Captive Chavez prayed under stars for Venezuela (don't cry for him)

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - In his last hours as the prisoner of military coup leaders, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he held hands with a Catholic cardinal by the sea and they prayed together under the stars.

Standing side by side on Venezuela's Caribbean island of La Orchila, where Chavez was last taken and finally released in the early hours of Sunday morning, he asked Cardinal Ignacio Velazco to put aside their differences and lead him in prayer.

"Let's hold each other's hand, let's pray here by the sea. Let's look at the stars and let's pray to God," Chavez said as he made his way to the helicopter that would fly him back to Caracas. "Let's ask for God's help so we are able to accept our differences and still come together in dialogue."

Now restored to power and promising to right the wrongs of his three-year rule, Chavez said on Monday he would always remember the night prayers, and pleaded with all Venezuelans to follow the example to heal their deeply divided society after more than 60 people were killed in four days of violence.

"I extend that call. I ask God to help us take each other by the hand and accept the differences we have but, in God's name, once and for all, that all Venezuelans learn this lesson," he said in a nationally-televised news conference.

Chavez, 47, spoke with something close to nostalgia about his time in captivity after military officers pushed him from power early on Friday.

He said he sang, gazed at stars, penned a few words inside a tiny copy of the Constitution and washed his own clothes, just as he had when he was a common soldier in the army.

The anecdotes also seemed designed to further boost his carefully-cultivated image as a brave but humble patriot who lives for, and with, his people.

The burly former paratrooper told of an army officer who smuggled the copy of Venezuela's Constitution to him and then of a young soldier who wrote inside it: "Triumph, Triumph, Triumph", the words of Chavez's political idol, the 19th century South American independence fighter Simon Bolivar.

Chavez added inside the constitution: "A prisoner once again," pointing out that it was almost exactly 10 years ago that he was first jailed for leading his own military coup.

That uprising, on Feb. 4, 1992, failed to topple the government but launched Chavez on a political career that carried him to power with a landslide election victory in late 1998.

In power, however, Chavez has alienated middle and upper class Venezuelans and upset church, business and even trade union leaders with his policies and autocratic style.

Their anger lay behind the protests that rocked Caracas last Thursday and led military officers to rebel against him.

But Chavez also enjoys huge support among a large sector of Venezuela's urban poor and it was their protests, combined with the resistance of army loyalists, that forced the coup leaders to back down and propelled Chavez back to power on Sunday.

Even as his captors moved him from one military base to another before finally taking him to La Orchila, Chavez said he never doubted his fans would fight for his return although he was worried it would lead to even greater bloodshed.

He said he could hear his supporters' protests mounting even as others around him heard nothing, claiming an almost mystical link with the "soul, body and love" of the Venezuelan people. "I don't just know it, I belong to what is there."

Aug 2001 - Venezuela Catholics Condemn Church Bomb Incidents*** Interior Sec Miquilena told reporters on Tuesday those responsible were ''provocateurs who are trying to stir up trouble and distort certain realities.''***

January 2002 - Venezuela's Chavez Steps up Verbal Attacks On Church-- Calls It a "Tumor" for the Country's "Revolution" ***CARACAS, Venezuela, (Zenit.org).- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez assailed the country´s Catholic bishops, accusing them of not "walking in the way of God" because they do not openly support the political leader´s "revolution." ….In past months, Chávez has tried, unsuccessfully, to establish a Church loyal to his government (similar to that in China), separated from the bishops, with priests and former priests who subscribe to his Marxist ideology.

His criticisms against the Church grew harsher after 80,000 protesters marched last Wednesday in Caracas in opposition to his government. This was the largest protest against the 3-year-old Chávez government. As a result, the president has sped up the militarization of his regime with the appointment of Ramón Rodríguez Chacín as Interior Minister. Chacín was a navy captain who took part in the failed 1992 coup organized by Chávez himself.

The appointment followed soon after the suspension of Vice President Adina Bastidas, who was replaced by Diosdado Cabello, a retired colonel who also took part in the failed coup against democracy. Four other military men of the unsuccessful coup are now in the Cabinet. At least 50 soldiers occupy midlevel posts in government, the diplomatic corps and state-run enterprises. ***

February 2002 - Chavez Tries Charm to Disarm Critics (Russian and Cuban security advisers in Venezuela) ***The official said he was also concerned at the growing role of Russian and Cuban security advisers in Venezuela. Egui Bastidas said he had experienced "the direct participation and the attempts at indoctrination by the Russian and Cuban intelligence services, who have direct and virtually unlimited access within the Helicoide (DISIP's headquarters building)." The official's lawyer, former DISIP Secretary-General Joaquin Chaffardet, said around 100 members of the Cuban intelligence services are currently operating in Venezuela. The new allegations would, if proven, further strain the already difficult relationship between the United States and Venezuela.***

March 2002 - Chavez's image taken off altars *** Lately, Chavez declared himself a member of a charismatic congregation, thus allegedly belonging to his country's fastest-growing branch of Christianity. But then he angered the country's National Catholic Bishops Conference by communing at a Mass organized by a priest of pro-Communist leanings.***

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