Posted on 02/08/2002 8:35:54 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez faced mounting opposition on Friday from emboldened foes after a dissident air force colonel criticized the left-wing leader and led a noisy demonstration against him.
Days after celebrating the 10th anniversary of the failed Feb. 4, 1992 coup that made him famous, the outspoken paratrooper-turned-president is himself confronting an act of defiance from a serving military officer, Col. Pedro Soto.
Branding Chavez a "tyrant" and demanding that he end his three-year-old rule, Soto, a 49-year-old air force officer, led a crowd of some 4,000 supporters late on Thursday to besiege the president's official residence in Caracas.
The president, who was not at the residence at the time, held a cabinet meeting on Friday to analyze the situation created by the officer's blatant challenge to his authority.
Venezuela's Air Force Commander, Gen. Regulo Anselmi, told reporters the colonel's action was "unauthorized" and he would be investigated for possible disciplinary action. Anselmi said Soto should turn himself over to military authorities.
"His actions and opinions do not reflect those of the air force," he added. Anselmi said Soto was "not a bad officer" but was unhappy because he had failed to obtain a promotion.
Venezuelan Colonel Pedro Soto (C) and other protesters try to pass through soldiers guarding the presidencial residence late February 7, 2002. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez' government braced February 8, 2002 for more possible protests from increasingly bold opponents after dissident air force colonel Soto criticiezed the left-wing leader and led a noisy demonstration against him in front of the presidential residence. REUTERS/Kimberly White
Soto had called for more demonstrations by his supporters on Friday but the capital appeared calm so far, ahead of the upcoming Carnival holiday when many residents leave the city.
In his criticism of the president, Soto echoed arguments used by Chavez' hard-line political opponents, who accuse him of trying to install a Cuban-style, authoritarian, leftist regime in Venezuela, the world's No. 4 oil exporter.
Cuban President Fidel Castro a friend and ally of Chavez, came to the defense of the Venezuelan leader on Friday, describing him as "the greatest democrat in South America".
Soto was joined in his demonstration on Thursday by another military officer, a uniformed National Guard captain.
The display of discontent from within Venezuela's armed forces posed a new headache for Chavez' government, which is already grappling with a crisis of economic confidence in the oil-rich nation and widespread criticism from home and abroad.
COUNTRY DIVIDED OVER CHAVEZ RULE
"The increasingly deep political crisis in the country now has a military element that cannot be concealed," political analysis Teodoro Petkoff, who edits the TalCual daily, said.
The unrest, and fears of further political confrontation, has spooked investors and triggered escalating capital flight, draining the oil-rich country's foreign reserves and putting heavy selling pressure on the local bolivar currency. The currency fell 10 bolivars against the dollar to 782/783 bolivars on Thursday and continued to fall sharply on Friday.
Dismissing rumors of a possible coup, government officials portrayed Soto as an isolated, disgruntled misfit and said all was calm at military barracks around the country.
Attempts by military police to detain Soto on Thursday were thwarted by civilian supporters who confronted gun-toting soldiers and stopped them from taking him away.
Analysts noted how Soto's outburst against Chavez had immediately touched off spontaneous street protests by opponents of the president, who have been stepping up their public challenges to his government in recent months.
Crowds of pro-Chavez militants turned out late on Thursday to stage counter-demonstrations in support of the president, who has declared a self-proclaimed 'revolution' in Venezuela to close what he says is the wide gap between rich and poor.
"What is dividing the country is Chavez," another political analyst, Angel Alvarez, told local television.
Since winning elections three years ago, Chavez has insisted the country's armed forces are fully behind him. But opinion polls show his popularity has fallen sharply and he has recently come under fierce criticism from business foes, the Catholic Church, the media and the United States.
What do you think? Is he? (Eight months of Hugo Chavez)
January 8, 2002-- Venezuelan Opposition Searches for Leaders
Now there's an expert!
Is this the beginning of the end?
Castro: "Not to worry, my dear Hugh, even a poster says that as long as 80% of the poor support you, you'll be fine - or we can always phone Beijing for help"
More info on the Venezuelan situation from:
I've been watching this Castro wanna-be for about eight months. I first noticed him warming up to Castro when I was following the events in Cuba. He showed such communist promise I kept an eye on him, following the few stories written about him and was shocked to see his determined and incessent roll back of democracy in Venezuela. That kind of behavior really makes me mad! After all the work President Reagan and so many others did to block the spread of communist oppression, here comes this jerk, pushing it back into place.
I know when I first started posting stories about him, some freepers thought he wasn't so bad but I believe even they now can see where he's planning to take Venezuela and hopefully, if not as alarmed as Venezuelans, they're at least rethinking their opinion of Hugo Chavez. I've linked all my postings about his activities (the media can't seem to pull back from tagging him "left-leaning")at Post #1.
The electorate has been alarmed but now I think with Colin Powell's condemnation and the Air Force Colonel and now a National Guard officer publically rallying the people, this could be the end of his reign.
As it was in the Soviet Union, when their mainstay, oil, started losing value (the thing that was holding up their economy), all it takes is a nudge at the right moment to make things come unglued. Add to the public unrest, Chavez's association with terrorist nations and foreign investment has dried up. I predict Chavez's will be packing his bags shortly.
Other areas I've been watching are Zimbabwe and South Africa. The pot is boiling over as the communist despots and "presidents" put a choke hold on that continent and people like Kadafy are moving in, giving their kind of "help." The media is ignoring it. It isn't PC to comment on the dirty dealings of the Left. They're content to let the public believe that Apartheid was removed and everyone lives in peace and harmony and that any remaining problems (like an AIDS epidemic, rampant crime and murders along with torture and kidnapping of opposition parties) is just a hold over of Apartheid and nothing to worry about. If I do see a story about South Africa, it is about how inexpensive it is to travel and vacation there. No one who checks it out wants to chance going there, even with Big media trying to give it a boost with news-advertising. Hard news isn't being reported--yet. It won't be long before we're seeing starving and dead people again littering the African continent. People that can't get out, are desperate to leave.
Opponents and supporters of Chavez threw rocks and sticks at each other outside the Governor Houses of the states of Zulia and Carabobo. In Maracaibo, separate demostrations by Opponents and supporters of Chavez also faced each other with no injured or dead reported. The police did not show up while opponenets to Chavez made his red-beret supporters back off for several hours.
Protests also resumed in Caracas at Altamira Plaza, now called "Liberty Plaza" while Chavez supporters gathered outside his Presidential office.
The unrest coincides with the release of the Washington-based Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the Organization of American States, regarding the state of freedoms (whichever are left) in Venezuela. The press conference was interrupted by supporters of Chavez who heckled the members of the Commission. A second military official, National Guard Pedro Flores submited to the commissioners a complaint about human rights violations.
The US State Department expressed its concern for the situation and expects "institutionality" to be preserved.
More updates in English (with a pro-Chavez slant) by reading between the lines at Vheadline.com
Last night I saw a report on an international news cast run on CNN. The story was all about the Chavez crowds attacking journalists and Chavez denying he was behind it. There was absolutly no mention of the officers in the Air Force and National Guard speaking out against Chavez. There was no mention of protests by the citizen's against Chavez's rule.
This is another nail (a biggy) in Chavez's coffin. Oilman downplays his nation as supplier to U.S.
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