Division in the Ranks.(Power struggle in Venezuela.)

At first blush, it looked like a blast from Latin America's authoritarian past. Once again, graying generals and admirals were demanding the immediate resignation of a democratically elected president. But the drama that unfolded in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas last week contained a surprising twist to the usual story line. There were no tanks on the streets or other signs of a brewing military coup: instead, the 14 senior officers who took over a public square to repudiate the government of President Hugo Chavez did so in the name of the country's Constitution. And within hours these career soldiers-- among them Army Gen. Nestor Gonzalez--were being hailed as national heroes by opposition leaders and ordinary Venezuelans who want Chavez to step down and call new elections as soon as possible. "These are not men who would stage a coup," said Conchita de Perez Badell, a 56-year- old economist who went to Caracas's France Plaza along with thousands of other civilians to salute the men in uniform. "They are democrats who want the president to resign, and civil society has come out to defend them."

When he was elected by a landslide vote nearly four years ago, Chavez made a bold decision to redefine the role of the Venezuelan armed forces. No longer would the military be limited to its traditional function of defending the country against external threats. Instead the former Army paratrooper brought the armed forces out of their barracks and put them on the front lines of his "peaceful revolution." Soldiers were deployed in poor, pro-Chavez urban neighborhoods to rebuild schools, supervise open-air markets and even give free haircuts. As the head of a so-called military-civilian government, Chavez said he wanted to break down the barriers separating civilians and soldiers in society. He even amended the Constitution to give voting rights to active-duty servicemen.

Today, however, with the armed forces clearly split between the pro- Chavez top brass and the dozens of dissidents calling for the president's resignation on public streets, he is surely regretting that decision. Thanks to Chavez, it has become respectable again for men in uniform to meddle in politics. "The president has created a very bad environment," says Prof. Isabel Bacalao of the Venezuelan Navy War College. "These senior officers are now trying to avert an outbreak of fighting within the armed forces themselves."

The internal rifts inside the armed forces reflect the de facto stalemate that has gripped the country since last April, when the 48- year-old ex-paratrooper barely survived a bungled coup. In mid-October the political opposition revived its campaign to drive Chavez from office, and last week's general strike, the third in the past 10 months, brought much of Venezuela to a standstill. But with more than four years still left in his term, the man who calls himself El Comandante shows no signs of quitting. That prompted the military dissidents to jump into the fray and force the issue.

At first the government tried to dismiss the officers' protest as a cheap publicity stunt. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel described one large demonstration as a "circus" replete with "clowns, animals and jugglers." But the sneering subsided as the ranks of the dissidents gradually swelled. Last Friday a judge issued arrest warrants against 43 military and civilian antigovernment protesters on charges of fomenting rebellion. Chavez himself joined the war of words, calling the dissident officers "fascists" who were hatching another uprising behind the fig leaf of a civil-disobedience campaign. Tensions in the country rose further when the president said the protests warranted a response not just from the state but also from "the people." That phrase made some jittery Venezuelans wonder whether gangs of pro-Chavez goons might soon descend on the plaza and end the pro-democracy vigil.

By themselves, the dissident officers do not pose a serious threat to the Chavez government. A number of them played prominent roles in the short-lived overthrow of Chavez earlier this year and, as a result, had discredited themselves in the eyes of their ...