BY STUART MUNCKTON
"Highways are blocked with barricades, creating huge traffic jams. Protests and tear gas fill streets; police patrols are few; residents stick by their radios and TVs, ingesting venomous political rhetoric while seeing if it's safe to go out", reported US-based Newsday.com on November 24, describing the situation in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
The right-wing opposition to President Hugo Chavez is threatening yet another general "strike" on December 2 (the fourth this year) and the government has been forced to send the armed forces onto the streets of Caracas to control the anti-Chavez police force.
The Miami Herald reported that a poll of Venezuelans, carried out in August, found that 62% of respondents believed there would be a civil war and 25% indicated they would fight. The latter were split almost evenly between those who support the radical government President Hugo Chavez and those who are opposed.
The responsibility for this situation lies firmly with the right-wing opposition. Following the failure of the 48-hour opposition-instigated, US-backed coup against Chavez in April, the opposition has orchestrated a campaign of destabilisation and sabotage to bring down the elected government.
Mostly organised under the umbrella of the Democratic Coordinator, the campaign has been sustained by using the opposition's control of the mass media, key sections of the economy, the main trade union federation, the Supreme Court and the 9000-strong Caracas police department.
This campaign has involved three general "strikes" (in reality lockouts by business), a savage anti-government media barrage, an on-going rebellion by more than 100 military officers and daily demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience aimed at creating maximum chaos. The Caracas police force, which is under the control of the anti-Chavez city mayor Alfredo Pena, has staged violent attacks on pro-Chavez demonstrators.
The opposition's strategy appears to be to make the country as ungovernable as possible in the hope that most people will vote against Chavez in attempt to restore stability, or create a pretext for another coup.
The wealthy opposition leaders believe that they are Venezuela's rulers by birthright. Chavez was elected in a landslide result in 1998. The oil-rich Latin American country's capitalists have been appalled by the fact that the Chavez government has begun to organise the poor on a mass scale with the aim of realising Chavez's dream of a genuine "participatory democracy".
The great irony is that for all the opposition's rhetoric about Chavez being a "dictator", the government has shown remarkable tolerance. Much to the frustration of the anti-Chavez forces, not a single person has stood trial, much less being punished, for their involvement in the April attempt to install a military dictatorship.
No action has been taken against the privately owned media, which openly collaborated with the coup plotters, other than verbal condemnation by Chavez. Top ranking military officers implicated in the April coup have been offered an amnesty.
Chavez has made repeated calls for dialogue, with the aim of reaching a compromise and draw the country back from the brink of civil war. The secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, Cesar Gaviria, has been invited to broker talks between the government and opposition.
The opposition is refusing to negotiate anything unless Chavez first agrees to a referendum on his rule in December. This is despite the fact that the constitution does not allow a referendum until August next year.
As the opposition's campaign of destabilisation and violence has escalated, Chavez has come under increasing pressure from his poor and working-class supporters to take decisive action. The government has organised its supporters in preparation for another coup; it is said that there are now more than 2 million people who have joined the grassroots Bolivarian Circles.
After two pro-Chavez demonstrators were shot dead on November 12, the government took control of the Caracas police force and sent National Guard and regular army troops to guard police stations around the capital. The demonstrators were shot by the Caracas police sharpshooters unit, the Grupo Felix. Chavez supporters accuse this death squad of a number of executions in poor neighbourhoods.
Chavez declared the Caracas police to be the "armed spearhead of the opposition" and Pena's private army. The police chief has been sacked and a new pro-government board appointed. Sections of the police who refused to accept the new leadership have been disarmed. The army has forced the police accept joint patrols to prevent attacks on Chavez supporters.
The opposition charged that the move was a "coup" and mobilised its supporters to take control of sections of the city. In response, Chavez supporters have mobilised to stop them.
Chavez has given indications that he is prepared to take further action against the opposition, with the threat that if businesses go ahead with the December 2 general lockout, the government might forcibly reopen them and keep them running.
At the moment, despite the situation threatening to spiral out of control, it appears the government has control of the situation. Should the situation degenerate into open civil war, the responsibility will lie squarely on the heads of a powerful capitalist opposition that refuses to respect the most basic democratic principles.
From Green Left Weekly, December 4, 2002.
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