Venezuela's Chief Forced to Resign; Civilian Installed

 



  CARACAS, Venezuela, April 12 - A transitional government headed 
by a leading businessman replaced President Hugo Chavez today, 
hours after military officers forced him to resign. It was a 
sudden end to the turbulent three-year reign of a mercurial 
strongman elected on promises to distance his country from the 
United States while uprooting Venezuela's old social order.

  Mr. Chavez, 47, a firebrand populist who had said he would 
remake Venezuela to benefit the poor, was obligated to resign in 
a meeting with three military officers about 3 a.m. today after 
large street protests on Thursday in which at least 14 people 
were killed by gunmen identified as his supporters.

  Early this morning, Mr. Chavez, in military fatigues and the 
trademark red beret of his left-leaning movement, was driven off 
to the Fort Tiuna army base in Caracas, where he was reported to 
be in custody.

  Pedro Carmona Estanga, the head of Venezuela's most important 
business association, was installed as interim president at a 
ceremony at 6 p.m. He promised that the new government would 
adhere to "a pluralistic vision, democratic, civil and ensuring 
the implementation of the law, the state of law."

  
Elections will be held within a year, officials said.

  The Bush administration laid the blame for Mr. Chavez's 
overthrow firmly with the ousted leader. Officials portrayed the 
ouster as a victory for democracy, even though Mr. Chavez was a 
legitimately elected president.

  "We know that the action encouraged by the Chavez government 
provoked this crisis," said Ari Fleischer, the White House 
spokesman. The Chavez government, he added, suppressed a 
peaceful demonstration and fired on unarmed protesters.

  However, Latin American leaders at a summit meeting in Costa 
Rica criticized Mr. Chavez's ouster as an "interruption of the 
constitutional order."

  A former army paratrooper who won office in 1998, Mr. Chavez 
presided over a stormy era when he seized control of the 
legislature, confronted the old-line political elite and steered 
the country into an alliance with Cuba.

  Mr. Carmona, the president of Fedeca-iras, a business 
association, said early today that Mr. Chavez had "presented his 
resignation." He spoke flanked by military officers who had 
rebelled against Mr. Chavez on Thursday night, the third day of 
a general strike called by his opponents.

  On the streets of this sprawling capital, opponents of the 
government took to the streets in the early morning hours, 
honking horns and waving the gold, blue and red of the 
Venezuelan flag. El Universal, a leading newspaper here, hailed 
the end with these words, "It's over!"

  The interim government quickly moved to undo Mr. Chavez's 
policies, dissolving the National Assembly controlled by his 
supporters, firing members of the Supreme Court and changing the 
country's official name back to the Republic of Venezuela. Mr. 
Chavez had renamed the country the Bolivarian Republic of 
Venezuela.

  In addition, the interim government repealed 49 economic laws 
passed by the Chavez-controlled National Assembly last year, 
legislation that business leaders feared would damage the 
economy.

  While pledging to hold presidential elections within 365 days, 
officials said that Mr. Carmona, who had been a leader in the 
protest movement against Mr. Chavez, will not be able to run.

  Mr. Carmona named new ministers, including two active-duty 
military officers who rebelled against Mr. Chavez on Thursday 
night. He also named retired Brig. Gen. Guaicaipuro Lameda to 
head Petr?s de Venezuela, the huge state-owned oil company, 
which exports most of its oil to the United States.

  Mr. Chavez had fired Mr. Lameda in February and appointed a 
left-leaning ally in his place along with five board members 
close to his government, enraging thousands of office workers at 
the company.

  Mr. Carmona said that operations would return to normal at the 
oil company. It had been crippled when office and production 
workers began staging work slowdowns last week in protest.

  "Venezuelan society has reached a consensus to find a way 
forward, a way that necessitated a transitional government that 
guarantees the reestablishment of democracy," Mr. Carmona told 
reporters

  Mr. Carmona said that the transitional government was being 
formed with "the consensus of civil society and also from the 
military."

  Cuba called the change-over a coup and urged other countries to 
distance themselves from the new government. President Fidel 
Castro and Mr. Chavez had formed a close friendship.

  The interim government today ended Mr. Chavez's policy of 
offering oil to Cuba under terms favorable to Havana.

  Mr. Chavez's daughter, Mar?Gabriela, speaking in an interview 
on state television in Cuba, said that her father had not 
resigned. In a phone conversation Friday morning, just before he 
fell from power, he told her, "I am a jailed president," she 
said.

  The attorney general, Isa? Rodr?ez, also said Mr. Chavez had 
not resigned, but was forced out by military officers.

  President Vicente Fox of Mexico took a strong stand, saying his 
country would not recognize Venezuela's new government until 
elections were held. Diplomatic relations between the two 
countries, however, would continue.

  American officials praised the Venezuelan military and the 
police for defying Mr. Chavez, as well as television stations 
and other media outlets that continued to function despite 
government orders to shut down.

  "We wish to express our solidarity with the Venezuelan people 
and look forward to working with all democratic forces in 
Venezuela to ensure the full exercise of democratic rights," 
said Philip T. Reeker, a State Department spokesman.

  For now, the government focused on clearing up the events 
leading to the violence of Thursday afternoon, remembering the 
fallen and searching for those who were responsible. Mr. 
Chavez's interior minister, Ram?odr?ez Chac? was taken 
into custody, and the police were looking for a strong Chavez 
supporter, Freddy Bernal, the mayor of a district of Caracas.

  Security forces, meanwhile, searched the homes of members of the 
Bolivarian Circles, neighborhood groups that were formed by Mr. 
Chavez's government and that were accused by the interim 
government of responsibility in the shootings.

  Television broadcasts on Thursday showed several men in 
plainclothes firing semiautomatic handguns from a bridge over a 
busy street in downtown Caracas. Among the crowd of assailants 
were people in red berets and T-shirts bearing the name of Mr. 
Chavez's movement.

  Mr. Carmona said that "justice must be done" for the families of 
those killed. He promised that they would receive government 
benefits.

  Among Mr. Carmona's most pressing tasks now will be to assuage 
concerns in other countries about how Mr. Chavez's reign ended 
and deal with the polarization between rich and poor that 
divides this country, analysts familiar with Venezuela said.

  "The goal for his successors is to effectively tackle the 
pressing socio-economic issues that brought Chavez to power with 
so much popular support," said Russell Crandall, a Latin America 
specialist at Davidson College in North Carolina. "Chavez was 
right about the problems he saw in Venezuela. He was wrong about 
the solutions and the Venezuelan people made that very clear."



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