Venezuela divided over changes

2007-11-22 12:36

Caracas - Tens of thousands of President Hugo Chavez's supporters filled the streets on Wednesday to back his proposed constitutional changes, while anti-government student leaders announced a bold plan to march on the presidential palace.

The demonstrations have grown as a December 2 referendum nears on reforms that, among other changes, would let Chavez run for re-election indefinitely, create new types of property to be managed by co-operatives and lengthen presidential terms from six to seven years.

Beating drums and blowing on whistles, the sea of red-clad demonstrators marched to the Miraflores presidential palace to show their support for the constitutional overhaul.

Street-level challenge

At a separate rally in Caracas, university students who have recently led a street-level challenge to the president announced plans for their own march to the palace on Monday, for the first time since 2002.

"We're going to Miraflores too!" student leader Ricardo Sanchez shouted to the crowd, which repeated chants of "To Miraflores, to Miraflores!"

The government has maintained a security zone around the palace and has not permitted opposition protests in the area since 2002, when gunfire broke out during a march headed for Miraflores and 19 people were killed. The violence came shortly before Chavez's brief ouster in a coup.

He was restored two days later by military loyalists while crowds of his backers protested in the streets.

Blaring from speakers mounted on trucks were campaign jingles interspersed with audio clips of Chavez saying: "On the path to socialism," and "The power belongs to the people, not the oligarchs!"

'Children of the rich'

On various university campuses, student leaders have emerged as vocal government opponents in recent months, leading marches that at times have ended in violence.

Chavez calls them a minority, labelling them "fascists" and "children of the rich". He also has accused them of representing the interests of US "imperialism" by trying to destabilise his government.

Another student leader, Stalin Gonzalez, read a joint statement from university students saying: "We want fair, transparent electoral conditions and impartiality by the electoral agency".

- AP