Anti-Chavez forces petition for recall referendum

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks to the press in Caracas on Sunday, the same day the opposition attempted to collect 2.4 million signatures for a referendum to recall him. PHOTO: AFP

Sunday morning opened up with long lines at schools, plazas and churches, as thousands of anti-government Venezuelans enthusiastically signed petitions seeking a recall referendum on the country's mercurial leader, President Hugo Chavez.

People whistles, drivers honked horns and voters stood in line dressed in T-shirts colored yellow, red and blue, the colors of Venezuela's flag.

After two years of political turmoil marked by strikes, a failed coup and another recall drive that collected more than 3 million signatures but was derailed by election rules, many Venezuelans believe that this outpouring of frustration will end with Chavez's removal.

Chavez his supporters say they are equally sure the effort will fail, either through the inability to muster the signatures required to produce a recall or, if there is a referendum, through a resounding defeat for a fractured opposition movement.

"Everyone has been waiting for this day," said Coromoto Urdaneta, 53, who works in a textile factory.

"This was the day to tell the country how we feel," she said.

The petition drive comes five years after Chavez, a former army paratrooper who promised to give voice to Venezuela's masses, won office in a landslide.

He quickly purged the elites from government and embarked on what he has called a Bolivarian revolution to ease life for those living in poverty in this oil-rich nation. Although he was re-elected in 2000, a growing opposition movement has accused him of wrecking the economy through leftist policies and has vowed to eject him, employing four national strikes and, in April last year, a coup that failed after two days.

Predicting Chavez announced on Friday that he would run for re-election when his six-year term ends in 2006.

"I am going to govern until 2013," he said.

To achieve a referendum, Chavez's foes must collect signatures from 2.4 million, or 20 percent, of registered voters in a four-day effort ending yesterday. The Organization of American States and the Atlanta-based Carter Center are monitoring the signature drive.

Chavez employ a variety of legal delaying tactics, but a successful signature drive could result in an election in March or April.

Signs emerged recently that Chavez is gaining momentum. His approval rating is rising, rising to 40 percent from about 30 percent in one poll -- a spike some political figures here linked to an increase in government social spending and the growing fatigue in Venezuela over the lingering political morass.

The opposition, a hodgepodge of political parties, unions and business executives, has also failed to come up with a charismatic leader or a coherent plan for a post-Chavez Venezuela.

"It is not readily apparent that Chavez is going to be recalled, even with these signatures," said Ana Maria Sanjuan, a sociologist at the Central University in Caracas who is critical of both sides.

"I do not think the opposition can declare victory just yet," she said.

It was not clear how many signatures had been collected so far.

An leader said in an interview that more than 2.4 million people had signed petitions at 2,700 signature-collection sites. Chavez suggested that some signatures were fraudulent, without offering proof.

Some reported running out of petitions, a shortage that was also apparent last weekend when the government held its own referendum on 37 anti-Chavez congressmen.

Government also accused Venezuelan soldiers of harassing some would-be petition signers.

The government, for its part, said it was investigating dozens of reports in which private companies were accused of forcing employees to sign petitions.

Despite these concerns, the opposition's leaders hailed the effort.

"We have reports from all corners of the country of people standing in lines for hours. It has been spectacular," said Maria Corina Machado, a leader of the petition drive.

But in poor districts, this was not the case.Turnout was noticeably smaller, and residents said the signature campaign would fail.

It is in those ramshackle neighborhoods that ring this city where the government has spent handsomely in recent months.

New markets have opened and the government has embarked on a highly publicized literacy drive.