CARACAS - President Hugo Chávez is threatening to imprison a popular opposition leader, roll tanks into the streets, and use force to defend the results of Sunday's state and local elections.
The vote is an important test of Chávez's support a year after Venezuelans rejected his attempt to abolish term limits, and critics say he is resorting to browbeating and smears for fear his candidates will lose.
"He has unleashed a wave of intimidation," Manuel Rosales, the opposition governor of Zulia state, said.
Rosales, who is in a close race with a Chávez candidate for mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city, said the socialist leader "wants to wipe out and criminalize Venezuela's opposition, or those who don't think like he does, to attempt a constitutional reform allowing him to remain in power."
During a fiery speech to supporters yesterday, Chávez threatened to shut down any television stations that broadcast early election results and said he has ordered secret police "to keep a close eye on" Rosales.
"That criminal must go to prison," Chávez thundered, noting that Rosales has been repeatedly accused of graft. "There's evidence. They are not unfounded attacks."
Chávez also has threatened to cut off national funds and send tanks into the streets of any states where opposition leaders foment election protests, and he ordered soldiers to temporarily seize an airport in a dispute with the opposition governor of Sucre state. Chávez supporters cheered the seizure - and then looted the offices of an opposition mayor the next day.
"This is an armed revolution and the people are willing to defend the revolutionary process," the socialist leader warned last week as he predicted a violent opposition response to his allies' victories.
Chávez allies deny any government-organized effort to intimidate opponents.
But rival politicians and other critics blame the president for the bullying by pro-Chávez thugs, campaign-season criminal investigations, and bureaucratic nightmares such as hours-long interrogations by immigration officers at airports.
Authorities say the immigration procedures are routine, but Venezuelan sociology professor Heinz Sontag, who belongs to the opposition 2-D Movement, blames Chávez for the annulment of his valid passport when he returned from a trip last month. "I think he perceives growing discontent, and he is reacting with rage," Sontag said.
Chávez has been particularly critical of Rosales, his leading opponent in the 2006 presidential race. He traveled to Zulia last month and called for Rosales to be imprisoned, accusing the governor of corruption and even of plotting his assassination. Within days, Venezuela's top anti-corruption official, attorney general, and a committee of pro-Chávez lawmakers opened probes.
