Chavez Opposition Leaders Now in Exile
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela - As leaders of Venezuela's opposition, their boastful promises to oust Hugo Chavez made them darlings of the local news media and heroes to millions fed up with the leftist president.
Today they are exiles, branded enemies by the state, reading news of a possible recall vote on Chavez on their home computers. They're either missed or reviled by their one-time followers. And they hope, someday, to come home.
They include Pedro Carmona, a former national business leader who swore himself in as president during a brief 2002 coup; labor boss Carlos Ortega; and business leader Carlos Fernandez, who led a devastating two-month strike that failed to oust Chavez this year.
Others, including dissident military officers, have been granted asylum in countries across the continent.
"I follow everything in Venezuela step by step, but I don't interfere," Carmona said by phone from Bogota, Colombia, where he was granted asylum last year.
"I dedicate a good part of my time to keeping up with the news, especially through the Internet, and responding to messages," Carmona said.
The president's foes accuse Chavez of being power-hungry, fueling class hatred and alienating investors with "revolutionary" rhetoric. The president says an "oligarchy" bent on ousting him, a democratically elected leader, has sabotaged his efforts to fight for the poor.
As the head of Venezuela's largest labor confederation, the burly Ortega played a key role in leading the work stoppage that cost Venezuela's economy more than $7 billion before it fizzled in February.
Every night, millions watched on TV as Ortega predicted Chavez's imminent downfall and announced the next day's protests.
But thousands of businesses closed permanently during the strike and hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs. Chavez seized the chance to consolidate his hold on the strategic government-owned oil monopoly.
Ortega has tried to stay involved in Venezuelan politics, granting some interviews to local media and applauding a petition for a possible recall vote on Chavez's presidential term, which ends in 2007.
But he also has plenty of free time since Costa Rica granted him asylum this year. Rather than stage daily news conferences, he reads about them.
"I spend most of my time ... reading the news and maintaining contact with those involved in the struggle in Venezuela," Ortega told The Associated Press by telephone.
Since Ortega fled treason and rebellion charges, Chavez has tried to weaken his Venezuelan Workers Confederation, the country's largest labor group, by negotiating collective bargaining contracts with an upstart union.
Carmona and Fernandez also face treason charges, which carry up to 30-year prison terms. Though Chavez granted safe conduct to each dissident, the criminal charges remain pending.
"This is a radical change I wasn't prepared for. It's very difficult," said Fernandez, who directed the Fedecamaras business chamber, Venezuela's largest, during the strike.
Fernandez is currently in Miami mulling the possibility of requesting political asylum in the United States. "This is a country I'm not familiar with, a country where it's very tough to start a new life," he said.
Chavez and his allies argue that the opposition's former protagonists got off easily.
"They are fugitives. They have criminal cases open against them in Venezuela. Instead of facing justice, they fled," said Willian Lara, a ruling party lawmaker.
Some opposition sympathizers miss their former leaders while others accuse them of dashing the hopes of millions and plunging this poverty-stricken South American nation deeper into crisis.
Nathaly Alvarez, an unemployed mother of four, is glad Carmona and his counterparts left the daunting task of removing Chavez to somebody else.
"They couldn't do it. ... They failed and their actions had terrible consequences for us," Alvarez said.
Alvarez said hers is among 2.7 million signatures on a petition the opposition delivered requesting a referendum on Chavez's rule.
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