Posted on 05/14/2002 10:36:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - Conservatives wore green, while radical leftist students wore red. The vast majority of marchers last weekend, though, were not representing any political party and simply waved Venezuelan flags.
The hundreds of thousands of marching Venezuelans dwelled less on their incompatible ideologies than on a deeply shared longing: to oust President Hugo Chavez.
One month after Chavez was removed from office and then quickly restored, dissent is rebuilding in this South American nation of 24 million people - but it is leaderless and disoriented.
Most Venezuelans look upon the opposition parties with disdain, considering them corrupt and incapable of proposing a viable alternative to Chavez's self-described leftist "revolution."
In desperation, the parties have pledged a unified strategy for toppling Chavez: convoke a national referendum to push him out.
Venezuela's constitution does not allow such a vote until 2004 - three years into Chavez's six-year term - but several proposals have emerged for sidestepping that rule.
"The country is confused. From now on, we must put a stop to this circus of everyone working separately," said former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma of the tiny Brave People's Alliance party.
"In the next days, we will announce a single strategy for all Venezuelans. All parties must respect this agreement, or they will be discredited before the country."
One scenario involves passing a constitutional amendment to shorten Chavez's term to four years, allowing a referendum early next year. A fierce battle has begun in Congress to break Chavez's slim majority and win support for the amendment and referendum.
"We need more pressure on the streets. It all depends on a climate of pressure from society," said lawmaker Leopoldo Puchi, whose Movement Toward Socialism party withdrew its support for Chavez last year.
"If this were a normal situation we would wait until he finished his term. But this is not a normal situation."
Already, four congressmen have broken with Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement and supported the amendment. The opposition now is five votes short of a majority in the unicameral, 165-member Congress.
"It's not unreasonable to believe we can achieve this," said defecting congressman Alejandro Armas.
Millions of Venezuelans believe the country is hopelessly divided and ungovernable under Chavez. They say he has accumulated too much power, alienated the United States and created a virtual private militia of neighborhood committees that intimidate dissenters.
Chavez insists the neighborhood groups peacefully promote his revolution.
He still is supported by millions of poor backing his efforts to provide credit to the needy, implement a land reform program and revamp crumbling public schools.
Chavez loyalists insist the coup consolidated their strength. The interim government alienated many Venezuelans by trying to dissolve the legislature and Supreme Court and by arresting Chavez supporters.
"People who felt alienated from us have sought to return to us," said Fifth Republic lawmaker Tarek William Saab.
Chavez has tried to subdue dissent by negotiating with opponents and replacing unpopular Cabinet members.
Even anti-Chavez Venezuelans worry that opposition parties have not fully addressed the question of what happens next if Chavez is toppled?
"To elect another government, there needs to be an alternative project," retired administrative worker Liliana Toro said. "That's what we're waiting for."
This is true, and is the reason that the uprising in April failed. Chavez, naturally, has done everything possible to keep the opposition fragmented and leaderless.
And then there is the fact that many educated, law-abiding Venezuelans who might be expected to participate in something like this saw the handwriting on the wall some time ago and left the country when Chavez started to consolidate his power. It's hard to criticize them for this, unfortunately. I'm not sure what I would have done, in their place.
The labor unions, Catholic church, newspapers, military, parents and even the poor want this guy out.
Only his armed thugs, the Bolivarian Circle Chavistas, want to keep their boss in power.
Perhaps in the end Chavez can do what nothing else could, bring the country together. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Venezuela's Chavez Says Had Warning of Coup Bid *** LONDON (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday he had advance warning of the military coup that briefly overthrew him in April and was able secretly to organize loyal military units that put him back in power. The left-wing leader of the world's fifth biggest oil producer told BBC Television's Newsnight program he had a phone call from OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez -- a Venezuelan -- warning the United States was fomenting a coup. "It was a call of alert. That helped me," Chavez, speaking in Spanish, told Newsnight. ***
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