original captain joined the stoppage more than a week ago, triggering similar actions by other Venezuelan oil tanker captains.
But the replacements had to leave after lawyers representing the strikers discovered they were not qualified to operate the vessel. Several previous attempts to re-start strike-bound tankers, some involving troops, have also failed. Piling pressure on Chavez, at least half a million Venezuelans took part in a huge opposition rally in east Caracas late Saturday, clamoring for Chavez to step down. Some estimates put the crowd at over one million.
The huge protest followed a public call by the United States, the largest buyer of Venezuela's now disrupted oil exports, for Chavez to hold early elections. The leftist former army officer firmly rejected the U.S. call on Saturday.***
……….Early this year, the frequently sensationalist Paraguayan press reported that Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups had set up training camps; and, more recently, they have also talked of a secret terrorist summit meeting here. Intelligence officials monitoring the region are skeptical of such reports, though they acknowledge that Islamic fundamentalists are indoctrinating the region's young Muslim residents in extremist ideology. But intelligence officials say they have noticed worrisome signs that Islamic extremists are fanning out, especially to nearby countries that have established Arab or Muslim communities. Mentioned most often are Iquique, Chile; Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Maracaibo, Venezuela. At the same time, a parallel dispersion to smaller towns within the region also seems to be taking place.
What worries them most, intelligence officials say, are signs that Islamic extremists are also gravitating toward Sao Paulo, a bustling city of 18 million that is home to the largest concentration of Brazil's estimated 1.5 million Muslims - an ideal hiding place for anyone intent on being overlooked. Officials say the Triple Frontier has been used for years both to collect and launder money for terrorist groups and for mafias, as well as providing a haven for fugitives.
More than 20,000 Middle Eastern immigrants, most from Lebanon and Syria, live in the area. Many operate small businesses on the Paraguayan side, but the most successful commute daily across the bridge from homes in Foz do Iguacu, a tidy Brazilian city of 250,000 where neighborhoods are dotted with halal butcher shops and women walk in headscarves. There are a pair of Islamic schools there, four Arab language cable television stations and a gleaming mosque with a gold-tinted roof on Palestine Street. Terrorists sought in the Middle East have been sent to the Triple Frontier to hide out in comfort, using fake passports or other documents manufactured in some of the same local workshops that also make phony credit cards, intelligence officials say.***
Chávez Drunk with Power***Miquilena indicated that he was in contact with President Chávez two weeks ago, when he asked him "to think, to recover his hold on reality and stop fantasizing about the country". He added that if the chief of state "goes on like he is, any kind of agreement will be impossible. We need to move away from this cross-road now. There are no banks, and no taxes being collected, and there aren't going to be any", he emphasized.
Miquilena recognized that he once believed that Chávez "was prepared to govern, (...) but I was wrong. I believed he was, but he wasn't". He explained that when he met the president he thought that this was "the chance to make all of these dreams of a more just Venezuela, reality. When I saw what was going on in the government, I left. I have to repent for my mistake with Chávez, because the real Chávez I only met once he was in power". The ex-minister assured that he did not believe that Chávez had enriched himself personally in power, "but people around him have. This makes him, if not an accomplice, at least responsable, because he did nothing to prevent it".***
"I'm not going to leave here because of any pressure from a group of (oil) managers, coup mongers, fascists, businessmen or media owners," Chavez said during his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show. "I'm in the hands of Christ, the Lord of Venezuela. He's my commanding officer," he added. His foes, who include labor and business chiefs, rebel military officers and media owners, accuse him of ruining the economy and dragging the nation toward Cuba-style communism.***
But even as the open acts of rebellion go unpunished and a prolonged national strike cripples the economy, all indications are that Chávez is willing to hold out even longer, and he has a considerable array of political and institutional weapons to call upon. Despite the rebellion of Comisso and others at Plaza Francia, the armed forces seem unwilling to abandon the president. The armed forces' institutional loyalty to the president and the Constitution he fashioned is bolstered by the intensity of feeling among civilians who support Chávez and say they would fight any effort to remove him. And while Chávez has few true friends among other presidents in the region, none would favor the violent overthrow of an elected head of state for fear of domestic repercussions.
Virtually all sectors agree the resulting stalemate cannot last much longer, but no one is willing to forecast how long it will go. ''Venezuelans are geniuses at ad hoc solutions,'' one U.S. official said. ``They can muddle through things in a pretty spectacular way.'' The tents and mattresses set up at Plaza Francia -- where dozens of protesters and dissident military officers are living -- are a sign of the kind of endurance that has marked Venezuela's political crisis.
