Venezuela's Chavez Vows to Defend His 'Revolution'

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Shrugging off a Supreme Court ruling to give up military control of the Caracas police, Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez on Thursday vowed to defend his "revolution" despite an opposition strike that has throttled the country's vital oil industry.

Chavez, who survived a coup in April and is resisting calls to resign, also vowed to purge state oil firm PDVSA from what he called "coup plotting oil elites" as he intensifies efforts to crack down on an 18-day-old strike that has blocked shipments from the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter.

"Behind the attempt to stop PDVSA there's nothing but a new coup attempt to topple the legitimate government," the pugnacious Chavez told government sympathizers at a rally that stretched into the early hours of Thursday. "Now the time to clean up PDVSA has arrived."

Chavez made his remarks hours after the Supreme Court ordered the government to relinquish its military takeover of the Caracas metropolitan police and return the force to the leadership of anti-Chavez Mayor Alfredo Pena.

Analysts said the military takeover of the Caracas police, which helped trigger the strike, was an attempt by the government to neutralize a state armed force that has been hostile to Chavez and his leftist policies at a time when the president is fighting for his political life.

Struggling to restart exports, Chavez has sacked dissident oil executives who were leading the strike and has sent troops to take over idle state-run tankers, refineries and ports.

His threats to fire more PDVSA rebels appeared to signal a determination by the former paratrooper to carry a purge within the state's oil giant similar to the one he led in the armed forces after surviving a short-lived coup by rebel officers.

Opposition leaders, who on Wednesday announced they were extending the strike for an 18th day under the cry "Victory is ours," announced more marches, rallies and highway blockades.

Chavez has accused the opposition, an alliance of business groups, oil executives, unions and civic associations backed by the middle and upper class, of trying to topple his self-styled leftist "revolution" for the majority of poor Venezuelans.

His foes accuse the populist president of ruining the economy, stirring class warfare and imposing a "communist dictatorship" modeled on his friend's Cuban Fidel Castro.

In a typically ranting speech peppered with references to Jesus, 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar and Christmas messages, Chavez on Thursday pledged before thousands of enthusiastic supporters to defend his rule, due to end in 2007, from he called a "coup plotting oil elite."

"Nobody can stop Venezuela. The people is on the street and will continue on the street, defending its revolution, defending its democracy, defending its legitimate government," Chavez said to the crowd's chants of "They Shall Not Pass!"

"I swear to you by Baby Jesus and Jesus Christ that I will be with you until the last day of my life."

The strike, now on its third week, has brought the country's oil industry to a standstill, spooked world markets and raised fears of violence in this deeply polarized nation -- which provides more than 13 percent of U.S. oil imports.

Increasing fears of a U.S. war on Iraq, coupled with the Venezuelan disruption, pushed U.S crude oil futures to more than $31 dollars a barrel Wednesday. The United States imports more than 13 percent of its oil supplies from Venezuela.

With oil output levels trickling to 400,000 barrels per day currently from 3.1 million bpd in November, the stoppage is costing the country millions of dollars every day, strangling the lifeblood of an economy already in steep recession.

Chavez, who won a landslide election in 1998 six years after leading a botched coup, refuses to resign. He says the constitution only allows for a binding referendum in August.

In a move decried by the opponents as an attack against private property, the government has authorized the military to commandeer ships, trucks and planes to keep supplies running.

Fears of shortages have sent Venezuelans scrambling to banks, supermarkets and gas stations, causing long lines.

As no side shows signs of compromise, fears of street violence are rising. More than 60 people were killed during the chaotic April coup.

The military -- often ultimate arbiters of disputes in South America -- has condemned the opposition strike as "sabotage," in a move which apparently bolstered Chavez.

The United States and other foreign governments are urging Venezuela's government and opposition to negotiate a deal on elections before the conflict escalates. Talks brokered by Organization of American States have not produced results.

President Hugo Chavez waves during a meeting with supporters at a stadium in Caracas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002. Chavez branded as traitors striking workers who have crippled the nation's vital oil economy and asked his supporters to be ready to fight for his government. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

The woman with the blonde spike hair-do near Chavez looks like "Comandante" Lina Ron. Here's more about Ron:

Chavistas: Venezuelan street toughs: Helping "revolution" or crushing dissent? April 5, 2002 | By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, AP -[Full Text] CARACAS, Venezuela - From her bed in a Caracas military hospital, the wiry, chain-smoking prisoner vowed to continue a hunger strike and risk becoming the first death in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's "revolution." "Comandante" Lina Ron, who considers herself a modern version of "Tania," a woman who fought alongside Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, says she is a willing martyr for Chavez's cause. She was arrested after leading a violent pro-Chavez counter-protest against demonstrating university students.

Thousands follow her lead in Venezuela and they have increasingly quashed dissent, breaking up anti-government protests, intimidating journalists and alarming the president's critics. Chavez has angered Washington by expressing his admiration for Cuban President Fidel Castro and adopting policies seen as anti-business. Venezuela is a key oil supplier to the United States.

"If I fail or die, the spirit of the revolution dies," Ron said. "But I'm not going to fail. I'd rather lose my life than my principles." Just what those principles are have sparked debate across the nation. Ron began her hunger strike after being arrested for leading a violent confrontation Feb. 26 at the Central University of Venezuela against students defending the university's autonomy against encroachments by Chavez's government. In recent months, the 42-year-old Ron has organized and led street marches - called "countermarches" here - to stop or intimidate demonstrations by civilians and a disorganized opposition to Chavez.

Two December marches to Miraflores, the presidential palace, were stopped by Ron's "countermarches." A February march to the National Assembly to commemorate Venezuelan democracy was similarly met - and diverted - by a countermarch. Ron and her followers burned a U.S. flag in Caracas' central Plaza Bolivar just after the September terrorist attacks in the United States. The anti-Washington demonstration appalled many Venezuelans. More recently, Ron's followers threatened journalists at El Nacional newspaper in Caracas.

