Chavez says allies who resist forming new socialist party are not wanted

President Hugo Chavez on Sunday urged some of his political allies who are resisting his plan to form a single socialist party to leave his movement and go their own way, saying he hopes the split will be amicable even if they defect to the opposition.

Photo: Chavez says allies who resist forming new socialist party are not wanted

Chavez aims to create the United Socialist Party of Venezuela to replace some two dozen smaller pro-government parties, but the idea has faced resistance from the parties Podemos, Fatherland for All and the Venezuelan Communist Party.

Chavez said he already considers the leaders of Podemos, including a handful of state governors and lawmakers, to be "almost in the opposition."

"If you want to go, leave," Chavez said during his television program "Hello, President." "In reality, you aren't indispensable."

The parties' reasons for resisting vary. While Podemos' leaders have taken issue with adopting a single party ideology, many communists wholeheartedly support Chavez yet have held off on disbanding until the new party's principles are clearly defined.

"I've concluded that the party Podemos, the party Fatherland for All and the Communist Party of Venezuela - at least their spokespeople, their leaders - don't want to join in the effort of building the United Socialist Party of Venezuela," Chavez said. "Well that's fine. They have a right. Now, leave us alone to create our own great party."

"I will open the doors for you. Leave if you want to go," Chavez said during the program, which was televised live from a site where public housing is planned to be built east of Caracas.

"I just want us to carry out a true revolution, and not let ourselves be tied to sectarianism, to partisanship, to political patronage, which has caused so much damage to this nation," he said.

Chavez said he hopes those who disagree, like Aragua state Gov. Didalco Bolivar of Podemos, will be honest about their differences and not go out "throwing stones."

"Let's shake hands and each one pick up, like a good divorce," Chavez said, recalling his breakup with his first wife Nancy Colmenares. "Each one of us went our way, but we see each other and we give each other a hug. It was the friendship that remained, respect. That's how it should be."

Chavez, who has pledged a renewed push to transform Venezuela into a socialist state since he was re-elected in December, said he hopes many in the Communist Party and Fatherland for All may continue to be allies.

"We want true socialists," Chavez said, adding that next Saturday his new party will begin to form "socialist battalions," apparently to help organize grassroots support.

"I need men and women who are willing to give their very lives to drive the socialist revolution in Venezuela," he said.

As for others like the politicians of Podemos, Chavez said he hopes they may serve to "orient the democratic opposition."

Without giving details, he said he still faces an "anti-democratic opposition," repeating accusations that some opponents "go around searching for discontented soldiers to try to propel them toward a new coup d'etat, or they search for dynamite and C-4 explosives, or a sniper to finish this off by killing Chavez."

Chavez did not specifically accuse the U.S. of a role, though he has often accused U.S. President George W. Bush of backing plots against him, reports AP.

Instead, he mocked Bush as the "chief of the empire," saying the U.S. president "failed in his tour" of Latin America that ended last week.

Chavez, who made his own coinciding tour of Latin America, said Bush "now goes around proclaiming social justice, which points to a great moral defeat."