[NYTr] Chavez's "Softer Tone" for 2008: Amnesty for Coup-Plotters

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

See also Jan 2, 2008:

Reconciliatory Chavez Grants Amnesty to Jailed Coupsters, Opponents 
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071231/073627.html

[Is this a sign of being "humbled" by a razor-thin electoral defeat? Or
is it a sign, with stronger international relations and a robustly
growing economy (despite inflation) that Chavez is feeling more secure
about the strength of his support at home? Is it also a way of
disarming the opposition? "-NY Transfer]


Reuters - Jan 2, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0217455120080102

Venezuela's leftist Chavez softens tone for 2008

By Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS, Jan 2 (Reuters) - If 2007 was Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez's year to drive forward a grandiose vision of revolutionary
socialism, 2008 could be the year for getting trash off the streets and
putting milk on store shelves.

Chavez appears to be softening his combative rhetoric and focusing on
supporters' concrete problems after a referendum vote in December
defeated his push to create a socialist state and run indefinitely for
reelection.

The former paratrooper now vows to tackle problems such as crime,
corruption and food shortages and on New Year's Eve he offered an
amnesty to political adversaries linked to a failed 2002 coup against
his rule.

Although Chavez, 53, may quickly change tack and go on the offensive
again, he has started the year with a more humble tone, in stark
contrast to a hard-hitting wave of nationalizations and reforms last
January.

"There are practical problems that do not belong to any ideology and
they have to be resolved," he told state television at the weekend. He
also promised to fight corruption and "correct and boost our economy."

His comments follow the referendum defeat of his planned constitutional
overhaul and growing complaints that he has not done enough to deal
with Caracas' trash-littered streets or the highest inflation rate in
the Western Hemisphere.

Offering amnesty to coup members and dissidents that authorities had
doggedly pursued for five years signals Chavez may try to build bridges
with an opposition fresh off its first victory since he was elected in
1998.

"This is a positive gesture," said Gonzalo Himiob, a lawyer with the
opposition group Penal Forum, which has accused Chavez of persecuting
political rivals.

But Himiob also said the law was discriminatory because it does not
cover all those accused of involvement in the 2002 putsch, in contrast
to an amnesty provided to participants of a failed coup that Chavez led
in 1992.

He said a group of police officers would be excluded from the new
amnesty.

TRASH, CRIME, MILK

A close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has built political support
through open confrontation with Washington and oil-financed social
programs that benefit the poor.

He opened last year with surprise nationalizations of the largest
private telecommunications and electricity companies, and pushed energy
giants ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips out of multi-billion dollar oil
projects.

But he fell out of step with supporters in May by taking the country's
most popular television station off the air for its role in the 2002
coup, removing soap operas and game shows beloved by many working class
Venezuelans.

And even the most stalwart of Chavez backers have grown frustrated with
hours of waiting in long supermarket lines due to shortages of goods
like milk, eggs and beef sparked by strict price controls.

The government in December lifted controls on certain types of milk,
vastly improving its availability, and signaled it could do the same
for other controlled products.

Chavez is also promising to tackle nitty-gritty problems like
corruption and growing crime, an issue he has largely avoided until now.

Analysts say his constitutional overhaul proposal, which included
far-fetched ideas like creating cities in the middle of the Caribbean,
did little to address those problems. (Editing by Kieran Murray)

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. 

                           ***

The Jurist Paperchase Newsburst - Jan 2, 2008
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/01/venezuela-president-grants-amnesty-to.php

Venezuela president grants amnesty to accused coup supporters

by Mike Rosen-Molina
	
[JURIST] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has signed a decree granting
amnesty to anyone involved in an aborted 2002 coup against him, as well
as other attempts to assassinate him or overthrow the government,
Chavez said in a Monday phone call to state television. The law would
grant amnesty to anyone who signed a declaration in support of interim
President Pedro Carmona during the coup. Chavez described the amnesty
as a way of "turning the page."

In 2004, Venezuelan prosecutor Danilo Anderson was killed by a car
bomb; Chavez said that Venezuelan exiles in the US were behind the
assassination [JURIST report]. The killing was supposedly aimed at
halting the prosecution of those who supported the 2002 coup against
Chavez, which was followed by a two-month national strike and Chavez's
triumphant return to power. Anderson was preparing a case against
nearly 400 people who had signed a declaration supporting Carmona.