divisions in UNT congress (june 2006):
when key leaders of the UNT started speaking the internal differences became evident. There were boos and calls of “elections, elections” during the address of UNT national coordinator Marcela Maspero. Maspero leads the largest minority group within the UNT, and favours postponing the union elections until the first quarter of 2007, mainly on the grounds of giving priority to the campaign to re-elect President Hugo Chavez in December this year.
(...) In a statement issued on May 28, Chirino argued: “For C-CURA there was no doubt that the democratic will of the workers and trade union leaders from the grassroots was that the UNT should have a new, legitimate direction, that there be an end to all the fights and conflicts, and that in December the re-election of President Chavez be achieved as a form of defending the social and democratic conquests. The majority of workers supported the position that there should be elections this year, that a UNT leadership would then be legitimate, it would be strengthened, and in a better position to fight for 10 million votes for President Chavez.”
(...) Marcela Maspero, for her part, declared, according the May 30 daily Ultimas Noticias, that the “majority of delegates agreed to have elections in the first trimester of 2007 in order to give priority to the 10 million votes [campaign] for the presidential elections”. The three other currents supporting her were the Bolivarian Workers Force (FBT), the Autonomous Union, and followers of Franklin Rondon, who was roundly booed at the congress as a former supporter of the April 2002 coup against Chavez.
(...) In his speech to the section of delegates remaining in the hall after the walkout, Chirino said that every effort had been made during the all-night meeting the previous evening to find a compromise, involving a transitional election to be held soon with a commission being set up to hold permanent elections at a later date. The interim election would involve a system of special consideration for minority representation.