Death on Venezuelan streets

2004-03-02 11:05

Caracas - One person was killed in protests demanding a recall vote to remove President Hugo Chavez, as electoral authorities postponed until midday on Tuesday announcing whether a recall referendum will be held.

Soldiers killed the protester during an anti-Chavez rally in Caracas, said Juan Fernandez, a spokesman for the opposition Democratic Coordinator umbrella group.

Since Friday five people have been killed and about 100 injured in political unrest.

Chavez foes were out in the streets Monday, and burning barricades blocked many streets, especially in southeastern Caracas.

In violent unrest on Sunday, at least 30 people were seriously hurt. Firefighters treated another 230 for minor injuries.

The number of signatures calling for a referendum has actually been known since Saturday, Jorge Rodriguez, a member of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said in a late Monday press conference.

However it will not be made public until midday on Tuesday. The results of the signature-collecting campaign were originally supposed to be made public on Sunday.

The pause "enables us all to reflect" and study the outcome within a democratic framework and without violence, he said. "With humility and patience, the CNE tries to maintain the players ... in the democratic game," he added.

Protests turned violent after the main opposition umbrella group said it rejected the authority of the National Electoral Council because it said it was reviewing the legality of more than one million of the 3,4 million signatures the opposition says it gathered in favor of having a recall referendum set.

The constitution requires a minimum of 2,4 million valid signatures. So the council's decision, if it were to disqualify the questioned signatures, would take the total to a potentially razor-thin margin between a green light and a red light for a recall vote.

Venezuela's constitution calls for a vote on a new president within 30 days if Chavez is ousted in a referendum. Chavez, whose term ends in 2006, has agreed to abide by the results of such a vote if held but he argues the signature-gathering process already held was marred by rampant fraud.

At a rally on Sunday, the president told about 60 000 cheering supporters he would block US access to Venezuela's oil resources if Washington moves against his government.

In a three-hour anti-US diatribe that singled out US President George W Bush as an illegitimate leader, Chavez said "if Mr Bush is possessed with the madness of trying to blockade Venezuela, or worse for them, to invade Venezuela in response to the desperate song of his lackeys ... sadly not a drop of petroleum with come to them from Venezuela."

The United States is keenly interested in Venezuela, its fourth-largest oil supplier and and the only Latin American member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

- AFP