U.S. Says Closely Watching Venezuela Referendum Steps

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The United States, which has clashed with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over policies, on Friday strongly backed plans for a national referendum on whether he should stay in office.

"The United States, like other nations in the hemisphere, backs a constitutional solution to the crisis (in Venezuela)," Stephen McFarland, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, told a news conference.

Venezuela is one of the United States' leading suppliers of oil, but former paratrooper Chavez has irked Washington by opposing U.S. plans for a hemisphere-wide free trade area and by strengthening ties with communist Cuba and anti-U.S. states like Iran and Libya.

Venezuelan foes of Chavez, who accuse the populist leader of accumulating political power and eroding democracy, hope to call a constitutional referendum on his rule after Aug. 19, halfway through his term.

They fear the president, who survived a coup last year and whose popularity has fallen in opinion polls, will try to keep the vote from taking place.

McFarland, citing Secretary of State Colin Powell and Otto Reich, President Bush's special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, said Washington saw the referendum as "very important."

The poll was also recommended by the Organization of American States as a "constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral" solution to the political conflict over Chavez's rule that has kept the world's No. 5 oil exporter in turmoil for more than a year.

Chavez and senior aides have angrily rejected what they call persistent U.S. meddling in Venezuela's affairs.

"I have a suggestion for Mr. Powell. If he wants to see a referendum, he should go to California. ... His boys here (the Venezuelan opposition) don't have the support to call a referendum," Willian Lara, a senior Chavez ally, told Reuters this week.

McFarland denied that the United States was interfering in Venezuela, saying Washington's policy was to uphold democracy and human rights. But he acknowledged U.S.-Venezuelan relations "could be improved."

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied Chavez supporters' allegations that Washington actively backed a short-lived coup against the Venezuelan leader in April 2002.

Venezuela Criticizes U.S. on Remarks

The Red and Gray: Recalling democracy -- two surprising examples.***FACING CERTAIN RECALL, THE STATE'S CHIEF EXECUTIVE has turned to his Leftist allies on the high court and in the legislature to block the recall election itself.

All the boxes of voter petition signatures were challenged as invalid, and the Chief Executive issued directives to delay their counting. Strings are being pulled to circumvent the rules of law and the state constitution.

And all during the months this has been happening, the Leftist Chief Executive and his apparatchiks have spewed propaganda denouncing the recall effort as illegitimate and politically smearing the reputations of those leading it.

Despite the close resemblance, this state executive is not Democratic Governor Gray Davis. The state is not California, named by Spanish explorers for the land of fabled Queen Califia, ruler of a magical island filled with talking animals.

The state depicted instead was by Spanish explorers named "Little Venice," Venezuela, after the homes its native people had built on stilts above the waters around the oil-rich Lake Maracaibo basin.

The executive depicted is Hugo Chavez, the brutal Marxist thug President who keeps his friend dictator Fidel Castro afloat with Venezuelan oil exchanged for Cuban I.O.U.'s that everybody knows will never be paid.

Polling finds that in a recall election 69 percent of Venezuelans would vote against Chavez, an overwhelming repudiation similar to what polls say California voters would deliver to Gray Davis.

The response of both these Leftist rulers has been an attempt to postpone or prevent any such election, to stifle the democratic voice of the people.

Chavez and his Marxist government allies have prevented the counting of petition signatures, an estimated four million of which remain locked away in 64 boxes in four-foot-high stacks.***

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The Man Who Would Be Dictator

Cuban President Fidel Castro (L) and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez listen to musicians, during a lunch which Chavez offered to commemorate Fidel's 77th birthday, in Asuncion, Paraguay, August 14, 2003. Castro and Chavez arrived in Paraguay to attend the swearing-in of Nicanor Duarte-Frutos as Paraguay's first democratically-elected president since Raul Cubas was ousted amidst bloody riots in March of 1999. REUTERS/HO/Miraflores Palace

Fidel Castro - Cuba

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Chavez Plans for Terrorist Regime

A Terrorist Regime Waits In The Wings [re:Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)]

Flying Too High, Venezuela Shops for MiGs

New Venezuelan electoral council paves way for recall vote - Tie breaker Chavez supporter***''We are confident this is the best decision,'' Chávez said Tuesday as he called on all sides to respect the court decision. ``Without a good referee with a good whistle, the game cannot be concluded.''

As recently as two weeks ago, members of Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement were threatening a boycott of the Supreme Court's decision to intervene in the appointment. ''No [electoral council] appointed by the Supreme Court will have the confidence of the people,'' Nicolás Maduro, a leading pro-Chávez congressman, said then.

The change of heart appeared to reflect assurances by the court that the composition of the council would not favor the opposition.

But the government nevertheless scheduled a parliamentary debate Monday on a controversial bill to reform the Supreme Court. Pro-Chávez members of the assembly had previously threatened to use the bill as a means of keeping the Supreme Court judges in line.

In any event, the key fifth member of the electoral board -- a chairman who will have the tie-breaking vote between two avowedly pro-government members and two from the opposition -- is to be Judge Francisco Carrasquero, a moderate who supports Chávez.

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