[progchat_action] Venezuela grants amnesty to coup plotters
 
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 10:11:27 -0600 (CST)

(Granting amnesty to coup plotters is hardly the act of an aspiring Stalin
or Saddam. It certainly is not something that would be expected from most US
allies. It is inconceivable that such a thing would happen in such places
s  - Egypt, Columbia, Pakistan, etc etc. SR)

Venezuela's Chavez grants amnesty in coup

Reuters
Tue Jan 1, 2008

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday he will pardon
opponents accused of participating in a coup that ousted him briefly five
years ago, a conciliatory move after a stinging electoral defeat this month.

Chavez said he would publish the law in a day or so to show the government
did not persecute its political rivals.

"We want the path of peace. We want heated ideological and political debate
but in peace," he said on state television.

It was not immediately clear how may people would benefit from the amnesty,
which also wipes the legal slate for people involved in a shutdown of the
South American nation's vital oil industry and smaller attacks on the
government.

The left-wing Chavez has long faced fierce opposition from middle-class and
wealthy sectors of society who have been sidelined by his policies, which
are focused on the poor who make up the bulk of his supporters.

In 2002, a group of military officers and businessmen orchestrated a coup to
force Chavez from power but he was reinstated days later after massive
street marches in his favor.

Chavez opponents say people jailed for crimes related to the coup are
political prisoners and accuse his government of persecuting those who
signed a document supporting the short-live defacto rulers.

Chavez spent much of 2007 working on a political reform that would have
allowed him to run for re-election indefinitely and given him sweeping
powers to build a socialist state.

The plan was rejected in a referendum earlier this month. The opposition has
since called for reconciliation.

The outspoken U.S.-critic is a former para-trooper who himself tried to take
office through a failed coup in 1992. He was imprisoned and later pardoned
and was elected president in 1999.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-31191820080101

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