SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (AP) -- Former President Carlos Andres
                  Perez is switching roles with the rebellious soldier who once tried to
                  overthrow him.

                  As president, Perez had Hugo Chavez arrested for his attempted coup. Six
                  years later, Perez is under arrest and Chavez is leading the polls to become
                  president.

                  But at 76, Perez, twice president and still one of Latin America's most
                  controversial politicians, is refusing to disappear into the night. He is running
                  for senate despite being under house arrest on charges of illegal enrichment.

                  Defiant as ever, he's also vowing to form a "movement of resistance" against
                  Chavez, whose candidacy has polarized Venezuela between those who
                  favored and those who opposed the coup attempt against Perez.

                  If Chavez wins the presidency, "the cure is going to be worse than the
                  disease because he will destroy the bases of our democracy," Perez told The
                  Associated Press.

                  He spoke before being transferred last weekend from Caracas to his home
                  state of Tachira, where he is favored to win a senate seat on Nov. 8.

                  If Perez does win, he will get parliamentary immunity and be freed.

                  More than 2,000 cars, horns honking and radios blaring, joined Perez
                  Saturday in a caravan to his new "jail," a cousin's house in the Andean city of
                  San Cristobal. People cheered from balconies and ran into the street to greet
                  the former president, who stood beaming in an open jeep, hands waving high
                  above his head.

                  The sister and mother of Cecilia Matos, Perez's fugitive mistress, rode in a
                  car trailing the jeep. She and Perez have been charged with depositing illicit
                  funds into U.S. bank accounts an allegation the former president insists is
                  false.

                  As the caravan advanced, Ms. Matos called her sister's cellular phone from
                  Madrid to ask about the homecoming. The sister gushed: "They love him."

                  Perez says he's running for senate to work on behalf of the people of Tachira
                  and to oppose a possible Chavez administration.

                  Chavez's campaign manager, Gen. Alberto Muller, called Perez's campaign
                  "an act of cynicism."

                  "Anyone else would feel a little shame, would be embarrassed to run for
                  office again after being condemned as a thief," he said.

                  During his first term as president, from 1974-79, Perez oversaw an oil boom
                  in which many of the country's leaders became fabulously rich. The boom
                  had ended by the time he began his second time in 1989, and his term was
                  marred by rioting, two coup attempts and his impeachment in 1993 for
                  misuse of state funds.

                  Perez served 28 months in jail and under house arrest. He was freed in
                  September 1996, only to be arrested this year on separate charges.

                  The politician, who says he awakens at 5 a.m. every day for 1{ hours of
                  exercise, takes it all in stride.

                  At his 76th birthday party recently, about 60 guests gathered for a catered
                  meal at his Caracas home, where Perez smiled broadly and a band played
                  "Yesterday." Outside, a half-dozen members of the secret police guarded
                  their prisoner.

                  Perez insists all charges against him are a political vendetta by those who did
                  not like the austerity plan he tried to impose as president. Venezuela's
                  old-style politicians are threatened, Perez's supporters say, by his talent for
                  moving the masses.

                  Perez's legal woes haven't destroyed his international reputation as a
                  statesman. As president, he helped solve seemingly intractable conflicts in
                  Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and Bolivia. Former President Jimmy
                  Carter, in Venezuela this week, publicly praised Perez and called him in San
                  Cristobal.

                  Yet Perez's "frantic race to appear in every world forum disconnected him
                  from the reality of this country," said Jose Vicente Rangel, the journalist who
                  uncovered the evidence that led to Perez's impeachment. When his defense
                  minister warned him of Chavez's impending coup, Perez called it "nonsense."

                  For millions of poor Venezuelans, Chavez has become a folk hero. But in
                  Rubio, the town where Perez was born, the former president is the hero.

                  "He's the only president they threw in jail and the only one who's ever done
                  anything," cafe owner Jose Daniel Luna said.
 
 

                  Copyright 1998   The Associated Press.