Venezuela opposition pleas to be heard under Chavez

CARACAS (Reuters) - After 10 years failing to slow President Hugo Chavez's nationalizations, land handouts and growing power, Venezuela's opposition is seeking new ways to counteract what they see as the destruction of their country.

Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, a political veteran who has now emerged as the opposition's most visible face, stopped eating for six days last week in a plea for attention after the Chavez government drastically reduced the power of his office.

The hunger strike yielded Ledezma an audience with the head of the Organization of American States, but did little to draw the spotlight off Chavez as he fulminated against a June 28 coup in Honduras that ousted his ally, President Manuel Zelaya, and drew international condemnation.

Still popular, Chavez swept to office in 1999 on public anger at the corrupt political parties that had ruled for decades. The opposition, mainly drawn from the same leadership, has never regained momentum.

Chavez has consolidated his hold on power in one of the main sources of U.S. oil supplies and used his oil wealth to build an anti-American coalition of Latin American nations.

Opposition parties made gains in elections in November, when voters punished Chavez allies for poor records in fighting crime and corruption. But plagued by infighting, they failed to capitalize, and the OPEC nation's president has hit back hard.

Political scientist Jose Vicente Carrasquero says Chavez's opponents need to start forging a coherent political platform.

"The opposition has not been able to offer an alternative program. People say, 'OK, we're tired of Chavez but what do you offer me?' There is a kind of vacuum," he said.

Infuriated by losses not only in the capital, but also in Caracas suburbs, the oil heartland of Zulia, and Tachira, a state bordering Colombia, the former paratrooper Chavez has done his best to weaken his opponents.

Local authorities in Tachira say the Chavez government cut their power by taking away weapons from the police force, even though armed groups spill over from Colombia. The central government also seized control of income sources like airports and launched corruption trials. In Caracas, Ledezma lost much of his budget and control of police, hospitals and schools.

"We are talking about a government that may not commit instant electoral fraud but commits post-electoral fraud," said Ledezma, a hardline Chavez opponent who calls for protests like the hunger strike against the man he calls a "neo-dictator."

Ledezma was barred from Caracas' city hall and legislators allowed Chavez to appoint an ally to oversee most of the city in an assault that the mayor compares to the Honduras coup, which prompted the OAS to expel the Central American state.

"If the OAS is good for Zelaya, it should be good for Ledezma," said the mayor, who now works from a cramped high rise office. Ledezma, joined by the governors of Tachira and Zulia, will go to Washington on July 21 to make his case that Chavez is violating the OAS's democratic charter.

OWN WORST ENEMY?

Despite Chavez's fierceness, his divided opponents often seem their own worst enemies, with no clear political program to convince voters they are a viable alternative to Venezuela's strongest leader in a generation.

The opposition has consistently underperformed during Chavez's decade in office, losing credibility over a brief coup, a shutdown of the vital oil industry and a failed attempt to oust the president via a midterm referendum.

They were further sidelined after boycotting legislative elections in 2005, effectively handing Congress to the government and giving Chavez a free rein to write laws.

In recent months, Chavez's popularity slipped from over 60 percent to about 50 percent as he radicalized rhetoric against the rich and sought to shut private media. But no opposition leader has ratings much over 10 percent.

The opposition is scrambling to respond to his offensive, with proposals that range from seeking more contact with voters and renewed attempts to work together to Ledezma's direct action.

"There has to be a break with the past, we can't keep thinking we are going to get different results doing the same things," said Leopoldo Lopez, former mayor of a wealthy Caracas district who is building a network of grassroots social leaders.

Lopez, one of several opposition leaders likely to jostle to be the candidate in a 2012 presidential vote, says the gains in November were more than offset by dozens of city councils the opposition lost to Chavez by fielding multiple candidates.

The 38-year-old Lopez wants the opposition parties to hold primaries before future elections, something opposed by many of the older generation of leaders.

"Sadly the opposition parties in Venezuela do not enjoy internal democracy," said the fresh-faced politician, who was excluded from running for Caracas mayor last year by a government corruption charge.

Tachira Governor Cesar Perez, from COPEI, one of two parties that ran Venezuela for 40 years before Chavez won in 1999 promising to end corruption and take care of the poor, says the weakened parties have relied too heavily on the media to get their message out.

The government now threatens to close their main outlet, TV station Globovision, along with more than 200 radio stations.

"The political leadership needs to be in the communities more, talking with the people. That's how I won here," said Perez, whom Chavez calls a fascist and accuses of working with paramilitary fighters from Colombia.

(Additional reporting by Charlie Devereux in Tachira; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)