Posted on 04/13/2002 5:27:56 PM PDT by Dog Gone
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Thousands protested in several cities for the return of ousted President Hugo Chavez as control over the military began unraveling Saturday, forcing Venezuela's interim leader to postpone inaugurating his Cabinet.
The military of oil-rich Venezuela forced Chavez out on Friday. Some commanders refused to accept the military's appointed successor, Pedro Carmona, but there have been no reports of fighting between members of Venezuela's security forces. Meanwhile, the country was left without a working government.
Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters surged toward the presidential palace as night fell Saturday, demanding Chavez's return. Earlier in the day, police drove back smaller groups of protesters with tear gas, and gunfire was heard in the nearby Catia slum, a Chavez stronghold.
``We want to see Chavez. The Venezuelan people don't buy it that he has resigned,'' shouted Maria Brito, a 36-year-old demonstrator.
As the massive crowd approached the palace, there was no tear gas, and soldiers on a nearby roof urged the demonstrators on by pumping their fists and waving Venezuelan flags and their red berets, a symbol of Chavez's rule.
Several pro-Chavez lawmakers and former Cabinet members were inside the palace, a source said, but the purpose behind the presence was unclear.
Bowing to a demand by restive army commanders, Carmona said Saturday that Chavez will be allowed to leave the country and promised to reinstate the country's National Assembly, which he dissolved on Friday after being sworn in.
The army commander, Gen. Efrain Vasquez, made the demands at a news conference at a base on the outskirts of Caracas. The army ``is doing what's necessary to immediately correct the errors committed in this transition process,'' Vasquez said.
Chavez, a former army paratroop colonel who led a failed 1992 coup but was elected in 1998 on an anti-poverty platform, was being detained at an undisclosed location.
Carmona, during an interview with the CNN en Espanol, said Chavez was well and would soon leave Venezuela for an unspecified destination. He also acknowledged that air force officers were rebelling in the central city of Maracay.
Police fired at protesters in various Caracas slums Saturday, wounding several.
``We have every right to protest, but they are gunning us down out there,'' said Edgar Paredes, his clothes soaked in blood as he brought his wounded brother to a hospital. He didn't know who shot Luis, and probably never will. Like most violent demonstrations here, gunfire can erupt from any side, at any time.
Chavez's family, supporters and former government officials insisted he never resigned as president, as Carmona and Venezuela's high command have claimed.
Carmona's presidential secretary, Jesus Briceno, said that ``President Chavez is going to resign and we are going to send him abroad.'' Briceno declined to explain the contradiction about Chavez's alleged resignation, other than to say: ``We have an audio recording (of Chavez resigning). What we don't have is a written declaration.''
Chavez was ousted by Venezuela's military on Friday after National Guard troops and pro-Chavez gunmen clashed with opposition protesters. At least 16 people were killed and some 350 wounded, authorities said Saturday.
Chavez's exact whereabouts weren't known. His daughter, Ana Gabriela Chavez, told Cuban television in a telephone interview that Chavez may have been taken to the Venezuelan island of La Orchila in the Caribbean and that he had been mistreated by his captors.
The Organization of American States said it was sending a delegation to Venezuela on Sunday to assess the situation and that the OAS General Assembly will meet Wednesday on the matter.
In Caracas, downtown shopkeepers hurriedly closed as word of isolated disruptions spread. At least 20 small disturbances were reported in Caracas, the new government said. Unrest also was reported in Maracay, Guarenas, Los Teques and Coro.
Police shot tear gas, including in front of the presidential palace, at spontaneous pro-Chavez demonstrations in wide areas of this tropical city of 5 million. Protesters, chanting ``Chavez will be back!'' and ``Democracy, not dictatorship,'' dispersed, then reformed under a haze of tear gas.
About 500 Chavez supporters also marched overnight on the army fort where Chavez was earlier held, facing off with soldiers and tanks, witnesses said. Troops fired rubber bullets, injuring some protesters, said Brito, the demonstrator.
In contrast to Chavez's strained relations with the United States, Venezuela's new foreign minister-designate said Saturday he wants tight relations with Washington and called Colombian rebels ``double enemies of humanity.''
In an interview with The Associated Press, Jose Rodriguez denied that Friday's swearing in of Carmona was a coup in disguise. Mexico, Argentina and Paraguay are among other Latin American countries that have denounced Venezuela's new government as illegitimate.
``I don't think this has been viewed objectively,'' Rodriguez said. ``Here there was no military action, nor is the military in power.
``What we need to explain before our colleagues in the continent is that this is not a coup, although the situation is obviously not normal, legally and constitutionally, as we would wish,'' Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said Venezuela would accept U.S. assistance in tracking and forcing down drug-smuggling flights, which Chavez had refused as a violation of national sovereignty. He said there must be ``open cooperation'' with the United States as well as on the subject of Colombian guerrillas.
Chavez had declared himself ``neutral'' in Colombia's civil war, and some officers had accused him of sympathizing with the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, who are widely known to use the Venezuelan border region as a refuge.
President Bush wants to increase military aid to Colombia to fight the rebels, and Venezuela's cooperation would be an important aspect.
Although several Latin American leaders denounced the irregular transition of power in Venezuela, Washington said Chavez was responsible for his own ouster because of attempts to violently suppress Thursday's demonstration against him.
The demonstrations were part of a strike called to support oil executives battling Chavez management at the state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela. Venezuela is the No. 3 oil supplier to the United States.
Chavez had ordered National Guard troops and civilian gunmen, including rooftop snipers, to fire on the marchers, military officers said.
A pathologist at the Caracas morgue said 30 bodies had been brought to the morgue overnight and into Saturday, most with bullet wounds. How the people were killed was not immediately clear.
Government security forces continued searching for members of ``Bolivarian Circles'' -- Chavez supporters who allegedly are armed.
Damn. Some countries have all the luck.
Negotiations for the release of Mr. Chavez (president Assemblée)
Saturday April 13, 2002 - 23h45 GMT
CARACAS, 13 avr (AFP) - the reversed president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is always a prisoner on the naval basis of Turiamo (100 km in the west of Caracas) and its release is to be negotiated so that it takes again his functions, declared the president of the French National Assembly, William Lara.
"We wait until the vice-president Diosdado Cabello comes to the palate from Miraflores, which should occur as soon as possible so that it assumes the functions of temporary president of manner, and this lapse of time will be used to negotiate with the group of soldiers who retain Mr. captive Chavez so that they release it", Mr. Lara declared, with the radio YVKE Mundial.
The president of the Parliament specified to be with the presidential palate of Miraflores in Caracas with the members of the government of Mr. Chavez.
"We are in this moment with Miraflores in company of the body of the ministers of Hugo Chavez, of the Attorney General of the Republic, Isaias Rodriguez, and of a group of deputies", it continued.
"On the Urdaneta avenue, near to the palate, there is a gathering of at least 200.000 people who spontaneously came to ask for the release of Chavez", Mr. Lara added.
The president of the Parliament affirmed that "a restored the legitimacy of the national institutions usurped by Pedro Carmona ", the temporary president indicated Friday by a autoproclamé provisional government.
Time to kill Chavez RFN.
What in the world does that mean?
I think it would probably have been better for Chavez to have gone bye-bye permanently. However, it speaks volumes for the law-abiding and civilized nature of Venezuela that this did not happen. The problem was and is, however, that Chavez has never played by the same rules.
Deserves a bump.
Sure you're not talking about Clinton ?
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