Venezuelan President Defies Calls for General Election

Angered by Hugo Chavez's unwavering resolve to hang onto Venezuela's presidency, the opposition has announced an escalation of street protests in a quest to topple him as a general strike entered its third week today.

Mr Chavez, who has twice won elections but now stands accused of failing his leadership and running the economy into the ground, last night shrugged off a one-million-strong march against him on Saturday and Washington's call for early elections.

His leftist government dispatched thousands of "Chavistas" - fervent believers in his "social revolution" - for a horn-honking parade of cars and trucks that clogged the capital late last night.

"We're here supporting the only president who has ever cared about Venezuela!" cried Nora Mendoza, 48, as the balloon-festooned motorcade wound through Caracas.

After the convoy, small groups of Chavez supporters and government opponents clashed briefly in downtown Caracas, but police swiftly dispersed them with tear gas. There were no reports of injuries.

Mr Chavez, in a regular weekend broadcast address, skewered his foes and not once mentioned the giant rally late Saturday - the opposition's biggest show of strength since the strike began on December 2.

He also rebuffed US calls to move up elections, citing constitutional restrictions and the fact that he was democratically elected to serve until 2007.

"Venezuela cannot permit any country's attempt to influence domestic affairs," Mr Chavez said, clutching a miniature copy of Venezuela's constitution. "No country can allow that. Venezuela is a sovereign nation and has its constitution and its laws."

The strike has led to gasoline shortages, panic buying and shuttered shops but Mr Chavez seemed unfazed in his televised appearances. The opposition's "problem isn't Chavez," he said. "Their problem is that there is a people decided on being free and on installing a just system in Venezuela."

His attitude infuriated foes. "The only thing we ask of you is to call elections now," strike leader Carlos Ortega said in televised comments directed at Mr Chavez. "But you are not a democrat. You do not want elections. What you want is confrontation and violence."

Mr Ortega, the president of Venezuela's largest trade union confederation, called for a new protest strategy today. He summoned strikers to block streets and rally around closed shopping centers, a move that risked confrontation with pro-Chavez groups or security forces.

Anger over Mr Chavez's leadership has been building since before an April coup attempt knocked the president from power for two days.

Mr Chavez's critics blame the president's left-leaning policies for an unraveling economy that shrank 6.4% in the first nine months of this year. The jobless rate now hovers at 17% and inflation is expected to reach double digits for the year.

But the president has said his adversaries are to blame for the recession, which he calls an "economic coup." And the government has appeared intent on breaking the strike that Mr Chavez insists does not exist.

Yesterday, soldiers toting rifles boarded a striking oil tanker and brought in a new crew. The tanker Pilin Leon, carrying 9.6 million gallons of gasoline, has been idle for almost two weeks on western Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo - and has become an emblem of the strike that has paralysed the oil industry, the world's fifth-largest supplier.

Last week, soldiers arrested the captain of the Pilin Leon but a judge ordered him released, ruling he had committed no crime, and the crew refused to work under a new government-imposed skipper.

Mr Chavez has also fought back by firing four dissident executives at the state oil monopoly and commandeering gasoline distribution trucks.

And some Venezuelans were tiring of the strike. In a country where baseball is the national craze, fans in the central city of Maracay, angry that league play has been closed down by the strike, banged pots and pans outside their stadium in protest.

"For the fans, Christmas isn't Christmas if it isn't accompanied by baseball," said sports editor Alfonso Saenz at the Maracay newspaper El Aragueno.