Loading ...CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) — President Hugo Chavez on Friday wrapped up his campaign to push through broad constitutional changes with a broadside attack against adversaries at home and abroad — including a threat to cut off oil exports to the United States.
Chavez told a crowd gathered in the center of Caracas that if the referendum was approved and the result was questioned — “if the ‘yes’ vote wins on Sunday and the Venezuelan oligarchy, playing the [U.S.] empire’s game, comes with their little stories of fraud” — then he would order oil shipments to the United States halted Monday.
Chavez spoke after tens of thousands, brought on buses from throughout the country, marched down the capital’s principal boulevard to rally support for Sunday’s referendum, which would free Chavez from term-limit restrictions and move the country toward institutionalized socialism.
Friday’s rally acted as a counterpoint to an opposition march down the same streets Thursday that brought out tens of thousands who fear the 69 constitutional changes would serve to undermine basic democratic freedoms.
Chavez, 53, warmed the crowd up by serenading them with holiday “gaitas” and other traditional songs before turning his attention to a litany of enemies and perceived enemies: internal critics, the United States, Spain’s King Juan Carlos, Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe and domestic and international media.
“We’re not really confronting those peons of imperialism,” Chavez said, alluding to his Venezuelan opponents. “Our true enemy is called the North American empire, and … we’re going to give another knockout to Bush.”
He renewed his harsh criticisms of Juan Carlos and Uribe, with whom he has had recent high-profile disputes, and threatened to take independent Venezuela television network Globovision off the air if it broadcast partial results during the voting. He also threatened to take action against international networks, accusing CNN in particular of overstating the strength of the opposition’s numbers.
“If any international channel comes here to take part in an operation from the imperialist against Venezuela, your reporters will be thrown out of the country, they will not be able to work here,” Chavez said. “People at CNN, listen carefully: This is just a warning.”
At stake in Sunday’s vote is whether the leftist leader should have full authority over the now autonomous Central Bank and with it the nation’s economic policy, changes Chavez has said he needs to move the economy further toward socialism.
The most controversial amendment would do away with term limits, allowing Chavez, who has served almost eight years in power, to hold his post indefinitely as long as he is re-elected.
Chavez, a former paratrooper, said the majority of the country’s 26 million people back him. He has garnered overwhelming support from the country’s poorer neighborhoods, who have benefited from his policies — paid for by skyrocketing oil prices. Oil accounts for roughly 90 percent of the country’s export earnings, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Despite the animosity that Chavez routinely aims at the United States, the two countries remain closely tied economically — the United States is Venezuela’s biggest oil customer and one of the few countries that can refine its low-quality crude. Venezuela accounts for up to 15 percent of U.S. crude imports.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The Latest on US Dollar Decline
Chavez, Ahmadinejad: US power on decline
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press
Today 11-19-07
Venezuela’s outspoken president joined with Iran’s leader Monday in boasting that they are “united like a single fist” in challenging American influence, saying the fall of the dollar is a sign that “the U.S. empire is coming down.”
Hugo Chavez also joked about the most serious issue the U.S. is confronting regarding Iran — nuclear weapons — during his get-together with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The visit came after a failed attempt by the firebrand duo to move OPEC away from pricing its oil in dollars.
OPEC’s weekend summit displayed the limits of their alliance — their proposal was overruled by other members, led by Saudi Arabia — but it also showed their potential for stirring up problems for the U.S. and its allies.
Making his fourth trip to Tehran in two years, Chavez has built a strong bond with Ahmadinejad that has produced a string of business agreements as well as a torrent of rhetoric presenting their two countries as an example of how smaller nations can stand up to the U.S.
“Here are two brother countries, united like a single fist,” Chavez said upon his arrival in Tehran, according to Venezuela’s state-run Bolivarian News Agency.
“God willing, with the fall of the dollar, the deviant U.S. imperialism will fall as soon as possible, too,” Chavez said after a two-hour closed meeting with Ahmadinejad, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.
As the dollar weakens, oil prices have soared toward $100 a barrel. Chavez said at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that prices would more than double to $200 if the U.S. attacked Iran or Venezuela.
“The U.S. empire is coming down,” he told Venezuelan state television, calling the European Union’s euro a better option and saying Latin American nations were also considering a common currency.
The leftist leader is a harsh critic of President Bush, while Iran’s Islamic government is in a bitter standoff with Washington over Tehran’s nuclear program. The U.S. accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies, and Iran has been hit with two rounds of U.N. sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
Although it’s a sensitive issue for his ally, Chavez joked about acquiring his own atomic bombs, apparently seeking to poke fun at the U.S. accusation that Iran is using its nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons.
According to a Venezuelan state TV report, when a reporter asked about the aims of his visit, Chavez quipped: “As the imperialist press says, I came to look for an atomic bomb, and I’ve got it here. If anyone should cross me, I’ll fire it.”
The report didn’t say how Ahmadinejad reacted to the joke.
Chavez has strongly supported Iran’s right to have a civilian nuclear program, backing the position of Tehran that its atomic activities are intended solely for the peaceful production of electricity.
“We demand respect for the sovereignty of Iran,” Chavez told Venezuelan TV when he arrived for his hours-long visit. “Iran has a right to have nuclear energy for peaceful uses.”
Ahmadinejad backed his “dear brother” Chavez in their joint fight with the Bush administration.
“We have common viewpoints and we will stand by each other until we capture the high peaks. God is with us and victory is awaiting us,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
During the OPEC meeting, Iran and Venezuela proposed that the cartel begin setting its oil prices based on a basket of currencies, rather than just the dollar, and they wanted the summit to specifically express concern over the dollar’s slide in its final statement.
U.S. ally Saudi Arabia blocked the move, with its foreign minister cautioning that even talking publicly about the currency’s decline could further hurt its value. But in an apparent compromise, OPEC leaders agreed to study the idea of setting oil prices in dollars.
In Tehran, Chavez and Ahmadinejad signed four memorandums of understanding Monday to create a joint bank, a fund, an oil industry technical training program and an industrial agreement, Iranian state television said. It said Chavez then left after an official farewell ceremony.
On Chavez’s visit in July, the two leaders broke ground for a joint petrochemical complex in Iran, with 51 percent in Iranian ownership and 49 percent owned by Venezuela. The two nations also began construction of a petrochemical complex in Venezuela, at a total combined cost of $1.4 billion.
Since 2001, the two countries have signed more than 180 trade agreements, worth more than $20 billion in potential investment, according to official reports.
Iran has partnered with Venezuela on several industrial projects in the South American nation, including the production of cars, tractors and plastic goods.