Venezuela Coverage

4-14-2002 ^Interim president resigns in Venezuela after thousands protest to restore Chavez to power< ^By ANDREW SELSKY= ^Associated Press Writer=    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ Venezuela's interim leader resigned Saturday after a single day in office as thousands of supporters of ousted President Hugo Chavez protested for his return.    Throngs crowded around the presidential palace in Caracas early Sunday after the announcement, setting off fire crackers as they waited in excitement for Chavez's anticipated return from military custody.    "Chavez is coming! Chavez is coming," said Dario Fereira, an unemployed man wearing a tattered shirt.    Just hours before, Interim President Pedro Carmona said over the radio: "Before the nation, before the Venezuelan people, I present this resignation."    As Carmona made the announcement, gunfire rang in the streets in a third bloody day of upheaval that officials said left at least nine...

4-13-2002 ^Interim leader replaces ousted Venezuelan President Chavez, but move draws criticism< ^By ANDREW SELSKY= ^Associated Press Writer=    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ As businessman Pedro Carmona took control of Venezuela's interim government, police clashed with hundreds of protesters in the capital and elsewhere demanding the return of ousted leader Hugo Chavez. Several Latin American leaders called the new administration illegitimate.    In downtown Caracas, hundreds of people chanted "Chavez will be back!" and "Democracy, not dictatorship!" Police fired tear gas as police cars raced back and forth after reports of looting and disturbances.    Several hundred others protested outside Caracas' Fort Tiuna, the military base where Chavez was taken into detention early Friday. Police dispersed the crowd by firing plastic bullets.    Chavez's supporters reject the military's claims that he resigned after being confronted by top comman...

4-13-2002 ^Thousands protest to restore Chavez to power in Venezuala; control of military unraveling< ^By ANDREW SELSKY= ^Associated Press Writer=    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ Thousands protested in several cities for the return of ousted President Hugo Chavez as control over the military began unraveling Saturday, forcing Venezuela's interim leader to postpone inaugurating his Cabinet.    The military of oil-rich Venezuela forced Chavez out on Friday. Some commanders refused to accept the military's appointed successor, Pedro Carmona, but there have been no reports of fighting between members of Venezuela's security forces. Meanwhile, the country was left without a working government.    Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters surged toward the presidential palace as night fell Saturday, demanding Chavez's return. Earlier in the day, police drove back smaller groups of protesters with tear gas, and gunfire was heard in the nearby Catia slum, a Cha...

4-14-2002 ^Two days after ouster, Chavez triumphantly returns to power on wings of popular uprising< ^By ANDREW SELSKY= ^Associated Press Writer=    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ President Hugo Chavez returned triumphantly to office two days after he was ousted and arrested by Venezuela's military, raising his fist in the air as he greeted supporters and reclaimed the presidential palace Sunday.    "I'm still stupefied. I'm still assimilating," Chavez said in a live TV address to the nation after flying by helicopter to the palace in Caracas from captivity on a Venezuelan island in the Caribbean, the last of five places where he was held.    Chavez appealed for calm as thousands of Venezuelans thronged the streets outside the gates, singing the national anthem and setting off firecrackers to celebrate his return.    "I do not come with hate or rancor in my heart, but we must make decisions and adjust things," said Chavez, who appeared in go...

11-9-2002 ^Venezuelan government fights on two fronts: the opposition, its radical supporters< ^By ANDREW SELSKY= ^Associated Press Writer=    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ Mayor Alfredo Pena's building looks more like a besieged fortress than a city hall, with bullet-pocked windows and doors barricaded against radicals loyal to President Hugo Chavez.    "If the world wants proof that Chavez doesn't want dialogue, here it is," Pena said in his office, daylight peeking through a bullet hole in a red curtain.    Seven months after a coup briefly toppled the leftist president, Venezuela is descending into political chaos again. Chavez must not only contend with opposition forces, but also admits he is losing control of his radical street fighters.    On Monday, a pro-Chavez mob led by Lina Ron, a former activist for the homeless, ignored pleas by Chavez officials and attacked an opposition march demanding an early referendum on Chavez's presid...

12-20-2002 ^Huge protests in Venezuela seek to force president from office; strike dries up gas pumps< ^By ANDREW SELSKY= ^Associated Press Writer=    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ Hundreds of thousands of whistle-blowing demonstrators demanding President Hugo Chavez's resignation took to Venezuela's streets Friday, the 19th day of a general strike that has crippled the oil-rich nation's economy.    Some protesters waved Venezuelan flags while others painted their faces in the national colors of red, yellow and blue. Traffic lightened to a minimum on Caracas's normally jammed streets because of the protests _ and because many cars were out of gas with most filling stations closed.    Strike leaders called Friday's demonstrations, converging at the Plaza Venezuela in the heart of the capital, a "mega-march" and a "takeover of Caracas."    Gina Gonzalez, a 21-year-old law student, said she was protesting "because I want Chavez out. He h...