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President Chávez loses his grip on Venezuela but gains it on New York University


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By Claudio Campuzano
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

January 11, 2002

When a ruler begins to blame the press for his political setbacks we know his goose is about done. Last week, about 100 supporters of president Hugo Chávez, by all accounts recruited by his political minions, surrounded the offices of the daily El Nacional in an effort to prevent the country's largest-circulation newspaper from publishing.

Chávez has singled out El Nacional in recent weeks for printing what he says are "lies" aimed at destabilizing his government and false reports of anti-government protests in Caracas's poorest neighborhoods-once home to Chávez's most ardent supporters when he was elected three years ago. But recent opinion polls suggest that Chávez's popularity has declined from the 80 percent he enjoyed in his first year of government to about 30 per cent now, amid growing sentiment that he has been ineffectual in combating corruption and alleviating poverty.

Beating pots and pans-which lately has become Venezuelan's favorite way of showing their opposition to the president-and waving placards with slogans such as 'El Nacional Lies," the violent crowd prevented workers from leaving the national newspaper's headquarters for several hours, until they were eventually dispersed by Caracas police.

"It is unprecedented that the government should support something like this," El Nacional Editor Miguel Henrique Otero said. "Their aim is to stop us publishing what they do not like: The government's falling popularity, its unfulfilled promises, the complaints of people across the country and the democratic crisis occurring in this country."

El Nacional minced no words in its editorial response. Under the headline of "President, You Lie," it harshly refuted his accusations.

"If he wants to rule in a democracy, he must then get used to criticism and controversy, tolerate dissidence and argue with his opposition in a civilized way," the editorial said. "Governing is not only for supporters but for the whole country, which often requires that a government explains its actions and account for them, and that it rectifies its course when it's the wrong one. This, which is natural and logical in a democratic system, appears to be bizarre for the president, and he immediately calls it 'a conspiracy orchestrated' by his enemies."

Chávez's control over the Venezuelan congress is also slipping. Last week he had to urge from his Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) not to bow to opposition pressure after his government barely retained its control of the leadership of Congress. National Assembly President William Lara was returned to office by a much-reduced majority of 85 votes to 73, with two abstentions.

A year earlier, the MVR had swept elections for the presidency with 126 votes in the 165-member National Assembly. The government's majority was weakened last year after a major partner in its Patriotic Pole coalition withdrew, alleging Chávez was sidelining Congress by assuming emergency powers.

One of the first tasks awaiting legislators this year is to decide whether to revoke any of 49 controversial laws decreed by Chávez last year using special legislative powers. Although he insisted the raft of legislation-ranging from fishing to land redistribution-was essential for his plans to fight poverty and corruption, it provoked an unprecedented nationwide strike on Dec. 10 by business leaders and unions, who alleged they will hamper investment and raise unemployment. Chávez insists the far-reaching legal changes are necessary to help the majority of Venezuela's 24 million inhabitants who live in poverty.

But Venezuela's most powerful union leader, Carlos Ortega, accused Chávez of "declaring war" against him and the country's workers, and predicted labor turmoil. Ortega rejected statements by Chávez in which he said he did not recognize his election last year to the leadership of the Venezuelan Workers' Confederation (CTV), in which the candidate sponsored by the president suffered a crushing defeat.

The CTV one-million strong union grouping, the largest in the nation. includes employees of the strategic oil sector. "We view this as a kind of declaration of war by the president," said Ortega, who led a successful oil workers' strike against Chávez's government in 2000.

All this did not faze New York University. In its wisdom-more later on the nature of it-it invited President Chávez to speak on Jan. 11 at an event organized in his honor by the university and its King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, followed by a reception in the President's Conference Room.

The excuse was the assumption by Chávez of the presidency of the Group of 77, which New York University charitably describes in its in invitation as a "United Nations organization devoted to furthering the prosperity of 133 developing nations around the world," but is for most observers a group dominated by the likes of Fidel Castro that works for the promotion of leftist ideology.

About the wisdom. It's not academic; it financial.

It says so in the invitation: "New York University and the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center are especially grateful to Venezuela for a generous grant from CITGO, the United States affiliate of Venezuelan Petroleum, to endow a chair in Latin American Cultures and Civilizations in the name of the great nineteenth century humanist and Venezuelan scholar, Andrés Bello."

Somebody should advise Fidel Castro that for a couple of hundred thousand dollars he can get to be honored by New York University and the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center.

Claudio Campuzano (claudio-campuzano@hotmail.com) is U.S, correspondent for the Latin American newsweekly Tiempos del Mundo and editorial page editor of the New York daily Noticias del Mundo. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com

January 1, 2002

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