Venezuela's opposition weakened by infighting

Venezuela's usually fractious opposition felt the flush of a rare election victory against left-wing President Hugo Chavez late last year, but it has yet to capitalize on a decline in his popularity. A loose coalition of anti-government students and traditional political parties was jubilant in December after voters rejected referendum proposals that would have accelerated Chavez's socialist revolution and allowed him to stand for reelection indefinitely. But opposition leaders have so far failed to build on that vote, which was Chavez's first defeat since he won power in 1998, despite a string of government missteps and unpopular policy decisions. At the weekend, a march called to protest the banning of leading opposition candidates from regional elections in November mustered only a few hundred activists, a shadow of the student protests that gripped Venezuela last year. Chavez lost the referendum partly because even his own supporters were unnerved by proposals like sweeping property reforms, and they were fed up with the government's failure to deal with high crime, corruption and food shortages. Long loved by his poor power base for lavishing Venezuela's considerable oil wealth on social programs, Chavez's support dropped to about 50 percent this year from close to 70 percent after he won a second term in 2006.