Backed by state resources, Chávez drives home his message

Makes final push to end term limits

Antonio Ledezma

CARACAS - Hugo Chávez appears to be everywhere, in his trademark button-down red shirt or army fatigues, singing songs of love to adoring throngs or waving from a campaign truck winding through helter-skelter slums. It is campaign season in Venezuela, yet again.

In the outback, he hugged schoolchildren and reminisced about lessons learned from his beloved grandmother. In the capital, he faced crowds to excoriate his opponents as traitors teaming up with American agents to destroy Venezuela.

With Chávez promoting a referendum today that could extend his presidency far into the 21st century, the message drummed into Venezuelans is simple: Vote for me, or risk calamity.

Chávez has wielded every apparatus of government, from a formidable state press to oil revenues controlled by his office to the collaboration of all but a dozen members of congress. The polls show that has given him a slim lead over those who oppose his proposal to scrap term limits. Today's vote will be his second try in 14 months to lengthen his presidency.

"Venezuelans, you know that I live for you," Chávez, 54, told viewers on one of five state television stations last week. "Do not fail me, and I will not fail you."

In an interview Thursday on Telesur, a state-owned station that rarely challenges him, Chávez laid out the dangers facing Venezuelans and his importance to what he calls a revolution.

He said the opposition was "injecting poison" into the veins of the young, spreading lies about his governing style and plotting against him. Rocket launchers and explosives had been seized, he announced, though he assured that the threat had been neutralized and Venezuelans should remain calm.

Chávez then described how, in talks with mentor and friend Fidel Castro of Cuba, he had come to the realization of just how vital he is to the revolution's success.

"Fidel put it very simply, 'I know how this revolution can be reversed,' " Chávez recounted. "I said, how? 'Well, if something happens to you.' We discussed it on various occasions." Chávez explained that if he is eliminated then his leftist movement will be irreparably divided.

Repeated over and over, the message has resonated with Venezuelans. Mesmerized by Chávez's charisma, they have looked beyond runaway crime and high inflation and believe "El Comandante" - and only him - will take Venezuela to the promised land.

"God sent this man for the good of the country and, not just Venezuela, but for the world," said Fanny Medina, taking a moment from hearing his long speech Thursday night in downtown Caracas. "He is so good, he loves the people so much, that we cannot let him leave."

That kind of adulation prompted the president to hastily declare a national holiday on the anniversary of his 10th year in power. Businesses shuttered under threat of fine.

With the presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and other small countries in attendance, Chávez announced that Latin America had been "liberated from the imperialist yoke," and that the revolution had delivered a powerful blow those who had exploited the poor for years.

The truth about the past is less romantic - Venezuela was a stable, if flawed democracy, corrupt as many petro-states are but without the level of state-sponsored disappearances and assassinations common in Latin American dictatorships.

As recently as the late 1970s, Venezuela was considered a model in the region - attracting immigrants drawn by the promise of a better life.

What Chávez did do was squarely put Venezuela's poor in the public's consciousness. With oil prices rising throughout much of his presidency, Chávez has cut poverty in half through generous spending on a slew of "missions" that offer discounted food, healthcare, literacy programs, and other assistance.

Frequently accusing a "rancid oligarchy" of sacking the country's wealth, Chávez gave voice to poor Venezuelans and, critics say, uncorked seething resentments that have made Venezuela a powder keg of polarization.

In pleading for support, Chávez has taken to the airwaves to explain that he would like nothing more than to settle down in Venezuela's vast savannah.

But the people are clamoring for him to remain in office, he says, and he reluctantly abides by their wishes.

"I am, quite simply, subordinate to what the people want," Chávez told a crowd recently. "And that is not cheap rhetoric."

In marshaling state resources for his cause and curtailing the opposition’s campaigns, Chávez is making sure he has the upper hand going into election day.

Vehicles from the state oil company are used in the campaign, and many of the central government's more than 2 million workers have been pressured to attend pro-Chávez rallies.