CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelans terrified of a failed coup
                  leader's rise in the polls are scrambling to head off his victory in presidential
                  elections, organizing publicity campaigns to warn the public of an impending
                  dictatorship.

                  They also are pressuring other candidates to drop out of the race to avoid
                  dividing the vote against former Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez in December 6
                  elections.

                  Yet this week's attempts to block Chavez's rise to power have been marred
                  by squabbling among Venezuela's political and economic elite.

                  A former army paratrooper, Chavez, 44, attempted a bloody coup against
                  the government six years ago. In recent months, he has tried to moderate his
                  populist rhetoric, promising fiscal discipline and fair treatment of foreign
                  investors. Still, his opponents doubt his democratic credentials and fear he
                  will roll back free-market economics.

                  "We must not let him destroy our constitutional order," said Donald Ramirez,
                  secretary general of the center-right COPEI Party.

                  Chavez's leftist Patriotic Pole coalition won a plurality of Congress in
                  regional elections November 8, becoming Venezuela's largest political force
                  and breaking the 40-year political stranglehold of the two traditional parties,
                  COPEI and the center-left Democratic Action Party.

                  Various polls show Chavez from 5 to 12 percentage points ahead of his
                  closest rival, Henrique Salas Romer, a Yale-educated former state governor
                  who is running as an independent.

                  A weeklong series of meetings between COPEI and Democratic Action
                  failed to come up with a unity candidate who could defeat Chavez. Ramirez
                  blamed "individualism and conflicting personalities."

                  The 76-year-old Democratic Action candidate, Luis Alfaro, torpedoed an
                  agreement by insisting on being the unity candidate. Democratic Action
                  leaders then voted overwhelmingly to ask Alfaro, who has led the party with
                  an iron fist for decades, to bow out. He refused.

                  So, Democratic Action voted Friday night to withdraw its support for his
                  candidacy. At this stage, however, electoral law requires his name remain on
                  the ballot unless he removes it himself, which he has shown no sign of doing.

                  COPEI's official candidate, former Miss Universe Irene Saez, also is vowing
                  to stay in the race, despite having dropped from first place in the polls to
                  fourth.

                  Salas, Chavez's closest competitor, says he will not accept the backing of
                  Democratic Action or COPEI. Most Venezuelans blame the two traditional
                  parties for squandering the nation's vast oil wealth and for a corrupt political
                  culture that has contributed to sharply declining living standards.

                  "People want a president that has free hands to unite the country," Salas told
                  The Associated Press in an interview Thursday on his campaign plane.

                  One of Chavez's closest advisers, former Caracas Mayor Aristobulo Isturiz,
                  said all the clamoring to unite the anti-Chavez forces was futile because no
                  one can beat the former army officer. "Let them fabricate a Martian to see if
                  he could do it," Isturiz told reporters.

                  During a campaign swing Friday in western Venezuela, Chavez seemed to
                  take some delight in the parties' failures. He said the leadership of COPEI
                  and Democratic Action "operates like a political brothel, selling itself to the
                  highest bidder."

                  Despite the quarreling among anti-Chavez forces, efforts to stop the
                  candidate continue. Governors-elect from nine states accused Chavez this
                  week of plotting violent protests if he doesn't win next month, an allegation
                  Chavez's campaign manager called "absolutely false."

                  After Chavez vowed in a presidential campaign speech to "fry the heads" of
                  his political opponents, Democratic Action ran a television ad featuring the
                  image of a sizzling frying pan.

                  "They'll have to bring in truckloads of butter to fry us all," intoned a woman's
                  voice until electoral officials banned the ad last month.

                  In another TV ad that eventually was banned, Chavez's opponents showed
                  footage of his 1992 coup attempt, which killed about two dozen people.

                  Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.