VENEZUELA: Opposition Collects Signatures on All Fronts

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Jan 27 2003 (IPS) - Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez are getting ready to ”flexibilise” the eight-week general strike against him, but will continue collecting signatures in support of different mechanisms aimed at removing him from office.

Hundreds of thousands of Chávez supporters gathered last Thursday in Caracas to express their backing for him after the Jan 22 Supreme Court decision to suspend the opposition initiative for a non-binding referendum that would have asked voters whether or not the president should immediately resign.

The broad anti-government coalition of business, labour, political and civil society groups responded over the weekend with ”the longest demonstration,” during which a four-km stretch of Caracas’ main highway was converted into a camp for hundreds of thousands of anti-Chávez demonstrators for over 24 hours.

In the opposition protests, signatures are being collected in favour of a constitutional amendment to cut short Chávez’s term, a referendum that would revoke his mandate, and a call for the creation of a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.

In addition, letters are being signed asking Chávez to step down and informing the international community of the opposition’s view of what is happening in this South American country.

That range of views reflects the lack of consensus among the leaders of the stoppage on the best way to oust Chávez.

”I am going to sign in favour of all of the solutions. We have to get rid of Chávez and return to the peace and harmony that Venezuela always had,” Arsinoe Marcano, a 23-year-old marketing technician who has no steady job, told IPS during the demonstration as she sold necklaces and bracelets with the colours – yellow, blue and red – of the Venezuelan flag.

The latest opposition protest had the air of a festival, with tents, open-air sporting events, aerobic exercises, dance therapy, skating and bicycle races, musical shows, prayers and rallies – fertile ground for vendors hawking their wares of food, clothing, and yellow, blue and red craftwork.

”We should collect signatures for the August binding referendum, which is a slower solution, but a sure thing,” Ricardo Carreño, a 22-year-old business administration student, told IPS from his bicycle seat.

But Claudia Fernández, a 43-year-old teacher, said ”a constitutional amendment is better, in order to hold elections quickly.”

The variety of opinions reflects that of the opposition movement’s leadership, since the Supreme Court thwarted the attempt to hold a non-binding referendum, and 2002 Nobel Peace laureate and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) presented a proposal for an electoral solution on Jan 21.

Carter suggested to the representatives of the opposition and the government taking part in the negotiations that they choose between a binding August referendum on Chávez’s mandate, which could not legally be held until August, or a constitutional amendment that would cut short the president’s term and allow early elections to be called in the near future.

The negotiations are brokered by Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary-General César Gaviria.

”We have no clear direction, and are thus losing the respect of public opinion,” complained Antonio Ledezma, the head of the social democratic dissident group Alianza Bravo Pueblo.

”The route that most faithfully reflects the reality of this country is the constitutional amendment, and we should concentrate on that,” he argued.

César Pérez, secretary-general of the christian democratic COPEI party agreed that ” the amendment is the fastest option for tackling the present situation,” because ”Venezuela does not need any more wishful thinking or miracle formulas that could generate more frustration.”

According to Carter’s proposal, the amendment would bring Chávez’s 2000-2006 term to an immediate end, but would allow him to run for re-election for a four-year term.

Some sectors of the opposition want to add the possibility of a second round of elections, unprecedented in Venezuela, to guarantee that the new president has the support of at least 50 percent of the voters.

But other opposition groups, like the right-wing Primero Justicia and Proyecto Venezuela, and the centre-left Causa Radical and Solidaridad, are collecting signatures to request the creation of a constituent assembly like the one set up by Chávez in 1999, with the declared aim of ”dismantling Chavism.”

”There are parties that believe the constituent assembly should not be included on the menu of options, but we must support all paths, in order to move ahead on any one of them,” said Julio Borges, the head of Primero Justicia.

The Democratic Coordinator, the umbrella group of 34 opposition parties and groups, hopes to collect 2.5 million signatures by Feb 2, the date initially set for the non-binding referendum on Chávez’s mandate. That figure is equivalent to 15 percent of the electorate, the minimum required for presenting popular requests for a constitutional amendment.

Meanwhile, the heads of the Fedecámaras business association and Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela trade union, which declared the shutdown on Dec 2, are talking about a ”flexibilisation” of the strike in education, food production and shopping centres.

In the state oil monopoly, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which directly employs 36,000 people, the situation is more complex, because 3,000 managers, engineers and administrative employees were fired after joining the walkout.

The government accuses them of ”sabotage,” and has been restructuring the company, eliminating jobs in order to block the reincorporation of the strikers, although its attempts at getting the industry’s drilling, refining, domestic distribution and export activities going again have been slow.

Carter proposed an ”oil amnesty” that would overturn the dismissals, with the exception of cases in which crimes have been committed, while the opposition demands that all oil industry employees be restored to their jobs.

Carter’s proposals are being discussed by the negotiating table and by the Group of Friends of Venezuela, made up of Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

Gaviria said in an interview with the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo that the Venezuelan crisis is the worst he has faced since assuming the leadership of the OAS in 1994.

”There has never been a popular mobilisation and polarisation of this magnitude,” and ”people are arming themselves in Venezuela,” he said.

The strike could lead to a 40 percent contraction of Gross Domestic Product in Venezuela in the first half of this year, he pointed out.

”I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic with respect to the possibility of reaching an agreement. We are not near a solution, but I know there will be an accord,” said Gaviria.