Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
Speaking to thousands of supporters during a September 6 election rally in Maracaibo, capital of the western state of Zulia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced he would promote a recall referendum against Manuel Rosales, Zulia's government and candidate for the right-wing opposition in the December 3 presidential elections.
The recall referendum will be held in October 2007. Chavez lamented that Zulia had been in the hands of counter-revolutionary governors for some years, but asserted that the people of Zulia were "Chavistas" — supporters of the Bolivarian revolution being led by Chavez.
Rosales is a proponent for "autonomy" for oil-rich Zulia. He was also implicated in the April 2002 US-backed coup that briefly deposed Chavez until the president was reinstated by a massive uprising by Venezuela's poor majority.
Chavez told the rally that the"people of Zulia are profoundly Venezuelan, contrary to what some are going around saying; the people of Zulia are not counter-revolutionary, they are a profoundly revolutionary people", reported the September 7 Diario Vea. Chavez reminded his audience that he won the vote in Zulia in the 2004 recall referendum that had been mounted against him by the right-wing opposition, which was again supported by Washington.
The recall referendum was resoundingly won by the pro-Chavez forces and now Chavez is planning to use the same mechanism, part of the Bolivarian constitution, against his pro-capitalist opponent.
The September 7 Ultimas Noticias reported that Chavez told the rally that "the candidates [representing] imperialism had already begun to travel to Miami, to receive money and orders, and had started to meet here in secret, where they eat chicken and avocado arrepas [sandwiches] with the North Americans here in Venezuela". (A reference to the 80 kilograms of chicken discovered by customs officials in containers the US Embassy tried to smuggle through Caracas's international airport.)