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Chavez in tough referendum fight
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 11 29 07
Venezuela's fiery leader, Hugo Chavez, is battling doubters ahead of a cliffhanger referendum Sunday on sweeping constitutional changes that would bolster his power.
Even some devout Chavez supporters in the myriad urban slums have expressed doubts at their president's bid to turn their country into a permanently socialist state more deeply in his thrall.
Opponents, led by university students, have staged frequent street demonstrations that police have brutally broken up with rubber bullets and tear gas.
Meanwhile, rival pro-Chavez rallies have taken place, and the capital Caracas is punctuated with red posters and campaigners supporting the plebiscite.
So deep is the split among voters that recent polls now suggest Chavez could see his referendum defeated -- an unprecedented prospect for the 53-year-old former paratrooper, who still enjoys sky-high popularity ratings after eight years as head of state.
"My only aim is to give more power to the people. I don't want it for me," Chavez said as the first protests broke out.
But he branded as "traitors" those who spoke out against the proposed reforms, among them former defense minister Raul Baduel, a one-time ally who called the new measures "dangerous" for Venezuela's democracy.
Among the most controversial changes Chavez is trying to push through is to allow him to run for re-election indefinitely, to impose emergency media censorship, and to further consolidate power by choosing regional officials.
He also wants to enshrine his Bolivarian Revolutionary ideals by declaring Venezuela a "socialist" state, taking over the central bank and permitting authorities to expropriate private property -- mirroring communist Cuba under Fidel Castro, whom Chavez idolizes.
The importance of Venezuela -- an OPEC member and one of the biggest suppliers of oil to the United States -- has focused international attention on Sunday's referendum.
Washington, which Chavez accuses of being behind a failed 2002 coup against him, has watched uncomfortably as the firebrand Venezuelan leader has brought other Latim American nations into his camp, including Ecuador, Chile and Nicaragua.
Neighboring Colombia is also wishing Chavez ill. Relations between Bogota and Caracas hit their lowest level in years this week as Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe exchanged angry accusations over Chavez's discontinued role as mediator to free hostages held by Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
So unpredictable is the referendum outcome, and so high the temperaments, that there are fears that violence could erupt during or after voting Sunday. The likely closeness of the result could exacerbate the situation.
In Chavez's traditional strongholds -- the red-bricked slums that climb the hills around Caracas -- the skepticism was unusally vocal, despite the frequent signs exhorting "Yes, with Chavez".
"I don't understand why he wants this," said one self-proclaimed "Chavista", 48-year-old shopworker Sofia Valera.
"We are afraid, we don't understand what he's saying," she continued, explaining that his oil-financed social projects had let her buy her humble home but the expropriation clause in the referendum made her worry she could lose it.
From a bus driving by came a dissenting "Viva Chavez", though.
And a neighbor, Yanina Esculona, 35, energetically backed Chavez remaining president "as long as it takes to see through all his plans."
Story by Marc Burleigh from AFP
AFP 29 0904 GMT 11 07
Copyright© 2007 Petroleumworld. All rights reserved.
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