Chavez rallies 300,000 against court ruling
proletarian - 25.08.2002 19:42
Chavez rallies 300,000 against court ruling: 'On to battle'
CARACAS -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Saturday rallied supporters against a supreme court ruling to absolve four military officers accused in an April coup to topple his government.
24 August 2002: Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Waving Venezuelans flags and carrying portraits of Chavez, more than 100,000 people marched from an eastern Caracas plaza across town to Congress.
"If anyone would try again to oust this government or stop this revolution, be it through politics, the military, economics or the law, they'll have the response of the people, of the revolutionaries," Chavez said.
Chavez, wearing the red beret of his former paratrooper unit, urged the national assembly to investigate the judges who ruled against proceeding with the trial of the officers accused in the April 11-14 uprising.
"Take them to jail, take them to jail," chanted the crowd as the president spoke.
Earlier, tens of thousands of supporters jammed streets of central Caracas, chanting for justice after marching from the eastern part of the capital toward the assembly building.
Venezuela's top court ruled on August 14 there was insufficient evidence to try the officers for rebellion.
"The justices don't respect democracy," said Omar Martinez, 62. "The ruling was totally wrong."
"These judges were bribed with outside money," said Carlos Gonzalez, 27, a salesman taking part in the rally.
One marcher shouted the names of the 11 justices who voted to absolve two army generals, a navy rear admiral and a navy vice admiral. The crowd cried "out!" after each name.
Chavez, seething over the ruling, has accused the judges of corruption, favoritism and even drunkenness and urged his supporters to take to the streets in a peaceful "revolutionary counterattack."
"We cannot accept quietly ... a decision that has already passed into dark history, into black history," the president said on Saturday.
"We cannot remain silent. We must express our complete rejection of this Supreme Court decision."
"The aberrant decision (from the Supreme Court), which lacks respect for the truth, justice, logic, has generated a disfavorable worldwide reaction," Chavez said in a speech.
"The court lags behind the changes in this country. It is at the service of economic and political powers," said pro-Chavez legislator Nicolas Maduro who led the march.
Chavez also asked tens of thousands of followers Saturday to oust opposition mayors and governors who could lead a recall referendum the nation's constitution allows once he is halfway through his term.
"On to battle," Chavez said. "We must go on the offensive against the referendum."
Many protesters wore yellow stickers printed with the phrase "Yes there was a coup." Others waved placards calling the country's highest tribunal "the Supreme Court of Injustice."
Some wore T-shirts printed with the president's face. Others waved banners with the portrait of Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
The rally closed down a central Caracas highway as protesters with banners, flags and placards marched from the eastern part of the capital toward the National Assembly.
Trucks blasted music and a float carried a mock scale of justice as protesters shouted in defense of the left-leaning president and his self-styled "Bolivarian revolution."
"So many have come out to support the president, the government and to condemn this injustice, to condemn the coup," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters as he joined the rally on the major Francisco Miranda Avenue.
Caracas mayor Fredy Bernal said "more than 300,000 Chavez supporters" joined the march.
Protesters planned to deliver to the National Assembly a document rejecting the ruling and demanding a commission to investigate the Supreme Court judges.
Venezuelan president says coup backers seek to oust him with economic force.
CARACAS -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez charged Sunday that those who backed the short-lived April coup that briefly pushed him out of office were now seeking to bring him down with their economic weight.
"They want to remove me (from office) any way it can be done," Chavez said on his weekly radio program, broadcast from Trujillo state.
"The April coup plotters, particularly those who planned it, are the (economically) privileged groups with international connections, continue to search for 1,000 ways to derail the revolution and stage an economic coup," Chavez said.
"They are trying to say the country is in an economic collapse; that's what they want and they are doing everything possible to make it true," Chavez said.
The president charged business leaders were "closing businesses needlessly," not investing in the country, sending their money outside the country and firing workers.
"But they will be proved wrong," Chavez said. "Nobody can stop Venezuela and a recovery is under way."
He maintains a recovery will start in the second half of the year after shrinking by 9.9 percent in the first half.
Reuters (with additional material by AFP, BBC and AP).
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