VENEZUELA: Anti-Chavez Strike to Go Ahead, Referendum Contested

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Nov 30 2002 (IPS) - The Venezuelan political opposition, including trade unions and business associations, has called a general strike for Monday, the fourth nationwide work stoppage in less than a year demanding the immediate resignation of President Hugo Chávez.

“Given the intransigence of the Chávez administration, we are going on strike starting at six in the morning on Monday,” announced Carlos Ortega, president of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), but he kept mum — “for strategic reasons” — on how long the strike and other protests would last.

Carlos Fernández, head of the powerful Fedecámaras, a federation of business associations, predicts the strike will draw 80 percent adhesion from Venezuela’s private sector.

Friday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) reaffirmed its convocation of a non-binding referendum on whether Chávez should “immediately and voluntarily resign”, slated for Feb 2.

The Supreme Court had overturned the same decision by the CNE a day earlier.

Carlos Avella, CNE chairman, stated Friday that the Supreme Court ruling does not affect the decision taken by the electoral body.

The political opposition gathered 1.5 million signatures from Venezuelan voters in favour of the referendum. The signatures and petition were presented to the CNE, which gave the green-light early Thursday for the February referendum.

The Supreme Court ordered a stay on the referendum convocation later in the day Thursday, alleging that the electoral council had taken its decision without the four-to-one majority required by law in such cases.

Meanwhile, talks have stalled between the government and the opposition, which since Nov 8 have been seeking an electoral way out of Venezuela’s highly polarised political crisis under the guidance of César Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

“The game is bogged down by the basic issues. We have not made substantial progress on any of the matters that the panel should be discussing,” lamented Gaviria.

Beyond overcoming the impasse, the negotiators must hammer out some sort of agreement to make Venezuela’s electoral system more reliable and to establish a truth commission to investigate the assassinations that occurred in the turmoil-filled days leading up to the failed coup d’état in April.

In the wake of a yet-to-be-clarified shooting that killed 18 people during a massive opposition march, Chávez was removed from office by military commanders Apr 12, and replaced with then- president of Fedecámaras, Pedro Carmona.

But Chávez regained power two days later with the backing of loyal military forces and civilian supporters.

Despite the profound disagreements separating the six government and six opposition negotiators, Gaviria assures, “I won’t back down from my efforts,” and he urges the two sides to “keep cool heads.”

“Neither side can consider itself the sole possessor of the truth,” said the OAS chief, warning that “the most important is to avoid generating a wave of violence and confrontation.”

In recent days, the governments of the United States, Argentina and Mexico, as well as the leadership of the European Union and the Andean Community of Nations have expressed their support for Gaviria’s efforts to resolve Venezuela’s political tensions.

In the various messages, the international community urges the Chávez administration and the opposition to find peaceful, democratic, constitutional and electoral solutions.

Chávez has insisted that the opposition should use the constitutional mechanism of a “revocatory” instead of the non- binding referendum, but that is not an option until August 2003, the halfway point of his current presidential term. He was first elected to the presidency in 1998, and re-elected in 2000.

The opposition coalition comprises the Democratic Coordinator, which consists of 34 political parties and groups, and the labour and business associations, as well as a hundred or so military officials who, due to their role in the April coup, are unarmed and without troops as they engaged in what they call “legitimate civil disobedience”.

Although the “consultative” referendum is not binding for the future of President Chávez, if the majority of the electorate votes in favour of his resignation, it would be a moral and political defeat, agree analysts.

The outcome of the referendum would be valid regardless of voter turnout. Recent surveys indicate that the political opposition would win two-to-one.

However, the revocatory referendum, an option the opposition has rejected outright saying August 2003 is too far away, would require 20 percent of the electorate (2.5 million) to sign the convocatory petition. To obtain the resignation would require more people to vote against the president than the total that put him in office.

With a population of 23.2 million, Venezuela has 11.7 million people registered to vote.

The Venezuelan president has said that if the referendum is held, he will not resign even if the opposition garners 90 percent of the votes.

U.S. official Otto Reich, who is now serving as the State Department’s special adviser on Latin America, criticised Chávez’s stance, saying that failure to consider the will of the majority of the electorate would cast doubt on the president’s commitment to democracy and to his people.

Playing up his disinterest in the fourth general strike to be staged against his government since December 2001, Chávez headed to Quito on Friday, alongside Cuba’s President Fidel Castro, to attend a tribute ceremony to the late Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín.

Chávez supporters, meanwhile, are planning to counteract the opposition’s strike Monday by organising citizen assemblies and street fairs selling Christmas holiday goods.

VENEZUELA: Anti-Chavez Strike to Go Ahead, Referendum Contested

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Nov 29 2002 (IPS) - The Venezuelan political opposition, including trade unions and business associations, has called a general strike for Monday, the fourth nationwide work stoppage in less than a year demanding the immediate resignation of President Hugo Chávez.
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