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Rival marches mark anniversary of dictator's ouster in Venezuela

By the CNN Wire Staff
Venezuela president Hugo Chavez listens to the national anthem during an event earlier in January.
Venezuela president Hugo Chavez listens to the national anthem during an event earlier in January.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • NEW: President Chavez addresses his supporters outside the presidential palace
  • NEW: His critics stage rival demonstrations, declaring the current government a "dictatorship"
  • Venezuela celebrates "National Democracy Day" Sunday
RELATED TOPICS
  • Venezuela
  • Hugo Chavez

(CNN) -- Opponents and supporters of Venezuela's government staged rival demonstrations Sunday in the streets of the capital to mark the anniversary of a popular revolt that overthrew a dictatorship in the South American country in 1958.

In Caracas, supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gathered around the presidential palace to listen to him speak on what is known there as "National Democracy Day."

"Every day, there will be more democracy in Venezuela -- this democracy that gives more power to the people," Chavez said, as reported by the state-run AVN news agency. "Democracy is as necessary to socialism as oxygen is to living things."

The president's supporters cheered and waved flags and banners.

Critics of Chavez's government met in the eastern part of the capital, the state-run VTV network reported. Many waved white banners. One protester carried a poster that read: "Enough of the lies."

Marches were also planned in various cities around the world to declare that "the current Venezuelan regime is a dictatorship both legally and politically," according to organizer Un Mundo Sin Mordaza.

Opponents of Chavez have sharply criticized last month's decision by Venezuela's lame-duck National Assembly granting him the power to pass laws by decree for 18 months.

Critics say the president sought the power in order to push his agenda through the legislative body after elections in September weakened the ruling party's hold on power.

But Chavez has said he was seeking the powers in order to be able to respond to flooding that left thousands of people homeless.

January 23 marks the anniversary of the overthrow of former Venezuelan dictator Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez.