'I'm Not Going To Resign'.(Hugo Chavez)

Hugo Chavez is not easily cowed. The Venezuelan president, who's been in office for four years, is under siege from an angry coalition that opposes his leftist policies and accuses him of running the country like a dictatorship. A six-week-old general strike has crippled the state oil company, costing Venezuela at least $4 billion in revenue. The Organization of American States has had no luck mediating the dispute, and last week Chavez flew to New York to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. While there, he met with NEWSWEEK editors. Smoking stubby Belmont cigarettes and brandishing a copy of the Venezuelan Constitution for dramatic effect, Chavez vowed to carry on the political fight. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: If the High Court rules that a referendum on your administration should be held in February, would you abide by that decision?

Of course, fully.

What do you think the outcome would be?

I think we'd win that referendum. Now, the question they want to ask in this referendum, in my view, is a constitutional fraud. According to the Constitution, the consultative referendum is not binding. However, the opposition has told the country that it is going to be binding. So, if they hold the referendum, and if I lose, it is clear that I'm not going to resign.

Even if a majority of people believe that you should resign voluntarily, you will not resign?

If it is voluntary, I'm not forced to resign. You cannot resign involuntarily. According to the Constitution, halfway into the term of any elected official, the people who elected that official can revoke the mandate of that official [through] a revocatory referendum. In this case, it could be done on Aug. 19 of this year.