By Jeremy Morgan
Latin American Herald Tribune staff

CARACAS -- Venezuela's Opposition parties suddenly got their act together Friday, announcing that a "consensus" on next year's parliamentary elections had been reached by members of the "Democratic Unity Table" -- the latest in a long succesion of broad coalitions aimed at forging a common front against President Hugo Chavez.

However, given the Opposition's difficulties in reconciling personalities and policies in the past, it remained to be seen whether or not it was all over bar the shouting. "They've still got it all to do, and they've found that a tortuous process many times before," one veteran activist discreetly remarked to this reporter as the accord was unveiled. "They've got to decide the policy platform and pick the candidates and they're under the gun to do so as quickly and cleanly as possible."

An opinion poll earlier this week lent weight to this warning that the Opposition can't afford to get bogged down in seemingly interminable wrangling in the public eye. The survey found that 60 percent of those asked wanted the Opposition to put forward a sold alternative for the voters, altghough there was no clear view on which should come first: selection of the candidates or agreement on what they would be representing.

The Democratic Unity Table chose to tackle the two issues the other way round. Spokesman Ramon Guillermo Aveledo said that a program of "Solutions for the People" was to be unveiled during the second half of March next year, followed by a list of candidates on April 30. But there was no sign that agreement had been reached on opposing views of the methodology to be used in making those decisions.

Opposition leaders and activists have backed two alternatives: that "pre-candidates" should be subjected to primary elections; or that candidates should emerge from so-called "unity accords" -- a phrase which those who back the first option qwarn could evoke images of deal-making done in smoke-filled rooms behind closed doors.
Opponents of the second view point out that Chavez' ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has already made the running by holding primaries last weekend. Not to follow suit, they argue, would gift the democratic credentials to the president's followers.
Those who prefer the second approach warn that primaries could light up counter-productive signs of division and disagreement in the ranks of the Opposition. The unsaid message in this is that the Opposition's done this too many times before.
In the end, neither argument argument prevailed. After 10 hours of talks stretching into Thursday night, the Democratic Unity Table punted the issue into the long grass, evidently regardless of the fact that this could still have to be sorted out down the line. Aveledo announced that both methods would be used to pick the policies and the candidates by the respective set days.
Ahead of both deadlines, party leaders will supposedly try to batter out unity accords on both the platform and the candidates. This process will involve "consultations" sibly in some cases, primary elections of one sort or another.
In cases where no agreement is still not reached, the argument will then be put to primaries, evidently in some cases perhaps for a second time. But it remained unclear how the Opposition was to decide just who would be eligible to vote in any internal elections that were deemed necessary.
The unity timetable calls for the whole process to get under way in January with formal presentation of a plan "to defend the vote of democratic society" next January. The aim of this, it's said, will be to depict the Opposition as defenders of a "democratic majority" in the country, with the implied contrast with Chavez and his ilk solely representing a single and partial point of view held by a minority.
As has often been the case, the challenge facing the Opposition is to get out the vote in a country where a significant proportion of the electorate don't vote. In some cases, it's a case of a plague on both houses; in others, sheer disinterest in politics. The Opposition hopes to recruit some candidates without links to established political parties in an attempt to broaden the base of electoral appeal.
The president's populist power base is generally deemed rather more solid in comparison with active public support for the Opposition. He also has the presumed political advantages of being the incumbent -- although it's argued this could be turned against him after 10 years in power.
Two other issues hovered in the background: a proposal that the Opposition should work for yet another referendum on Chavez' mandate, and calls for pressure to be brought on the National Electoral Council (CNE) to ensure that the both sides stick to the election rules through to the day of the vote.
The CNE has long been an object of suspicion for the Opposition, not least because four of the five members of its broard are deemed to be broadly sympathetic towards the government. The conservative party, Primero Justicia, accused the CNE of bending the rules in approving possible candidates for a renewal of its own board. The CNE's list is scheduled to be voted upon at the National Assembly next Tuesday.
Luis Ignacio Planas, head of the Social Christian party, Copei -- one of two old warhorse parties that alternated in power before Chavez came along -- urged that attention had to be focused on the parliamentary campaign rather than a referendum. His point was that no purpose was to be served by pushing for a referenum that might not happen anyway. There was little word from Copei's old rivals at Accion Democratica, which has seemed lukewarm towards previous unity drives.
The Opposition leaders also took the opportunity to take a position on the brewing quarrel between Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. An "international committee" set up by the Democratic Unity Table voiced "deep preoccupation" about "the tone and content" of the Venezuelan government's "official discourse" towards Colombia, warning that this constituted "an unexpected and series threat to peace" betwen the two countries which for 190 years had shared the "rare priviledge" of never resorting to arms against each other.
The Opposition left little doubt that it believed the problem was Chavez. Felipe Mujica of Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), which briefly sided with the president during his first months in power in 1999, said: "It would appear that nobody, except Chavez, wants conflict."
Ricardo Gutierrez of Podemos, the social democratic party which broke away from Chavez in protest against his first bid to lift a constitutional ban on successive re-election -- an issue he won at the second attempt -- claimed that the president's advisors simply weren't capable of giving the sort of counsel required to reach a peaceful solution of the dispute with Colombia.
The row centers on Chavez' suspicions about Uribe's agreement allowing the United States armed forces to use military bases in his country. Chavez claims the bases could be used as a springboard for military action in the region as a whole and Venezuela in particular.
Luis Ochoa of Un Nuevo Tiempo said he couldn't understand what Chavez had to fear from the bases in Colombia. The United States also had bases in Puerto Rico, Aruba and Curazao from where "within five minutes" it could launch fighter squadrons to invade Venezuela, he said.