Chavez: 'We must all defend the nation'

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AFP. 15 December 2002. Venezuelan government says general strike is a
crime; Chavez tells military to ignore judicial decisions that counter
his decrees.

CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday accused leaders of a
general strike of betraying their country, while his vice president said
the protest amounted criminal sabotage.

Chavez pledged to take "every measure allowed by the constitution," to
end the 14-day-old strike that has paralyzed the country's vital oil
sector.

"The insolent footsteps of coup plotting and fascism, and an anti
patriotic fifth column are seeking to shatter the sacred ground of the
nation. We must all defend the nation," Chavez said in his "Hello
President" weekly address.

His vice president, Jose Vicente Rangel, also lashed out at the leaders
of the strike, which headed to a third week.

"The strike does not exist, it is vulgar sabotage, it is an act I
qualify as a crime," Rangel told journalists.

Chavez also said Sunday he ordered military leaders to ignore judicial
decisions that go against his decrees.

The announcement came after several judges and prosecutors sought to
prevent troops from seizing oil tankers and installations paralyzed by a
two-week-old general strike.

"We cannot allow a judge to try to prevent compliance with a
presidential decree," said Chavez.

"In one area a prosecutor tried to prevent a military unit from carrying
out instructions given by the president ... I told the general not pay
any attention to him."

"I have given instructions to commanders, I have spoken to governors to
tell them we must defend our constitution," Chavez said in his weekly
radio and television show.

He said the judges might face legal sanctions for abusing their powers.

He also thanked the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
which sent him a message of solidarity, offered to provide oil tankers,
and said it could supply Venezuela's oil clients if the South American
country could not fulfil its commitments.

Chavez, whose mandate ends in 2006, reiterated he had no intention to
cave in to strikers' demands that he step down or hold snap elections.

"I will not leave under pressure from a group of managers, a group of
coup plotters, a group of fascists, a group of entrepreneurs or mass
media."

"Chavez will leave, first when God decides, because I answer to Christ
lord of Venezuela; he is my commander. And secondly, the people," said
Chavez, holding a Bible to his heart and reciting a psalm.

"Arise in my defense," he read in a tremulous voice, his right hand
raised toward the sky.

"I am here through the will of the majority of Venezuelans, and I assume
the voice of the people is the voice of God."

He also issued a veiled warning to the United States -- which is
pressuring for early elections -- with a reference to Washington's
embarrassing response to an April coup that briefly toppled Chavez. The
United States initially blamed Chavez for his own downfall and belatedly
condemned the coup.

Chavez held up a small blue copy of Venezuela's constitution, which
doesn't allow early elections until midway through a president's term --
in his case, August 2003.

"I recommend that governments of the world ... read this constitution.
We've published it in several languages -- English, German, French, even
Russian," he said.

"We can send it to whoever wants it by e-mail ... so that those who came
out looking bad in the past don't come out looking bad again."