The government's four-day signature drive came a week before Venezuela's opposition holds its own four-day petition drive to demand a recall vote against Chavez.
The government's recall effort against 37 of the 165 lawmakers is seen as a bid to strengthen Chavez's hold on Congress. To hold a recall referendum against the legislators, the government needs to obtain enough signatures to equal 20 percent of the vote that got each legislator elected.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said the turnout was massive for the drive, which ended Monday. Officials results, however, will not be released for weeks, and opposition lawmakers rejected Rangel's claim.
Venezuela's Constitution allows for recalls halfway through an elected official's term - that was August for Chavez.
Opponents accuse Chavez of attempting to establish a dictatorial regime inspired by Cuba's Fidel Castro, mismanaging the economy and dividing this mostly poor country of 24 million along class lines.
Chavez accuses adversaries of trying to grab power to regain lost privileges rather than to improve living conditions for the poor majority. [end]
Several of those who handed in weapons Tuesday before dignitaries and journalists acknowledged that their neatly pressed camouflage garb was given to them for the ceremony, and that they normally dressed in civilian clothes. After the ceremony, authorities took the disarmed fighters to a social club equipped with a swimming pool and a soccer pitch in La Ceja, outside Medellin. The fighters are to spend the next three weeks there healing their scars and learning new jobs.
But an editorial in Medellin's main daily, El Colombiano, said three weeks was not enough time to ensure the fighters have fully renounced violence. "It is not prudent to sing victory already," the editorial said.***