Caracas crowd deters effort to seize critic

                       BY JAMES ANDERSON
                       Associated Press

                       CARACAS, Venezuela - An air force colonel who demanded the resignation of President Hugo Chávez
                       was detained by military police, then released under pressure of a noisy citizen protest.

                       Thousands of people cheered, sang the national anthem and chanted ''Chávez Out!'' as a uniformed
                       Col. Pedro Soto stood atop a car and waved a red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flag after his release
                       Thursday.

                       Hundreds of vehicles took to the streets in the middle- and upper-class Altamira district as Soto led
                       thousands to rally at the president's residence.

                       On Monday, hundreds protested Chávez's celebration of the 10th anniversary of his attempted coup
                       against then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who now lives abroad. Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement
                       Party responded by calling thousands of supporters from poorer districts to the presidential palace.

                       Deputy Nicolas Maduro said Thursday's march was ''an unacceptable provocation'' and accused Soto,
                       the news media and Pérez of staging the rally to ``damage the international image of the country.''

                       Soto surprised a forum on freedom of the press early in the day by stepping forward and declaring,
                       ''This is not a democratic government.'' It was the strongest sign yet of military resentment for the
                       leftist Chávez.

                       ''Freedom of expression is one of the most important things . . . and no one is going to take it away
                       from us,'' Soto declared. ``It cannot be that the president is thinking we elected him to be the owner
                       of Venezuela.''

                       Soto asserted that he spoke for a majority of officers and soldiers, but the government dismissed his
                       complaints as personal, saying he was angry because he hadn't been promoted to general after more
                       than 20 years of service.

                       He was detained in the evening by military police but released after civilians took to the streets,
                       honking car horns, banging pots and pans and chanting ``Freedom!''

                       Gen. Lucas Rincón, chief of the armed forces, said Soto is to appear at air force headquarters to
                       explain his actions. ''He is speaking for himself. It's not the position of the armed forces,'' Rincón said.
                       He said Soto would face ''consequences'' for his dissent but did not specify them.

                       ''I'm not afraid,'' Soto said.

                       The incident forced Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel to deny rumors of troop movements.

                       In recent months, retired military officers have stepped up their criticism of Chávez, and a weekend
                       communique published by a group claiming to represent 3,400 active soldiers lambasted the
                       president. The government dismissed it as a hoax and insisted Venezuela's military forces solidly
                       support their commander in chief.

                       Under Chávez, the armed forces have assumed a prominent role in government. Some officers have
                       objected to Chávez's attempts to distance Venezuela from Washington as well as to his close ties to
                       Cuba's Fidel Castro. They recall that the army had to fight Castro-backed guerrillas in the 1960s.

                       Chávez, a former army officer who led the 1992 coup attempt against Pérez, was overwhelmingly
                       elected president in 1998, promising to eliminate corruption and reduce poverty.