Chavez's ouster unsettles neighbors

MEXICO CITY -- Several of Venezuela's neighbors rejected its new government Saturday, clearly worried that the overthrow of President Hugo Chavez could reflect poorly on a region trying to shed its reputation for constant coups and political instability.

Few Latin American leaders rushed to the defense of Chavez, a populist former paratrooper who had called for a revolution against Venezuela's upper classes. But most were quick to criticize his ouster and arrest Friday as an undemocratic transition of power.

Nicaragua, Argentina, Paraguay and Panama branded the new government of business leader Pedro Carmona illegitimate. Chilean President Ricardo Lagos called for swift presidential elections and a return to democracy.

Mexican President Vicente Fox said his country would not recognize Carmona's government until presidential elections are held. But he emphasized that he was not breaking off diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

"Constitutional rupture is not good for anybody in Latin America," Fox said. But he added that it was "impossible to ignore" that Chavez's government had "often been ineffective" in the face of Venezuela's mounting economic turmoil.

Communist Cuba, which lost its best friend in the region in the leftist Chavez, condemned his ouster. Cuba's U.N. ambassador, Bruno Rodriguez, told a crowd of 15,000 at a government-organized rally that Venezuela's business community hijacked its government:

"The truth is that in Venezuela they have had a coup."

As Carmona postponed the swearing-in of his Cabinet on Saturday amid protests demanding Chavez's return, Cuban television broadcast an interview with a Venezuelan general who demanded that Chavez's vice president be named interim president and that elections be held within a month.

But El Salvador immediately recognized Carmona's regime. In Peru, Luis Gonzales Posada, the head of the legislature's Foreign Relations Commission, said Venezuela had no choice but to get rid of Chavez.

"Chavez's government marginalized the constitution of Venezuela and ignored its own country's laws," Gonzales Posada said. "The world should not abandon a new government that represents the democratic process and the majority of the Venezuelan public."

Leaders and analysts were more united in their concern that coups are too common a method of political change in the region.

In the last six years, for example, Ecuador has seen two military-backed coups and Paraguay has seen three attempts. Chavez himself led a failed 1992 coup, years before being elected in 1998.

"What remained clear in Venezuela yesterday is that Latin American democracy is bleeding hopelessly. The only question that remains is where we will see the next ... coup strike," the Mexico City newspaper El Universal said in an analysis Saturday.

Gustavo de Greiff, a constitutional law expert at the Colegio de Mexico, said Chavez's ouster was "a coup that followed a model we have seen very often in this region."

"What has happened in Venezuela may represent the will of a large popular movement within the country, but it is not democratic," de Greiff said in a radio interview.

In Guatemala, Chavez's fall struck home. Journalists pressed presidential spokesman Byron Barrera about whether economic woes and a growing corruption scandal could topple the government of President Alfonso Portillo.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright