- CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters)
-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called United States President George
Bush an "asshole" on Sunday for meddling, and vowed never to
quit office like his Haitian counterpart as troops battled with opposition
protesters demanding a recall referendum against him.
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- Chavez, who often says the US is backing opposition efforts
to topple his leftist government, accused Bush of heeding advice from "imperialist"
aides to support a brief 2002 coup against him.
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- "He was an asshole to believe them," Chavez
roared at a huge rally of supporters in Caracas.
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- The Venezuelan leader's comments came as fresh violence
broke out on the streets of the capital, where National Guard troops clashed
with opposition protesters pressing for a vote to end his five-year rule.
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- Military helicopters roared in low runs overhead as soldiers
fired tear gas and plastic bullets to repel several hundred opposition
demonstrators who threw stones and set up burning barricades in eastern
Caracas late into the night.
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- Troops and opposition activists also skirmished in other
cities.
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- "We call on the country to continue with peaceful
resistence," opposition leader Enrique Mendoza said. "This fight
will last as long as necessary."
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- A soldier and a cameraman were shot and injured during
the clashes and an opposition protester was wounded in the head by gunmen
firing from motorbikes, witnesses and officials said.
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- Electoral authorities, citing the need to preserve peace
in the country, said they were postponing until Monday the preliminary
results of their verification of the opposition's petition for a recall
vote.
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- One demonstrator carried a banner reading: "Bye
bye Aristide, Chavez you're next," referring to Haiti's leader Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, who fled into exile on Sunday in the face of an armed rebellion.
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- But the firebrand populist vowed to defeat any attempt
to unseat him and threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States
from the world's No 5 crude oil exporter should Washington try an invasion
or trade sanctions.
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- "Venezuela is not Haiti and Chavez is not Aristide,"
he said.
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- Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters marched earlier
on Sunday to protest what they condemned as US meddling in Venezuelan affairs.
The US State Department routinely dismisses the president's accusations.
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- The referendum campaign is the latest political fight
for Chavez, who survived the short-lived 2002 coup and a strike last year
by opponents who fear his self-styled "revolution" is slowly
turning Venezuela into a Cuban-style communist state.
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- Since his first election in 1998, the president has vowed
to improve the lives of the impoverished who see little of the country's
oil wealth. But his opponents say he has failed and has instead pushed
the country into economic ruin.
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- Political tensions have flared again recently as setbacks
delayed a ruling by the National Electoral Council on whether to allow
the recall referendum to go forward. Two protesters were shot and killed
on Friday during an opposition march.
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- The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Carter
Center, which are observing the referendum process, appealed for calm on
Sunday ahead of the council decision.
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- Electoral authorities said they would make a preliminary
ruling Monday on whether the opposition collected the minimum 2,4 million
valid signatures required for a vote. The opposition says it handed over
3,4 million signatures.
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- Opposition leaders accuse pro-government officials in
the electoral council of trying to block the poll by disqualifying many
valid signatures. Chavez says his opponents' petition is riddled with forgeries.
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