Posted on 08/16/2002 1:59:19 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Angered by a Supreme Court decision exonerating four military officers accused of leading an April coup, backers of President Hugo Chavez protested in the streets Thursday and looked for ways to force the justices to resign.
Dozens of Chavez supporters protested near the presidential palace, though the gathering was smaller and calmer than the day before, when troops drove away protesters trying to storm the Supreme Court after it gave its ruling. Four people were injured in the protests Wednesday.
Lawmakers with Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement Party vowed Thursday to unearth evidence of bribery and other wrongdoing that they claimed compelled a once-loyal court to turn against the president.
"It's a political decision that caters to the interests of coup leaders in Venezuela," charged Deputy Nicolas Maduro. He and other legislators said the ruling could inspire another coup against Chavez.
More is at stake: The court's agenda includes complaints accusing Chavez of misappropriating $2 billion in government funds; illegally accepting $2 million in campaign contributions; and a "crimes against humanity" complaint that places on Chavez responsibility for slayings during the coup.
Chavez denies any wrongdoing. He had no immediate comment on the ruling, though his vice president and interior minister urged Venezuelans to accept it as part of democracy.
The court on Wednesday dismissed rebellion charges against army Gen. Efrain Vasquez, Navy Rear Adm. Hector Ramirez Perez, Vice Adm. Daniel Comisso Urdaneta and Air Force Gen. Pedro Pereira.
By an 11-8 vote, justices ruled there was no evidence the defendants forced Chavez out of office on April 12-14. The court said the four disobeyed a Chavez order to deploy troops against an April 11 opposition protest.
Obeying the order "would have led to a massacre," the ruling said. "The only possible conclusion is that the events were serious enough to justify the defendants' conduct."
Eighteen people were killed April 11, and dozens more died in rioting before loyalist troops restored Chavez to power.
Ruling party activists argued Friday that the court's reasoning denies the existence of a coup condemned by governments worldwide - and could encourage another attempt against Chavez, whose term ends in 2007.
Some business and labor sectors reportedly are considering calling a general strike sometime this fall.
Many Chavez allies vented their fury on former Interior Minister Luis Miquilena, a one-time mentor to Chavez who helped Chavez loyalists select the justices who now sit on the Supreme Court.
They claimed Miquilena, who broke with Chavez earlier this year, pressured or bought votes to exonerate the officers. Miquilena denied it - and alleged that Chavez was aware of illegal campaign contributions to his now-ruling party in 1998 and 1999.
Campaign finance laws require full disclosure, and they ban donations from foreign business interests. Miquilena alleged $2 million was donated by Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.
A Supreme Court shake-up could prove difficult. The constitution requires a two-thirds congressional majority to remove a justice, and Chavez's party controls just over half of congressional seats.
In 2000, Venezuela's opposition accused Chavez of ignoring his own constitution by stacking the court with allies. Since then, Chavez's hold on Congress has weakened through defections, and his popularity has dropped from 80 percent to 30 percent of voters.
The Supreme Court is following suit, the Caracas daily Tal Cual editorialized.
"These are the same magistrates that until very recently voted for everything Chavez asked for. Now, some of these magistrates have slipped from the under the thumb of the regime's mafia. ... It's their own creature, their very own Frankenstein's monster."
Under the agreement, Venezuelan state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela sells 53,000 barrels per day of crude oil to Cuba under preferential financial terms. PDVSA executives suspended shipments during an April coup that briefly ousted Chavez because Cuba owed dlrs 142 million. After Chavez regained power, PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez ordered the shipments renewed and said the loan had been refinanced. Cuban President Fidel Castro has been among Chavez's strongest allies. PDVSA provides one-third of Cuba's oil imports. [End]
Political alliance with Venezuela and Cuba speculated: Brazil's da Silva, critic of U.S.*** Alternating harsh anti-American rhetoric reminiscent of the 1960s with efforts to moderate his language in pursuit of middle-class voters, the Workers' Party candidate tried to distance himself from the Forum de Sao Paulo, a group of mostly hard-line communist and leftist parties from around the world that he helped found in 1990. Its last meeting was held in Havana in December.
SAO PAULO - Luiz Inacio ''Lula'' da Silva, a longtime critic of the U.S. role in Latin America, could become Brazil's next president, but he rejects speculation that he would form a political alliance with Venezuela and Cuba to promote anti-American sentiment in the region. Still, da Silva said, he considers himself ''a friend of Cuba'' who would demand the island's inclusion in the U.S.-proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
In his first public reaction to claims by U.S. conservatives that he would form an ''axis of evil'' with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, the veteran leftist leader said in written responses to questions submitted by The Herald that such forecasts see the world ``as if we were in the midst of the Cold War era.''
Last week, conservative former White House aide Constantine C. Menges wrote in The Washington Times that ``if the pro-Castro candidate [da Silva] is elected president of Brazil, the results could include a radical regime . . . developing close links to state sponsors of terrorism such as Cuba, Iraq and Iran.'' Da Silva, leading in the polls for the October presidential election, rejected the suggestion as absurd. The 57-year-old former steelworker, who has already made three failed attempts to win the presidency, defined himself as a democratic fighter for social justice whose heroes are Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.***
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