Huge Crowds Demand Ouster of Venezuela's Chavez
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Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Friday, Oct. 11, 2002As many as a million protestors marched through Caracas, Venezuela yesterday demanding that Castroite President Hugo Chavez resign. The rally was the biggest show of opposition to President Chavez since he survived a coup attempt in April.
Chavez, who has modeled himself after Fidel Castro and once declared that Cuba and Venezuela were "swimming together toward the same sea of happiness," has presided over a near total collapse of his nation's economy.
The oil rich Central American Republic is mired in a deep recession, with soaring unemployment and growing civic unrest that erupted in Thursday's mass protests demanding Chavez's resignation.
Just six months ago Chavez was ousted in a coup but was restored to power two days later. But demands for his resignation have continued.
According to the New York Times, those leading the protest are insisting that Chávez either resign or agree to hold early elections. The protestors said that unless he does one or the other by Wednesday, he will face a nationwide general strike on Oct. 21. The last such strike led to a week of chaos that brought about his temporary ouster, according to the Times.
"Today's demonstration is enough for President Chávez to see the need to call for elections or to resign," Carlos Fernández, a leader in the opposition movement and president of the country's largest business federation told the Times. "They're tired," he said of his countrymen. "They do not want the country to continue to deteriorate."
The Times reported that the government did not immediately respond to the ultimatum, adding that Chávez and his ministers have repeatedly refused to contemplate any referendum on his rule until next August, as permitted by the Constitution. Presidential elections are not scheduled until the end of 2006.
"The president will not leave because of the pressure of a few," Vice President José Vicente Rangel told the Times. "That is not constitutional."
Business, labor and civic groups who organized the mass protest said that President Chavez must respond to their demands by next Wednesday or a general strike will begin on October 21. They added that the president cannot manage the economy and that he is trying to model Venezuela on communist-run Cuba.
President Chavez has said his opponents must wait until next August, when he is halfway through his current term, to call a mid-term election. The Venezuelan leader also was quoted as saying the protest was organized by what he called "coup plotters."
"Our main concern really is not the demonstrations or civil disobedience," José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Latin America division of Human Rights Watch told the Times. "The problem are those members of the opposition who have no patience, no tolerance anymore for the government, and are looking for extra-constitutional ways to get rid of the government."
"There is high unemployment, no safety in the streets, and we are just getting by," Eusebio Rodríguez, 41, a laid-off mechanic told the Times. "Each day is getting harder."
Just before the April revolt, Luis Enrique Marius, who for three years has been adjunct secretary-general of Latin American Workers Confederation and a union leader, told the Vatican agency Fides that "Chavez's decline began in mid-2001 when the people were tired of hoping and seeing no solution to social problems.
"The year 2002 began with unemployment at 23 percent, but it is expected to rise to 30 percent by the end of the year," Marius added.
As NewsMax.com reported on March 26, 2002 Chavez Wrecks Venezuela :
The National Emergency Coalition, a group seeking to restore republican institutions in Venezuela, has warned Americans about the threat of terrorism posed by Chavez. The coalition reported that less than one month after taking office in 1999, Chavez wrote letters, on official stationery, to the world's most notorious terrorist, Carlos "The Jackal" (Illich Ramirez Sanchez) addressing him as "Distinguished Compatriot."
In 2000, Chavez met with Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, called him a "hero" and referred to the West as "criminal" for its actions against Gadhafi. He called terrorist-sponsoring Libya a "model of participatory democracy ... Our struggles are the same, as well as our ideals, he said. Chavez is the only Western head of state to embrace Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime. While visiting Baghdad, Chavez praised Saddam's totalitarian dictatorship as a "model" for Venezuela and promised close cooperation and increased cultural exchange. He also met with the fundamentalist dictatorship of Iran, where he referred to the Iranian hostilities against the West as a "worthy" so-called holy war. Later, he declared to the Venezuelan people that Iran and Venezuela were in the throes of "sister revolutions" with equal struggles and the same destiny. Chavez and his government have funneled weapons, intelligence and funding to the terrorist guerrillas of Colombia: both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). He has played host to these Colombian terrorists in Venezuela and invited the public spokesman of the FARC terrorist group to speak on the floor of Venezuela's National Assembly. Colombia's government has documented the use of Venezuelan military equipment by the terrorist death squads in Colombia. Chavez declared, "The Colombian guerrillas are not the enemies of Venezuela." He blamed Colombian civil society for the war in that country. Chavez has heaped praise on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his island prison and hailed numerous unlawful economic and military accords. "Now we can talk of a single team. This isn't two teams any more, this is a single Cuban-Venezuelan, Venezuelan-Cuban team." In living his dream of converting Venezuela into a communist paradise, Chavez has gutted its economy, introduced a police state, intimidated the media and turned the nation into a basket case. Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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