Vzla: Referendum or revolution

That is Chavez's choice says Gustavo Coronel, a Venezuelan citizen.

the National Electoral Council, in a 3 to 2 vote, with the vote of the three Chávez followers, have decided that all signatures which show a similar calligraphy in the process of filling in the personal data are subject to question. This means that all people who properly signed their own names but whose personal data were filled out at the collection center have their signatures in doubt. The National Electoral Council now orders all these people, about one million of them, to sign again! I have to emphasize the fact that this rule is being manufactured by the National Electoral Council AFTER the signature collection has been completed. In short, they are requesting one million Venezuelans to sign, for a third time! to ask for a referendum to oust President Chávez from power. I, and millions of other Venezuelans, consider this unacceptable. To force Mr. Pedro Grases and his wife to sign again is intolerable. I mention this respected couple just as an example. But, all over Venezuela, millions are now being requested to prove that they are innocent, to prove, once more, that they did sign. The National Electoral Council pretends to reverse the burden of proof. In all democratic societies you are innocent until you are proven to be guilty. But in the Venezuela of Hugo Chávez, you have to prove again and again that you are who you say you are and that you did what you claim you did.

Therefore, this is unacceptable. If he insists in this stupid act of raw power, Chávez is going to have to face a civil rebellion which will end in thousands of deaths, mostly ours, since he has bought the top military commanders of the Venezuelan army and has a paramilitary force made up of thousands of armed Cuban and Venezuelan thugs. The OAS and the Carter Center proposal about spot, statistically valid checks on these “assisted” forms, is acceptable to the Venezuelan opposition. This would be a proposal that could save much blood in our country. What is not acceptable to the Venezuelan opposition is a new, third, signature collection process, after the wonderful civic efforts of early 2003 and of November and December 2003. This would be unfair and dishonest. We are fed up . . . we will not be run over. I ask the international community to lend us their support.  I am not a political leader. I have no groups under my command. I am a single Venezuelan citizen protesting against the grotesque coup being attempted today in our country by Hugo Chávez, a throwback to the 19th century era of the caudillos.