Venezuelans Campaign on Term Limits Amid Rising Tension

By Simon Romero - CARACAS, Venezuela — In the final days before a referendum that will determine whether President Hugo Chávez can run for re-election indefinitely, campaigning has taken on a noticeable, and sometimes ugly, edge. Antigovernment protests have intensified in some cities, despite government pressure, and pro-Chávez vigilantes have attacked institutions like the Caracas mayor’s office and the Vatican’s diplomatic mission. This is Mr. Chávez’s second try in less than two years at extending his stay in office, which he says is necessary to continue the socialist-inspired revolution that he began here a decade ago. The narrow rejection of his attempt in late 2007 — part of a broader constitutional overhaul — was an embarrassing blow for a leader used to adulation. The referendum next Sunday also offers an opening for Venezuela’s fractious opposition to look beyond 2013, when Mr. Chávez’s current six-year term expires. The president’s followers control every political institution of importance at the federal level, including the Supreme Court and National Assembly. “For the opposition, the referendum is quite important because they continue to lack a leader capable of challenging Chávez for the presidency,” said Gregory Wilpert, a Venezuela specialist who teaches political science at Brooklyn College. “Defeating it is thus their best and perhaps only chance to beat Chávez in the foreseeable future.”Just two months ago, Mr. Chávez’s allies lost ground in regional elections, with areas like Maracaibo, the second-largest city, and impoverished districts of Caracas going to the opposition. But the momentum from those victories has given way to a tight race over the 54-year-old president’s bid to stay in office for years longer, or even decades, as he has hinted. Although many voters complain of problems like a surge in violent crime and rising inflation, Mr. Chávez has kept opponents on the defensive, displaying the political skills that have allowed him to consolidate power. “Chávez is surrounded by corrupt idiots, but he keeps his focus on helping the poor,” said Omaira de Catacoli, 66, a cook who lives in Catia, a patchwork of slums in western Caracas. “Without Chávez, we would be left to the political thieves on every side. With Chávez, we have at least a little hope.” Venezuela’s economy is sharply slowing, injecting urgency into the campaigning on both sides. But in a move that seems to have mollified some opposition mayors and governors, Mr. Chávez altered the referendum to let voters also decide on lifting term limits for other elected officials. Here in the capital, a sense of low-intensity chaos has prevailed as the vote looms. Pro-Chávez partisans on motorcycles have carried out attacks with seeming impunity in recent days, lobbing tear gas canisters not only at the home of a television executive who has criticized the government, but at the papal diplomatic mission, which had granted asylum to a student leader who opposes Mr. Chávez. Other attacks have been aimed at municipal buildings controlled by the opposition and private media critical of the government. Over the weekend, the campaigning intensified. Thousands marched against Mr. Chávez’s proposal to stay in power on Saturday through the main thoroughfares of Caracas, while Mr. Chávez led caravans in support of it in Caracas and Maracaibo. Valentín Santana, the leader of a pro-Chávez group called La Piedrita, which has claimed responsibility for most of the tear gas attacks, promised “war,” according to published remarks, if Mr. Chávez lost. On Saturday, Mr. Chávez ordered security forces to detain Mr. Santana. Students have emerged again to fill the void of articulate leadership within the opposition. However, both the student movement and Mr. Chávez’s tactics for combating it have evolved since the president’s last attempt to retain power in 2007. Once-embattled student leaders like Yon Goicoechea, who accepted a $500,000 prize in 2008 from the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, have lost support among some voters who rely on Mr. Chávez’s social welfare programs even if they distrust his plan to stay in office. “Between Chávez and the students receiving the gringo dollars, I’ll take Chávez,” said María Encarnación Contreras, 58, a homemaker who lives in Catia. Meanwhile, Mr. Chávez’s policies for dealing with the students are growing more repressive, with officials claiming some student protests turned violent or were about to do so. In recent days, the secret intelligence police have begun searching the homes of student leaders. State media are also exerting pressure on the students, in at least one case singling out leaders of Jewish origin for scrutiny. “There are two students, one is Diego Aaron Scharifker, and the other David Smolansky Urosa,” Mario Silva, an ally of Mr. Chávez, said last month in a broadcast of his show, “La Hojilla,” or The Razorblade. “Scharifker and Smolansky are last names of Hebrew origin, Jewish last names; you see the problems right now.” He continued that there were sectors of power among Venezuelan Jews “that are very disgusted with the position of the president of the republic in his defense of the sovereignty of Palestine.” The verbal attack and other statements on state media have opened the government up to accusations of fostering a climate of intolerance marked by the desecration of a Sephardic synagogue here by gunmen last week. The attorney general’s office said Sunday that 11 people had been detained in connection with the attack, including five members of the Metropolitan Police force and a detective with the secret intelligence police. By focusing on the Gaza war and other international issues rather than domestic problems like violent crime, Mr. Chávez’s campaign is hoping to tilt to its advantage a race that revolves yet again around the personality of the president. On billboards, he is seen celebrating the 10th year of his revolution. His voice bellows folk songs in subway stations. He surprises broadcasters on state television by phoning in to discuss campaign minutiae. He even inaugurated a newspaper column, called “Chávez’s Lines.” “Like the horses that come from behind, Venezuela passed from being a dark and minimized country subordinated to the Yankee empire, to hold a lighting place of vanguard in the fights of the peoples of the world for its freedom,” said a recent column, translated into English by the state news agency. In the end, it is the voters in slums like those of Petare, another area of Caracas, who will decide. These areas, once pro-Chávez bastions, came into play for the opposition in the regional elections last November. But the opinion on Petare’s streets on a recent afternoon suggested a race that was hard to predict. “The population is tired of so many elections,” said Nicolás Rudas, 42, who runs a gym in the José Félix Ribas district of Petare. “Two terms and then you go, that’s how it should be.” But nearby, Frank Tamayo, 33, a mechanic, said he was ready to give Mr. Chávez a chance to stay in power. “This is what democracy means,” Mr. Tamayo said. “The power of the majority.”