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Venezuelans agree to end all violence

Venezuela's government and opposition leaders on Thursday signed an agreement to end violence and make President Hugo Chavez subject to a possible recall vote late this year.

The agreement is meant to end demonstrations and crippling strikes as opposition political parties, labor unions and business groups have tried to oust Chavez for more than a year.

The government agreed to do little more than what it had insisted on for months: sticking to the letter of the Constitution, which allows the president to face a recall vote at any point past the halfway mark in his term, which for Chavez comes on Aug. 19.

"The government is not going to come out crowing victory, and we don't expect the opposition to; the country is the winner, tolerance is the winner," Chavez said in a broadcast address to the nation.

Both sides agreed to disarm the civilian population.

The 19-point agreement was brokered largely by Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria.

"Venezuelans should not allow the proliferation of political violence," an emotional Gaviria said. "With this agreement you are taking a final step to avoid this from happening."

The agreement was signed by Gaviria, a representative of the UN Development Program and a representative of the Carter Center of former US president Jimmy Carter.

Those three groups together helped broker the agreement.

From his headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Carter urged Venezuelans to honor the agreement with tolerance and mutual respect.

Gaviria began the process by convincing the sides to join talks on Nov. 8. He wanted to avoid a repeat of a failed civilian-military coup against Chavez in April last year when at least 50 were killed and a large number were wounded.

Under the agreement, the government would set up a truth commission that would look into the deaths of the demonstrators.

The opposition claims that citizen paramilitaries loyal to Chavez fired on crowds that were marching toward the presidential palace.

The agreement would also avoid a repeat of the crippling 63-day general strike aimed at removing Chavez which ended Feb. 2. The oil industry in world's fifth-largest crude exporter was slowed to a trickle and resulted in more than US$7.6 billion in losses.

In the accord, the government agreed to the timely funding of balloting and the operation of polls should there be a recall vote.

The Constitution requires 20 percent of the electorate to request a vote to recall the president in order for a vote to be subsequently called. That would require the election commission first to verify the signatures of 11 million petitioning voters. Analysts said a possible recall vote might come in November.

Both Gaviria and Carter were named in the agreement as observers should there be a vote.
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