by Patrick Moser
CARACAS, Aug 15 (AFP) - A woman was killed and at least four others wounded Monday as backers of President Hugo Chavez fired on opposition protesters of vote results that will allow Chavez to finish his term.
Chavez won Sunday's referendum with more than 57 percent of the official results, which observers with former US president Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States deemed fair.
"This is a case unique in the world where the leaders of the opposition do not accept election results," Chavez told reporters.
He called for national reconciliation and promised to "respect the 40 percent of electors who voted yes" to his ouster.
Chavez and the opposition agreed, in a deal brokered by Carter and the OAS, to abide by the results of the recall as a way of putting an end to the previous two years of street protests, general strikes and an April 2002 coup, which removed Chavez for two days.
However, Martiza Ron, 61, was killed Monday after gunmen on motorcycles and cars opened fire on a group of anti-Chavez protesters, according to neighborhood police chief Leonardo Peruta. Four wounded were treated at El Avila clinic near the scene, one of them legislator Ernesto Alvarenga, who had been shot in the chest, doctor Luis Chirinos said.
On Altamira Square, a few dozen demonstrators remained at the scene of the shootings, standing around a Venezuelan flag soaked with the blood of one of the wounded and shouted "Murderers! Murderers!" in reference to the Chavez supporters and "Fraud!" at the president's victory.
Altamira Square has been emblematic of the opposition and the spot occupied by several high-ranking military officers who dramatically declared themselves "in rebellion" against Chavez's government.
Opposition groups in and around the hotel occupied by Carter and OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria carried posters saying "We do not accept fraud," referring to the election results and one, "Carter how much did they pay you?" written in English.
"We are obliged to say that the results of (Venezuela's) National Electoral Commission and our count agree," Gaviria said.
"It is everyone's responsibility to abide by the results," Carter said, while admitting that the rapid count he and Gaviria leaned on showed the vote was closer, 55-45 percent. Fourteen million Venezuelans were eligible to vote, and so many did that officials left polls open until midnight Sunday.
US and Canadian officials said they would withhold judgement on the fairness of the vote, however.
"The National Electoral Council hasn't come out with its final results yet either, so I don't think we're in a position of declaring it over," said State Department Spokesman Tom Casey in Washington.
"If the opposition feels that they have credible evidence of fraud, they need to present it," the official said. "It needs to be reviewed and looked at. Once that happens, then you theoretically have something that everyone can agree to and live with."
The vote in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter was closely watched. Venezuela, the only Latin American member of OPEC, supplies more crude to the United States than does Saudi Arabia, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
Wall Street analysts hoped that Chavez's victory would bring stability to world oil prices, after the cost of a barrel reached new highs of 46.91 in London and New York. Chavez vowed Monday to guarantee stability on world markets.
Chavez, a former paratrooper colonel, failed in 1992 to take Venezuela in a coup. He became a folk hero during his two years in prison, claiming to have launched the coup to rid Venezuela of its "corrupt oligarchy."
He won the presidency in 1998, campaigned for a constitutional convention, and was reelected under the new constitution in 2000.
The opposition has chafed under what it calls Chavez's autocratic style of governing in a country that for decades was known for its deal-making.