NEWSWEEK: If the High Court rules that a referendum on your administration should be held in February, would you abide by that decision? Of course, fully.
What do you think the outcome would be?
I think we’d win that referendum. Now, the question they want to ask in this referendum, in my view, is a constitutional fraud. According to the Constitution, the consultative referendum is not binding. However, the opposition has told the country that it is going to be binding. So, if they hold the referendum, and if I lose, it is clear that I’m not going to resign.
Even if a majority of people believe that you should resign voluntarily, you will not resign?
If it is voluntary, I’m not forced to resign. You cannot resign involuntarily. According to the Constitution, halfway into the term of any elected official, the people who elected that official can revoke the mandate of that official [through] a revocatory referendum. In this case, it could be done on Aug. 19 of this year.
The newspaper association, the Bloque de Prensa, has issued a statement accusing you of preparing to take over radio and TV stations. Are you?
I think we should put the question the other way around. Most of the members of the Bloque de Prensa are a part of these [opposition] coup plotters, especially the TV networks and the radio stations. I don’t know if you are aware of that.
But don’t tyrants always use that excuse–the media are plotting against me?
Well, I think in my case you must assess the situation. What do you think would happen in the United States if a group of military officers decided to rebel against Mr. Bush? And what if a TV network sent reporters to ask those military officers what they wanted to say to the world? And what would happen if President Bush was taken prisoner, and the TV networks said, “No, no, Mr. Bush just resigned”? Then, the U.S. people took to the streets to demand the return of Mr. Bush, but the networks didn’t broadcast what was happening on the streets. All that happened in Venezuela [last spring]. Also, we have just discovered the use of psychological, subliminal [opposition] propaganda on TV. They were showing a movie, for instance, a child-ren’s movie named “Casper, the Ghost”…
“Casper the Friendly Ghost”?
Yes, that’s right. So you are watching the movie, and in the middle, there are figures… It’s very difficult to describe because it happens very quickly. If you slow the movie down, you see they’ve included images against the government in these movies.
Do you have proof of this?
I’ll show you everything. We have started an investigation.
Have you made some mistakes?
Of course, many. The most serious was that, at the beginning, the government did not have a communication strategy to counter the attacks coming from the opposition. The second mistake was that I was sometimes too confrontational in my rhetoric. Another mistake has been that I didn’t devote enough time to talking with the private sector–for instance, the banks, the hierarchy of the church. I devoted most of my time to the poor, and I forgot the middle and upper classes.
You’ve threatened to nationalize the banks. Would you?
No.
Definitely never?
I haven’t thought of that, but I can’t say that I’m not going to do it in the future.
The general strike is ruining your economy. Your oil company is operating at a low level. Are you prepared to make any concessions?
No way. I cannot surrender to terrorists.
Why do you call your opponents terrorists?
What name do you give to someone who has sabotaged a refinery to create the [possibility] of an explosion? Or someone who uses a computer to block [the operation of] the oil industry? Or destroys the power supplies at the refinery? It is clear that under those conditions a democratic government cannot make any kind of concessions.
