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Referendum demanded over Chavez

Venezuelan National Security agents guard an avenue in Caracas on Saturday near the point where demonstrators gathered to demand a referendum on President Hugo Chavez. PHOTO: EPA

Tens of thousands of opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez marched through Caracas on Saturday to press election officials to accept their petition for a referendum against the leftist leader.

Waving flags, banners and copies of their petition signatures, protesters streamed along a highway in the capital to demand the National Electoral Council allow them a chance to challenge Chavez at the ballot box this year.

Opposition leaders fear that Chavez sympathizers in the council are trying to scuttle their referendum campaign in the latest political battle over his five-year presidency.

"We have to march to defend our signatures. We don't trust the electoral council and this is our only recourse, to protest," said Guillermo Goitia, a local opposition party representative.

Several thousand National Guard troops backed by armored vehicles along the route kept opposition protesters away from pockets of jeering Chavez sympathizers.

A huge popular market set up by the government blocked the march path to the council headquarters in downtown Caracas.

After two years of conflict over the Chavez government, the opposition now hopes to vote out the former army officer whom they portray as a would-be dictator bent on turning Venezuela into a Cuba-style communist state.

The National Electoral Council has said it will announce on Feb. 29 whether the opposition handed in the 2.4 million valid signatures required to call a presidential referendum.

But setbacks in the verification process and accusations of fraud inside the council have stirred fears of fresh political violence in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, a leading supplier of crude oil and gasoline to the US.

Electoral authorities missed a self-imposed Feb. 13 deadline to announce the results of their checks, sparking opposition anger.

Chavez has battled increasing opposition to his self-styled revolution for the poor after surviving a brief coup in 2002. But he says most Venezuelans back his social reforms aimed at more fairly distributing the nation's huge oil wealth.

The president vowed on Friday he would go to the supreme court to challenge any ruling allowing a referendum. He says the opposition petition is tainted by tens of thousands of forged and false signatures.

"All Venezuela knows that this was a disaster, a fraud. There were dead people and children who signed up," pro-Chavez assembly deputy Nicolas Maduro told reporters.

A referendum could be held around May if the council decides to allow a vote. The opposition says it collected 3.4 million signatures.

One of the council's directors said on Saturday officials were discussing a proposal to clear up a dispute over how to verify signature forms filled in with the same person's handwriting, which the government has challenged.

The Organization of American States and the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which are monitoring the verification, have reported administrative delays due to the complexity of the checks.

Observers have so far not supported claims of massive fraud, but they have warned the council not to become bogged down in technicalities.

"I don't think the international community has realized that the future of democracy in Latin America depends on how the Venezuelan case plays out," opposition leader Julio Borges said at Saturday's rally.
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