VENEZEULA: Opponents of Venezuela's President hope their campaign will take a decisive turn this weekend, reports Michael McCaughanin Caracas
Ivan Diaz is a pale-skinned, English-speaking businessman, marking him out as a typical member of Venezuela's middle class which despises President Hugo Chavez and is seeking to oust him from office. If a drive this weekend for signatures on a petition is successful, the nation's electoral council will convene a recall referendum in August.
"I have lost profits under this government," said Mr Diaz, apparently conforming to the stereotype. But then he says: "It doesn't bother me because this government is spending that money to improve the lives of the poor."
He explained that President Chavez was taxing the wealthy and using record oil revenues to launch literacy, health and education programmes which have stirred the consciousness of the poor. "Rich Venezuelans would sooner drive the country into the ground than lose any of their privileges," he concluded.
President Chavez, a former army paratrooper who led a failed coup attempt in 1992, strolled into office with a landslide electoral majority in 1998, pledging to rewrite the constitution and put an end to decades of social inequality.
Venezuela's traditional power brokers - the business class, political parties and media magnates - were swept aside in favour of a "peaceful, democratic revolution" inspired by independence hero Simon Bolivar.
Venezuelans approved a new constitution which guaranteed the right to education, health and housing while work in the home was recognised as a job like any other, deserving of a pension.
Despite record oil profits, however, Mr Chavez has failed to cut unemployment, and faces growing resentment over rising crime. Most of the constitutional provisions exist only as aspirations, as workers face longer hours and women await pensions that have failed to materialise.
Venezuela's displaced political class regrouped in the Democratic Co-ordinator, an umbrella group spanning the extreme left and right, united solely around the goal of getting rid of the President.
In April 2002 dissident army officers, business leaders and media barons launched a coup d'état which succeeded in ousting Mr Chavez for 47 hours, until a civic-military revolt forced them to abandon their plans.
Six months later the same forces, allied with an opposition trade union federation, launched a work stoppage which brought the country to its knees yet failed to bend Mr Chavez's will, as he emerged triumphant, determined to deepen the reform process.
He enjoys the support of the armed forces and has strengthened state control over oil giant PdVsa, which provides the lion's share of state revenues.
This latest attempt to oust him involves a recall referendum, which will proceed if 2.4 million voters, 20 per cent of the electorate, sign a petition against him. The opposition collected 3.4 million signatures last year, after Mr Chavez reached the mid-term point in his six-year mandate.
However, the National Electoral Council (CNE) only ratified 1.9 million signatures, sending a further one million for reparo - literally, "repair" - to confirm their authenticity. These signatures did not comply with a rule requiring signatories to print their details on the petitions.
Opposition leaders and US officials have accused Mr Chavez of blocking the referendum process, insisting that the vote should go ahead, regardless of the outcome of the petition drive.
State employees have complained they have been discriminated against or fired for signing the petition, while government officials claim the names of dead people were included to boost the total.
White House spokesman Roger Noriega said this week the opposition had already gathered sufficient signatures, and threatened to invoke the OAS's Democratic Charter which punishes nations that step outside democratic norms.