VENEZUELA: TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTERS MARCH ON MILITARY HEADQUARTERS

Record ID: 645709

  • Title: VENEZUELA: TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTERS MARCH ON MILITARY HEADQUARTERS
  • Date: 14th January 2003
  • Summary: (W7) CARACAS, VENEZUELA (JANUARY 12, 2003) (REUTERS) SLV OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS MARCHING (4 SHOTS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) OPPOSITION SUPPORTER, DEYANIRA TORRES SAYING "If I was born into democracy, my children were born in democracy and I want them to continue living in a dignified democracy." MV CHAVEZ SUPPORTERS PROTESTING ALLEGED UNITED STATES INTERFERENCE WITH MAN PULLING DOWN HIS SHORTS AND WIPING HIS REAR WITH AN AMERICAN FLAG (AUDIO LAUGHING); SCU BURNING U.S. FLAG (2 SHOTS) SLV OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS REMOVING BARBED WIRE BLOCKING MARCH SLV PROTESTERS RUNNING FROM TEAR GAS; SCU PROTESTERS VOMITING FROM TEAR GAS; SLV CLASHES (6 SHOTS) MV INJURED PHOTOGRAPHER BEING CARRIED FROM SCENE Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 29th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6JRY1Z5GTEI4312R9CZKJUMWY
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of Venezuelan anti-government protesters have marched on military headquarters in Caracas after leftist President Hugo Chavez threatened to take over private banks, schools, and media outlets hit by a six-week-old opposition strike.
    Former paratrooper Chavez, who is refusing opposition demands to resign and call early elections, has vowed to take all necessary measures to beat the strike, which has already slashed oil exports by the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.
    Several hundred National Guard and military police in riot gear, formed up behind barbed wire barricades and backed by armoured vehicles, blocked an avenue leading to Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters in the southwest of the city on Sunday (January 12, 2003).
    Blowing whistles and waving national flags, the opposition marchers headed toward the sprawling military complex in a repeat of a Jan. 3 protest that broke up in violence when anti- and pro-government demonstrators, troops and police clashed. On that occasion, two Chavez supporters were shot dead and dozens more people injured.
    On Sunday at least one photographer was injured after police fired tear gas to prevent march from reaching the military headquarters.
    Six weeks into the gruelling opposition strike, feelings were running high on the opposition side after defiant speeches by Chavez on Saturday in which he blasted his foes as "terrorists" and said his government would not surrender to the strike.
    Hardening his stance, Chavez warned his opponents his government would intervene in banks and schools shut by the strike and would sack directors and staff who refused to work.
    As his opponents marched on Sunday, the outspoken populist president began his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show by calling his foes "fascists and coup mongers".
    He also threatened to revoke the broadcasting licenses of private TV stations that are fiercely critical of his rule.
    The strike has rocked Venezuela's oil-reliant economy and sent its bolivar currency tumbling. It has also sent shockwaves through world oil markets and the oil exporters' cartel OPEC agreed on Sunday to raise production to stave off a spike in oil prices threatened by the Venezuelan strike.
    In his tough speeches on Saturday, Chavez said 2,000 striking employees of the state oil giant PDVSA had been dismissed.
    "If I was born into democracy, my children were born in democracy and I want them to continue living in a dignified democracy," said demonstrator Deyanira Torres.
    Troops set up another cordon several hundred yards (metres) away to keep back angry pro-Chavez militants.
    The strike has increasingly disrupted daily life in Venezuela. Venezuelans have been experiencing unprecedented shortages of gasoline, cooking gas and some food items.
    Major private manufacturing industries, shopping malls and cinemas have stayed closed and most private schools have failed to open this year as teaching staff stayed away from work. Most public schools, however, have started classes.
    Bank workers staged a 48-hour stoppage last week, but will reopen on Monday (January 13) under restricted service hours which have caused long daily lines outside banks.
    Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a brief coup in April, portrays himself as a champion of the poor and says wealthy and corrupt minority elites are trying to topple him from power. He says his self-proclaimed "revolution" is aimed at helping the majority of Venezuelans who live in poverty.
    Chavez's foes, who are largely drawn from the country's middle and upper classes, accuse him of dragging Venezuela toward chaos and Cuban-style communism through dictatorial rule, mismanagement and corruption. They say his support has reached an all-time low, even among the poor.
    With government and opposition deadlocked over the timing of elections, fears of a violent outcome have increased after a grenade attack last week against the Algerian ambassador's Caracas residence and bomb threats against several embassies.
    The United States and other countries, such as Brazil, are backing the idea of a group of "friendly countries" to persuade the government and opposition to reach a negotiated settlement in talks brokered by the Organization of American States.
    Opposition leaders announced plans to travel to the United States this weekend to present their case to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the U.S. State Department.
    The opposition is pinning its hopes on a Feb. 2 referendum on Chavez's rule scheduled by electoral authorities. But the president rejects this nonbinding referendum as unconstitutional and says he will ignore its result.
    He says his foes must wait until August after which the constitution allows for a binding referendum on his rule. His current term is scheduled to end in early 2007.
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