Defiant Chavez Rules Out Early Vote

In the strongest terms yet, a defiant President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ruled out early elections as a solution to this country’s deepening political crisis and vowed to outlast a nationwide strike that has crippled oil production.

During a three-hour interview with four U.S. reporters that lasted until early Sunday, Chavez said that even a constitutional amendment could not force him to leave before his term ends in 2007, because it could not be applied retroactively.

It was the first time Chavez had publicly rejected the idea of an amendment that could cut short his term, and seemed to quash hopes for a solution to the two-week-old strike through early elections -- an idea recently promoted by U.S. and opposition leaders.

“It would violate Venezuelan national law,” said Chavez, who was briefly ousted by a coup in April. “There are no retroactive laws.”

Chavez also said for the first time since the strike began Dec. 2 that he might consider resigning -- but only if the opposition succeeded in generating anarchy in Venezuela that left him unable to govern.

“Resignation is a voluntary act,” he said. “If I realize that I have failed, the president could resign, but not if they put a gun to his head. That’s an option that is there, but of course I would fight with all the force that I have.”

The strike pits the leftist president against a determined opposition coalition that seeks his resignation or early elections, saying he has driven the country into chaos.

His opponents, including businesses, unions, media groups and opposition politicians, have managed to cripple oil production, which accounts for half of government revenue and most foreign currency.

Chavez insisted, as he long has, that the solution to the country’s crisis is for the opposition to wait until August to seek a constitutionally permissible referendum on his rule.

He said the eight-month delay would allow for a new national council to supervise elections, to replace one believed by both sides to be ineffective. It would also give the opposition time to gather its forces and present an alternative to his “Bolivarian revolution,” which aims to alleviate the country’s widespread poverty.

“The logical response is this: Why not wait until August? You don’t have to change anything,” Chavez said. “This is the most logical thing, but they don’t act logically.”

Despite the unfolding crisis, Chavez seemed relaxed during the late-night interview in a small garden courtyard inside the presidential palace, drinking coffee and smoking four Belmont Extra Smooth cigarettes.

His vow to battle the strike was a theme throughout the interview, leaving no doubt that he will do everything constitutionally possible to fight for his presidency.

“We are under attack. This is a kind of economic war. But we are reacting,” he said, speaking near where he triumphantly returned to power with the support of loyal troops 48 hours after the April 11 coup.

He portrayed a determined struggle by his government and loyal workers in the previous 13 days to get the country’s massive petroleum production system working and ensure an uninterrupted supply of food.

He admitted that the strike had nearly resulted in food and gas shortages last week, but detailed how the government was importing both in order to stave off further problems.

He said he was determined to wait out his opponents, many of them from the upper and middle classes.

“Our people are people who are able to endure,” he said. “Our people, especially the poor, have resisted hunger and misery for decades.”

Chavez said the government was regaining control over the paralyzed state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, which has provided about 12% of U.S. oil supplies this year.

He said he had found replacement workers and managers to restart a production chain stalled everywhere from oil wells to refineries to gas trucks to massive tankers.

He said four tankers with 2 million barrels of oil had been sent abroad in the previous three days. Normally, the country exports 2.4 million barrels a day.

Gasoline shortages, he said, had forced the nation to contact state oil companies in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil about the possibility of buying gas. Chavez said the country had already purchased gas from a refinery in the Virgin Islands that it co-owns with New York-based Amerada Hess Corp. He also said he would pay to import workers to maintain gas production, but only as a last resort.

On Sunday, soldiers in the west stormed a tanker in Lake Maracaibo carrying gasoline for domestic use and replaced its striking crew.

Still, the Western Hemisphere’s largest refinery, the Paraguana refinery complex, remained shut down Sunday after the replacement manager suffered a heart attack Friday. And Chavez estimated it would be 12 days or more until the country’s other two large refineries return to full capacity.

He also said that pro-Chavez oil workers had uncovered numerous cases of sabotage, ranging from computer hackers breaking into company networks to vandalized valves to the theft of truck keys.

“The country is not in an economic crisis,” he insisted, saying recent economic indicators pointed to an improvement in the soaring inflation and unemployment rates. “We have the strength to resist as long as necessary to recover our production of petroleum and gasoline.”

Opponents have denied many of Chavez’s claims and continued to say Sunday that the bulk of oil production in Venezuela was shut down. They called it impossible to run PDVSA without the company’s 46,000 workers, 90% of whom are on strike.

But at least one oil expert said he believed Chavez might be able to run the company with a skeleton crew for as long as two months, although the resulting economic damage would be catastrophic for the country.

Ramon Espinasa, a consultant with the Inter-American Development Bank who was once PDVSA’s chief economist, said he envisioned a scenario in which Chavez could maintain minimum production levels with as few as 15,000 workers.

“The country would get much poorer, but Chavez would remain in power,” said Espinasa, a Chavez foe. “He would hold on to power and keep his support base -- the poorest of the poor, who can’t get any poorer.”

As to food supplies, Chavez said the Venezuelan government had already used state funds to stock up on food in case of a continued crisis. He said the government had purchased milk and meat from Colombia and rice from the Dominican Republic.

So far, he said, the government had not had to tap into about $15 billion in foreign currency reserves, but he said this was a possibility.

“That’s one of the benefits of free trade,” he said, laughing. Chavez has long been opposed to free trade policies, insisting that Latin American countries find a different way to compete in the global market.

Chavez also downplayed fears of a military uprising. Several officers accused of participating in the April coup have declared themselves in “civil disobedience” and have taken over an upscale plaza in eastern Caracas, the capital. Three protesters were killed by a gunman there during the first week of the strike, energizing the opposition.

But Chavez, who shook up the military in the months after the April coup, said there had been few signs that officers were ready to rebel. He said he was most worried about the influence of news broadcasts from the four major television stations, all decidedly anti-Chavez.

“I don’t have big worries, but yes, I have worries because of the psychological campaign” from the media, he said, noting that he was striving to maintain contact with top commanders.

As Chavez spoke, the distant thump of music floated into the courtyard. It was gaita, a traditional Christmas music, being played at a rally of his backers.

His supporters’ dedication, he said, was greater than the opposition’s.

“There is something above everything else,” he said, explaining why he would eventually beat his opponents. “We are right. We are not perfect. But we are on the right path.

“I say this because I feel it. We are on the same path as Christ.”