Former Chaves loyalists call for his resignation

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) -- A group of one-time loyalists of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez called on him to resign yesterday, saying he had lost his legitimacy.

"To keep the country from further ills, as are now taking place, we formally demand that you resign," the group, which called itself the Constitutional Axis, said in a statement published in local newspapers.

It said that after 11 years in power, Chavez "lacks the legitimacy and capacity to govern."

Signers included former foreign minister Luis Alfonso Davila; former defense minister Raul Isaias Baduel; one of the main drafters of the new Chavez-era constitution, Hermann Escarra; and two men who were at Chavez's side in a failed 1992 military coup bid, Yoel Acosta and Jesus Urdaneta.

The document took aim at what it called Chavez' "autocratic, totalitarian and self-centered way of governing" and to his "utterly careless use of language ... which lays bare a soul that is intolerant, petty, hateful and resentful."

Oil-rich Venezuela is suffering from proliferating problems including water and electric power shortages, high crime rates and corruption, all of which signers argued just "added more elements to disqualify Chavez as a leader."

The group called for respect for private property rights and political pluralism, and charged that the military and other institutions were "distorted by the incursion of outside elements," a reference to communist Cuba, Chavez's closest regional ally.

It said Chavez' "irresponsable centralisation" of power "puts your whims and pathologies ahead of the good of the state."

In recent days Chavez has claimed that growing protests were an attempt to destabilise his government, comparing it to the political unrest that led to his brief ouster from power in 2002.

Earlier this month, two students were shot dead in demonstrations that erupted after Chavez pulled the plug on a television station critical of his government.

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