Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez must face an Aug. 15 recall vote, elections officials said -- one that could remove a leftist government that is hostile to the US, Venezuela's biggest customer for crude oil.
Francisco Carrasquero, president of Venezuela's elections council, announced late on Tuesday that Chavez's opposition had gathered 2.54 million signatures to demand the recall, surpassing the 2.43 million -- 20 percent of the electorate -- required by the Constitution.
Chavez, a virulent critic of US economic and foreign policies, claims his government has broken with Venezuela's corrupt past and serves the interests of the nation's vast poor majority.
To recall Chavez, Venezuela's opposition needs to win more than the 3.7 million votes he received during his 2000 election to a six-year term.
Critics accuse Chavez of steering Venezuela -- which straddles the Western hemisphere's largest oil reserves -- toward a dictatorship akin to that of his friend and mentor, Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Chavez has accused Washington of supporting opposition efforts to overthrow him. The Bush administration has denied the allegations.
Washington isn't happy that thousands of Cuban advisers are in Venezuela and that Chavez reportedly is shipping up to 100,000 barrels of cheap oil per day to Cuba.
The Organization of American States, the US-based Carter Center and a "Group of Friends" that includes the US have congratulated Chavez for his acceptance of the recall vote.
Chavez has embarked on a campaign to smash his opponents in what he calls "a decisive battle" for the future of the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
"Oil is not only for a minority, so that a minority can get rich," Chavez told a large crowd of supporters in rural Trujillo state on Tuesday.
The elections council predicted last week that Chavez would face a recall. Chavez immediately took up the challenge, calling it an opportunity to purge an opposition that sponsored a brief and bloody 2002 coup and last year's general strike.
Opposition leader Felipe Mujica told Union Radio that the elections council violated an understanding between the government and the opposition that the recall would be held on Aug. 8.
But he insisted: "We'll have millions of votes on the 15th to recall the president."
While officials initially indicated the vote would be held on Aug. 8, Chavez's government wanted it to take place on Aug. 15, saying the extra time is needed to install a new automated voting system.
The referendum date is key.
Should Chavez lose a recall before Aug. 19 -- the completion of the fourth year of his six-year term -- presidential elections would be held within a month.
After Aug. 19, however, Chavez's vice president and loyal supporter, Jose Vicente Rangel, would serve out the rest of Chavez's term. Opponents fear Chavez would simply rule behind the scenes.
Ezequiel Zamora, the elections council vice president, said the council voted to use automated voting machines for the referendum. He said the results, whenever they are released, would be considered as taking effect before Aug. 19.
An automated vote would deter opposition fraud, the government argues. Venezuela's opposition fears glitches in the untested system could produce a quagmire favoring Chavez.
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