ENEMY TIME
One of Chávez's biggest enemies may be time. ''Chávez isn't doing too badly with this strike. Each day the strike is getting weaker,'' said Janet Kelly, a political science professor here. ``He's holding on, but he can't hold on forever.'' In many ways, the work stoppage now in its 15th day has become a game to see who folds first.***
Demonstrators drove a large truck across the Francisco Fajardo highway, the main artery in Caracas, and let air out of the tires. They used their own cars to seal other roads, including several leading into the capital. Long lines trailed outside banks as Venezuelans grew more desperate for cash. The banks are opening for only three hours a day as part of the national strike led by Chavez opponents. There have been gasoline shortages, panic buying and shuttered shops since the strike began Dec. 3. ***
"Everything we have called for is in the confines of the constitution of Venezuela. ... Early elections, in the sense that of course, there is a referenda that can be held earlier that is a reflection of the manifestation of the will of the people and this is the process that is anticipated in the Venezuelan constitution," Fleischer said. "The statement makes clear that it (the political crisis) should be resolved through political discourse and political dialogue, through the ballot box -- ballot boxes in Venezuela also include referenda." "We're not calling for the constitution to be amended," Fleischer added. ***
The confrontation at the intersection marked an escalation of tensions after organizers of a 2-week-old opposition strike called for a day of highway blockades. In and around the capital, strikers closed off routes with disabled trucks, cars, tree branches and stones. In southern Caracas, police armed with rifles tried to keep apart rival bands of Chavez supporters and opponents squaring off on the blockaded six-lane Prados del Este highway.***
"I can't think of a single shipping company in the world that is prepared to take care of a tanker and have it unloaded in a port that is declared unsafe," said Jose Toro Hardy, a former director at state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA and now a private oil consultant. Currently, only one small refinery is producing, but running at a meager rate of 80,000 barrels a day. Venezuela needs around 400,000 barrels a day to satisfy its domestic needs.
The overwhelming majority of workers at ports in Venezuela have joined the strike, making any export shipments or unloading procedures a risky operation. Only a few ports are equipped to unload tankers for domestic supply. "But the overall system is set up for exporting and not importing," says William Edwards, president of the Texas-based Edwards Energy Consultants. Shipping agencies will also have difficulties securing credit and have their shipments insured for a Venezuelan destination, analysts say.
Sourcing products for import is yet another question, Edwards said. "It is possible that the country can get some products out of its Caribbean outlets," he said. And any imports will be very limited, he added: "I think only 10 percent of its daily domestic needs, really insignificant." Venezuela's oil production has thinned to a trickle against just under 3 million barrels a day before the strike began Dec. 2. Analysts don't view Chavez's threats to bring foreign crews and use the military - which lacks the required technical skills - to restart domestic oil operations as very realistic, either, given the sheer magnitude of the task. The vast majority of PdVSA's 40,000 workers are on strike, as are oil workers in associated or supporting sectors crucial to Venezuela's oil industry as a whole. The stakes for the government are high as sustained gasoline shortages could trigger riots. Toro Hardy estimated that Caracas still has gasoline supply for four to five days. [End]
Late Monday, opposition groups demonstrated around police facilities which were still being guarded by heavily armed soldiers. Whether or not Baduell supports the troubled president isn't clear, but in April the army commander was credited with spearheading a campaign to rescue Chavez after he was deposed for two days by other military heads. After Baduell's comments Monday, some now expect Chavez to abide by the high court ruling because the general's official stance - that he and his troops only wish to defend the constitution - may weigh on Chavez's leadership. As reported earlier today, the Venezuelan College of Attorneys is asking the Supreme Court to appoint a special District Attorney to investigate Chavez's alleged violation of court rulings, the group's president Rafael Veloz Garcia said.***
Gen. Julio Garcia Montoya called the 2-week-old general strike that has crippled the nation's oil industry "an aggression against the survival of the country." "Don't trust in those who, waving flags of liberty and democracy, invite you to be accomplices of their particular interests and their irresponsibility," Garcia Montoya said in a televised address to the nation. "Societies strengthen themselves in their reconciliations and not in conflicts." Many in the opposition had been counting on the military to withdraw its support for Chavez. The statement of Garcia Montoya, who had been handpicked by the president to lead the army after Chavez's brief ouster in a coup last April, will likely dampen those hopes for now. ***
But much of the country's political establishment is also working to win back the Chavez followers. When Chavez and his Fifth Republic Movement party swept to power in 1998, they were helped not only by the support of the poor, but also by a political oligarchy widely viewed as corrupt and elitist. ''The parties distanced themselves from the people and turned into managers of interests, not of ideas,'' said William Davila, leader of Democratic Action, one of the two traditional parties, which he argues will become more democratic to respond to people's needs.
Chavez's popularity has dwindled, according to polls, to about 30 percent - although that is still more support than other Latin American leaders have drawn. But the president benefits from passionate supporters, including militant groups known as Bolivarian Circles, which are alleged to have carried out grenade attacks on opposition union members and media offices.***
……… Opposition leaders called for a highway march late Tuesday to the burial site of Simon Bolivar - a half-mile (kilometer) from the presidential palace - saying Chavez has desecrated the memory of the 19th century South American liberator with his leftist "Bolivarian revolution." Protesters were urged to bring flowers to Bolivar's tomb. Strikers also are considering a future march on the presidential palace, which is defended by soldiers and armed civilians. The last time the opposition tried to march on the palace, in April, 19 people were killed and hundreds were wounded, some at the hands of pro-Chavez civilians. The bloodshed provoked a brief coup that ousted Chavez for two days. ***
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