Chavez has called Ron a political prisoner. "We salute Lina Ron, a female soldier who deserves the respect of all Venezuelans," he said recently. Ron's activism was inspired by her father, Manuel, a former director of the Social Christian Party in the western state of Anzoategui, according to her sister Lisette. The fourth of seven children born in Cantaura, a poor town just east of Caracas, Ron cut short studies in medicine at the Central University of Venezuela after becoming pregnant. She spent 10 years working with Caracas' homeless before joining Chavez's Bolivarian movement, named after native independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Ron is "very violent because of the 40 years of oppression, of injustice, of impunity" of administrations that ruled Venezuela since its last dictatorship was toppled in 1958, said her attorney, Oswaldo Cancino. Now Ron has become a focal point for debate about Chavez's "Bolivarian Circles," which the government calls self-help neighborhood groups. Chavez opponents call them a violent threat to democracy styled after Cuba's Revolutionary Block Committees. Created after Castro urged Venezuelans to "organize" to defend Chavez's revolution, the committees are forming street tribunals to demand Ron's release - and to symbolically prosecute government opponents as "traitors."

Greater Caracas Mayor Aldredo Pena accuses the government of secretly arming hundreds of Bolivarian Circles across the country - a charge the government denies. Yet circle members have clashed with students in Caracas and labor union activists in Barquisimeto. They've warned newspaper vendors in Ciudad Bolivar that they will torch kiosks unless they stop selling a newspaper, Correo del Caroni, that is critical of the government. After her arrest, Ron was hospitalized, forced to eat, and resumed her hunger strike, then went on a spartan diet. She is denied bail pending an April 12 court hearing on formal charges of inciting violence.

Ron suggested that violence is needed to quash mounting opposition to Chavez - whose combative rhetoric has contributed to a precipitous decline in popularity polls. It's needed, she said, to allow Venezuela's majority poor a stake in the country's governance for the first time in history. Ron attributes her growing flock of supporters to a "gift that God gave me" so that "the people follow me and believe in me. ... We're ready for the Fatherland to call us." Ron recently was transferred to a prison cell operated by Venezuela's secret police, known as DISIP. She said it doesn't bother her that the opposition to Chavez calls her "vulgar" and "violent." "I am the ugly part of the process - the part that is unpleasant, that is angry," she declared after the El Nacional protest, one dispersed by police using tear gas and water cannons.***

U.S. Petroleum reserve use not expected - Venezuelan Strike Day 18

Venezuela's supreme court wrests control of Caracas police from President Chavez [Full Text] CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's Supreme Court wrested control of the Caracas police force Wednesday from President Hugo Chavez and restored it to Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, a leading Chavez opponent. The ruling, announced by a Supreme Court justice on nationwide television, was a victory for opponents of Chavez and nullified his effort to assume control of the 9,000-strong police force. Pena, Chavez's former chief of staff before the two had a falling out, is one of Chavez's most vocal critics.

Chavez had ordered the military to take over police stations on Nov. 16, seizing power from one of his strongest opponents, Pena, and Pena's police chief, Henry Vivas. Chavez said Pena had failed to resolve a six-week labor dispute and that officers routinely repressed pro-government demonstrations. Opponents labeled the takeover a power grab aimed at weakening Pena. Vivas refused to resign, and many officers in the 9,000-strong department refused to recognize Chavez's hand-picked chief, Gonzalo Sanchez Delgado, a retired sergeant. Chavez is now facing massive protests and a nationwide strike, now in its 17th day, seeking his resignation. Pena and Vivas filed a Nov. 2 lawsuit challenging Sanchez's appointment. They say crime has increased because police patrols have dropped since the military takeover. Vivas ordered many officers to stay in their precincts to avoid clashes with the army and National Guard.

The takeover was a central reason Venezuela's opposition launched a general strike Dec. 2 against Chavez. Strike leaders originally demanded a nonbinding referendum asking Venezuelans if Chavez should resign. They now demand Chavez resign or call early elections. The Supreme Court ordered Sanchez to hand over a police precinct that serves as the police department's communications center. It also ordered a 15-day period in which city and national authorities arrange the transfer of the department from the military to the mayor. "This restores normality," Pena said after the ruling. "This ruling restores the authority of the mayor's office."

There was no immediate reaction from Chavez's government, which once relied on the court as a rubber-stamp for Chavez's policies but has recently ruled against the president on several occasions. Chavez supporters rioted after the court ruled in August the government hadn't presented enough evidence to try four high ranking military officers for rebelling against Chavez in an April coup. [End]

Chávez's foes buoyed by OAS statement***CARACAS - President Hugo Chávez's foes Tuesday celebrated an OAS declaration that gave him no support, urged him to respect the media and opened the door to future actions if the crisis lashing Venezuela worsens.

……….Chávez's ambassador to the 34-member hemispheric body, Jorge Valero, tried to put a positive spin on the statement, noting that it even-handedly called for ''democratic institutionality'' -- no coups, no self-coups. But the declaration did not include Valero's request for an expression of support for the democratically elected Chávez, mentioning his name only once and only as the president of Venezuela. Instead, it urged the government to safeguard the news media, largely anti-Chávez and repeatedly attacked by supporters of the president's leftist ``Bolivarian revolution.'' Chávez and his foes should negotiate a ''constitutional, democratic, pacific and electoral solution'' to the crisis, said the declaration, whose importance was underscored by the 25 hours of debate that preceded it. The statement also raised the prospect of moving the dispute to other OAS forums if it worsens, such as a summit of foreign ministers that would be a possible first step toward a tougher stance.***

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