As requested. Doesn't seem like a great loss: Venezuelan President Chavez Forced to Resign 13 Killed, 110 Wounded in Anti-Government Protests
By JORGE RUEDA .c The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (April 14) - President Hugo Chavez, the former army paratrooper who polarized Venezuela with his strongarm rule and whose friendship with Cuba and Iraq irritated the United States, resigned under military pressure Friday after a massive opposition demonstration ended in a bloodbath. Chavez, 47, presented his resignation to the military after top commanders confronted him at the presidential palace. Before dawn he left the palace - wearing a military fatigues and red beret, as he did when he led a failed 1992 coup - and was put in detention at Caracas' Fort Tiuna army base. He quit just hours after at least 13 people were killed and 110 wounded during a 150,000-strong opposition demonstration in downtown Caracas. Chavez had ordered National Guard troops and civilian gunmen, including rooftop snipers, to stop the marchers from reaching the palace, military officers said. But opposition to Chavez's three-year presidency had been growing for some time. His one-time 80 percent popularity ratings plunge to below 30 percent this year as he repeatedly accused business leaders, labor, the news media and even Roman Catholic Church leaders of conspiring to overthrow him. The armed forces - which has traditionally strong ties to the U.S. military - resented Chavez's distancing of Venezuela from Washington, including a decision to suspend Venezuela's participation in regional military exercises. Many also resented Chavez's ties with leftist Colombian guerrillas and with Fidel Castro's Cuba: Many senior officers had fought Cuban-backed communist guerrillas in the 1960s and early 1970s. With Chavez's ouster, jubilant executives at Venezuela's state oil monopoly, who had been engaged in a work slowdown, promised to bring production and exports up to speed as quickly as possible. Venezuela is the No. 3 supplier of oil to the United States and the world's fourth biggest exporter. Oil prices dipped on news of Chavez' downfall, amid expectations of a production increase. Oil markets have been concerned over supply after Iraq's decision this week to suspend exports to Israeli allies. Pedro Carmona, head of Venezuela's largest business association, announced he would head a transitional government to be installed later Friday. Chavez was being held at the army base while investigators decide what charges he could face for Thursday's violence, said army commander Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco. Chavez asked to be allowed to go into exile in Cuba, but the miltiary turned him down, army Gen. Roman Fuemayor told Globovision television. ''He has to be held accountable to his country,'' Fuemayor said. In downtown Caracas, streets were littered with debris - and in some places, stained with blood. Shops and businesses remained closed, and most people simply stayed home, stunned and wondering what would come next. Buses were half-empty, and those reporting to work hurried amidst rubble-strewn sidewalks. Thousands of Venezuelans celebrated overnight, waving flags, blowing whistles and jamming a main highway in Caracas. Police warned that Chavez supporters reportedly were distributing weapons, especially in the hillside slums surrounding the capital. Officers raided storehouses, seizing dozens of firearms. ''I urge Venezuelans to maintain calm, to keep faith, to continue working on the road toward democracy, freedom and peace,'' said retired Gen. Guaicaipuro Lameda, who until February headed the oil company and was a leader of the movement to oust Chavez. ''It's with sadness that to reach this point, so many people had to die, so many wounded.'' The Bush administration said it was closely monitoring the political upheaval in Venezuela. ''Our interests are in democracy and democratic institutions,'' said a senior U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Colin Powell in Jerusalem. In London, Brent crude oil opened 44 cents down from Thursday at $24.60 per barrel. In New York, May contracts of light sweet U.S. crude fell 46 cents a barrel to $24.53. The rapid developments stunned this oil-rich, yet poverty-stricken nation. The gigantic demonstration in Caracas late Thursday was the culmination of a strike called by the 1 million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation and the business association Fedecamaras. The strike was in support of the protesting executives at the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela. National Guard troops fired tear gas at the front ranks of marchers bearing sticks and throwing rocks. Tear gas drifted into the presidential compound. Rooftop snipers and Chavez supporters repeatedly fired upon the protesters and even ambulance crews trying to evacuate the wounded. As many as 110 people were wounded, Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said. As the bloodbath unfolded, Chavez ordered five Caracas television stations off the air. Most Venezuelans were denied images of ''Chavistas'' repeatedly firing on unarmed protesters, bodies lying in pools of blood on the streets, and hooded thugs attacking police until after the military rebelled. The wave of protests marked the end for a president whose rule had been a stormy one. Chavez had irritated Washington with his close ties to Cuban President Fidel Castro, visits to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and to Libya, and criticism of U.S. bombings in Afghanistan. And he had alienated virtually every sector of Venezuelan society, with his attacks on the news media and Roman Catholic Church leaders, his refusal to consult with business leaders, and his failed attempt to assert control over labor groups. Chavez's government also inherited a staggering $21 billion in back wages and pensions owed workers by previous administrations - a debt he was unable to pay. His suspected ties to Colombia's leftist guerrillas angered many in the military and abroad. Domestic opponents claimed his government was secretly arming neighborhood block committees known as ''Bolivarian Circles,'' named after South American liberator Simon Bolivar, to defend his revolution. The Circles were created after Castro urged Chavez's supporters to organize during a 2000 visit. Chavez also exasperated Venezuelans with his frequent use of ''cadenas'' - hours-long presidential speeches that by law had to be broadcast by all Venezuelan TV and radio stations. For Chavez, who on Tuesday boasted he would remain president until 2021, the end came quickly. Just last Friday, he refused to negotiate with the striking oil executives, who were demanding that he remove a company board he had appointed Feb. 25. The executives claimed Chavez was trying to strengthen his hold on a multinational corporation that cherishes its autonomy. The oil executives launched a slowdown last week that cut production at the Paraguana refinery complex, one of the world's largest, to below 50 percent capacity. They closed another refinery, disrupted gasoline deliveries and all but stopped loading of oil tankers. Oil generates 80 percent of Venezuela's foreign earnings. The Air Force chief, Gen. Regulo Anselmi, said the military urged Chavez on Wednesday to negotiate. He agreed, but by then the Petroleos de Venezuela executives had rejected such overtures. After Thursday's violence, the high command decided Chavez had to go, and they confronted him en masse in his offices, Anselmi said. Troops seized the government television station as tanks rumbled on the streets. Chavez's longtime mentor, former Interior Minister Luis Miquilena, condemned the repression. Chavez, surrounded by a nervous Cabinet, finally handed his resignation to Anselmi, Armed Forces Inspector General Gen. Lucas Rincon Romero and National Guard commander Gen. Belisario Landis. ''Being a friend of his for many years, I advised him to resign and allow Venezuelans to avoid a bigger bloodbath,'' said Gen. Francisco Uson, who until Thursday served as Chavez's finance minister. ''We ask the Venezuelan people's forgiveness for today's events,'' said Vasquez Velasco, the army commander. ''Mr. President, I was loyal to the end, but today's deaths cannot be tolerated.'' AP-NY-04-12-02 1040EDT Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
