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AFP (with additional material by Reuters). 18 August 2002. Chavez joins demonstration in support of his rule. CARACAS -- President Hugo Chavez marked three years in power Sunday by joining with marchers demanding prosecution of four military leaders for their role in an April coup that briefly removed him from office. Chavez, 48, joined the march accompanied by dozens of his sympathizers who cried "Justice, justice" as he appeared among them atop a minivan, joined by a bevy of government ministers and Caracas state governor Didalco Bolivar. "Time is up for judges whose decisions contradict the national will," Chavez said on his weekly "Hello, Mr. President" radio broadcast, transmitted from the city of Maracay, located some 80 kilometers (48 miles) west of Caracas. Chavez later joined protesters marching between Maracay and Valencia, both east of Caracas, along 40 kilometers (25 miles) of road winding through poorer areas, where the populist former paratrooper has the bulk of his support. "If they think that we are going to take this, they are very wrong. Now what is coming is a counterattack of the people, a revolutionary counterattack," Chavez said in an address to hundreds of supporters in a poor Caracas neighborhood on Saturday. The protests stem from Wednesday's decision by the Supreme Court to clear two generals and two admirals of criminal charges for their participation in this year's April 11-12 coup that temporarily ousted Chavez. The justices' "terrible decision is generating a formidable public opinion that will take its place in history," Chavez told his fellow Venezuelans in Sunday's radio address. Meanwhile, Antonio Ledezma -- campaign chief of Chavez's arch-rival ex-president Perez -- announced immediately after the justices' decision was made public that the court would now pursue a number of lawsuits against Chavez. He also faces accusations of damaging Venezuelan interests with cut-rate oil sales to Cuba and its president Fidel Castro, and of having misused Investment Fund for Macro-economic Stabilization money. However, Chavez countered in Sunday's broadcast that "anyone who seeks to damage the (Venezuelan) revolution will find a united people and soldiers who are firm and always ready." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://www.utopia2000.org The NEW ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
