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STRATFOR.com
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THE INTERNET SOURCE FOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE
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VENEZUELA: Chavez Regime Favors Violence Over Talks?
November 19, 2002
With new opinion polls showing that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would lose by a landslide any popular referendum on his continued stay in office, the government has set in motion a plan to force a violent confrontation with political foes, according to Stratfor sources in Caracas. The objective is to use the excuse of street violence between supporters and opponents of the regime in order to decree a state of exception and unleash military firepower to crush the opposition.
Chavez kept his military image while in office.
Image Credit: The Associated Press.
A state of exception would suspend all civil and political liberties indefinitely, and enable the government to arrest anyone viewed as a threat to democracy and the rule of law. A state of exception also would end the internationally mediated negotiations currently under way between the Chavez regime and political opposition, which concern the timing of a popular referendum on whether Chavez should resign.
New opinion polls by market research firms Datanalisis and Datos indicate that more than 72 percent of the populace, including at least two-thirds of the country's poorest citizens, would vote against Chavez.
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(Story Source)
© 2002 Stratfor, Inc.
Dan
Venezuela: Chavez Regime Favors Violence Over Talks . . . ?