Students Become Potent Adversary To Chávez Vision

Many of the students who have joined the swelling movement against the changes are from the country's largest public university, the Central University of Venezuela, which enrolls 40,000. The students are decidedly leftist, opposed in principle to the Bush administration and aligned with a political shift in which moderately leftist governments have been elected across the continent.

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Among the leaders is Stalin Gonzalez, 26, a law student whose father was once a member of the radical Red Flag movement here. He grew up in the poor Catia district, and his father had such affinity for the left that he named his children after three towering figures of communism -- Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Friedrich Engels.

Stalin Gonzalez, though, said he does not regard Chávez as a leftist -- but rather as an autocrat whose administration is intent on accumulating power. Gonzalez is particularly worried about constitutional changes that would permit the president to run for office indefinitely, appoint governors to specially created federal territories and control the country's finances.

"I think they're obsessed and in love with the power," he said.

He stressed, though, that he and other student leaders are not focused on ousting Chávez but on defeating the referendum and, next year, advocating a national reconciliation for their sharply polarized country.

"Our intention is not to direct the opposition or be the new leaders of the opposition," he said. "The theme here is reconciliation."

Gonzalez shares the leadership with students from more elite universities, namely Yon Goicoechea and Freddy Guevara, both of the Andres Bello Catholic University.

"This is not a war of left and right," said Goicoechea, a law student. "We believe that Venezuela has to have democracy. Democracy means respect. Democracy means free expression. Democracy means saying what you want without repression."

Such accusations sting a government that has won numerous elections and remains popular with the poor because of its social programs. But Chávez has shown little but contempt for the anti-government student movement, calling the leadership "terrorists."

In an interview, Bernardo Alvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador in Washington, softened the government's position. But he raised questions about ties the anti-government student movement might have to the traditional political class.

"We have to ask: What's the agenda? What's their proposal? Is it about student issues, or politics?' " he asked.

The student movement picked up momentum this spring as Chávez undertook an unpopular but ultimately successful campaign to take an anti-government television station off the public airwaves. The movement again mobilized in recent weeks as the government began to campaign for the constitutional changes.

"We were preparing for the scenario of losing," said Guevara, 21, who studies communications. "We thought the political parties and social movements wouldn't be strong enough to go against the government's political machine."

The ideals of the movement have motivated young students such as Andres Lizarazo, 18, who participated in a recent protest.

"We're strong, very strong," said Lizarazo, a business student at the Catholic university. "They can't stomp on us. The students have to take the country ahead. We're the future of the country."