Spain's El Pais asks Manuel Rosales: "What did you do to get President Hugo Chavez so mad with you?

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: The Spanish daily EL PAIS says in its international editions today that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias is very much aware that he is running out of time!

Much of the tension that exists in Venezuela ahead of municipal and regional elections on November 23 is in (western) Zulia ... the oil-rich State that is the country's main exporter of crude oil. It is also where opposition candidates are broad favorites to win both the Dtate governorship and the mayoralty of the State capital, Maracaibo ... and Chavez' previous presidential challenger, Manuel Rosales, who has been Zulia State governor for the last eight years is not slated to become Maracaibo Mayor ... very much to Chavez' intense fury.

In an interview for El Pais, Rosales was asked "What did you do to get President Hugo Chavez so mad with you? Why does he want to put you in prison?

"Zulia, both strategically and politically, is the most important state in Venezuela ... it has the largest electoral base ... and they (Chavez' United Socialist Party of Venezuela-PSUV) want to win there taking advantage of the fact that I am stepping down from the governorship. They have lately discovered that Pablo Perez (the opposition candidate to replace Rosalez) has between 16 and 20 points advantage in all the surveys. The other thing is that I also remain a candidate for mayor of Maracaibo ... which is electorally more important municipality than the 17 states of Venezuela, and we have between 42 and 45 points advantage there too. He (Chavez) sure got angry when we denounced their eagerness to put the Sierra del Perija (the northernmost branch of the Andes, marking the Venezuelan border with Colombia) at the service of the Colombian guerrillas and, course, we've been unwavering in our criticism the his personal militaristic projects taking place behind a facade of democracy."

EL PAIS: But the Comptroller General, Clodosbaldo Russian, said that you could be politically disqualified for 15 years for corruption...

"That gentleman is perverse, what can be worse in a power structure of power ... he condemns me without even giving me a hearing ... and this is going to happen to any person who ventures to stand as a presidential candidate in Venezuela."

EL PAIS: Is it true that you bought 14 properties while you held the governorship of Zulia?

"First they said it was 11, then 14, then to 22. They couldn't even agree on how many. In any case, what little I have is legitimate ... I earned it all through my own efforts because I'm not a parasite in the government. It is well documented what I bought some land in 1975 (70 hectares), and after all this time I now have 318 hectares, all of which was achieved from my business, which is buying and selling livestock."

El Pais recites a string of other allegations brought by the Chavez government which he easily refutes, including supposedly illegal land purchases, payments to a political party from State funds, bugged telephone conversations the government claims show his complicity in plans to assassinate President Chavez...

"They are all a fabrication ... a group of Cubans has been working with the DISIP security police listening in on all telephone conversations and of course you can assemble recorded phrases, sentences to build and change telephone conversations.

"Venezuela after the regional elections is going to be a very different place and we will begin a path towards peace and reconstruction. It is the beginning of the end for Chavez ... he will not be removed by assassinations or coups d'etat ... his time is running out and he knows it very well ... there are some places where he has already openly lost, such as in Zulia. I don't want to say more!"

"We are taking actions all over the place, filing complaints, files and papers for the record ... but we know that they (the Chavez government) are simply throwing them in the trash. I don't think that people abroad have a clue about how serious things have become in Venezuela, serious not only for us but for the whole region."

Rosales was mayor of Maracaibo between 1996 and 2000 and his new efforts are supported by all opposition parties while all analysts see him as the main political opponent of President Hugo Chavez for the presidency. He was the opposition candidate for the presidency in 2006 but was defeated by Chavez with 62.9% against his 36.8%, but it's clear that he has emerged as apolitical leader capable of bringing together many millions of Venezuelans.

In recent weeks, the Chavez government has called him corrupt and a thief and Chavez, himself, has said he will make every effort to put Rosales behind bars. The National Assembly/Congress has opened an investigation against him and the Comptroller General wants to disqualify him from public office for up to 15 years.

In a speech in late October, President Chavez said his government could prepare a "military plan of action" in case there is an opposition victory in Maracaibo and Zulia ... to prevent them from becoming "the heart of the conspiracy" against him.

VHeadline Venzuela News
vheadline@gmail.com

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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.

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