Triumphant Venezuelan opposition looks to free prisoners

CARACAS (Reuters) - Triumphant opposition leaders vowed on Monday to use their new majority in Venezuela's legislature to free jailed opponents of the Socialist government, but also promised not to go after political foes.

The Democratic Unity coalition won more than twice the number of National Assembly seats as the Socialists in Sunday's vote that punished President Nicolas Maduro's government for deep economic and social crisis in the oil-producing country.

It was the first time in 16 years that the "Chavismo" movement, named for former socialist President Hugo Chavez, lost its majority in the 167-member assembly, and gives the opposition a platform to further erode Maduro's power.

The 53-year-old president, who was handpicked by Chavez but lacks his charisma and political guile, quickly accepted defeat in a speech to the nation in the early hours of Monday that calmed fears of violence.

Aware that victory owed more to public discontent with Maduro than support for the opposition, coalition head Jesus Torrealba urged Venezuelans to bury their differences.

"We have been divided for years and the country has gained nothing from this mistake in its history," Torrealba, who was mocked by Maduro as an "evil Shrek" during the campaign, told supporters in a victory speech early on Monday.

"The Democratic Unity is not here to mistreat anyone."

Reiterating that an amnesty law will be the opposition's priority when the new assembly begins work on Jan. 5, Torrealba promised to return the rights of "those who have been unjustly persecuted, jailed, blocked from politics or exiled."

Venezuela's best-known jailed politician is Leopoldo Lopez, who was sentenced to nearly 14 years on charges of promoting political violence in 2014 that killed 43 people. But the opposition has a list of what it says are more than 70 other political prisoners.

Torrealba also reassured despondent government supporters the coalition would not try to dismantle welfare programs that were wildly popular during Chavez's 1999-2013 rule and which Maduro repeatedly warned they want to end.

HOW BIG A MAJORITY?

Investors reacted positively to the OPEC nation's swing away from the left, with dollar bonds rising strongly on hopes of business-friendly change.

With 99 seats to the Socialists' 46 in counting so far - and results not yet in for the remaining 22 seats - the opposition looks certain to reach a three-fifths majority, meaning they could in theory have ministers fired after a censure vote.

Democratic Unity leaders said on Monday they had reached the crucial bar of two-thirds of seats - but there was no confirmation of that from the national election board.

With two-thirds, or 112 seats, they could try to shake up institutions such as the courts that are widely viewed as pro-government.

Even with just a simple majority, though, the opposition can exercise control over the budget, begin investigations that could embarrass the government, and pass the amnesty law.

Torrealba has also said the assembly will open an investigation into the arrest last month of two relatives of Maduro, nephews of his wife, caught in a sting in Haiti and indicted in a New York court on charges of cocaine smuggling.

The United States, which has had an acrimonious relationship with Venezuela under both Chavez and Maduro, has long accused the Socialists of complicity in the drug trade, as well as human rights abuses.

The government dismisses those charges as lies and frequently recalls U.S. support for a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the vote showed Venezuelans' "overwhelming desire" for change, and urged dialogue among political parties to resolve the country's problems, adding Washington was ready to support such an effort. In a statement, Kerry said the electoral authorities should publish final election results "in a timely and transparent fashion."

A former bus driver and foreign minister who narrowly won election in 2013 after Chavez died from cancer, Maduro may face a backlash in the ruling party and from grassroots supporters who think he has betrayed his predecessor's legacy.

Though his term ends in 2019, hardline opposition leaders want to oust him in a recall referendum next year. They would require nearly 4 million signatures to force the recall vote.

"I can't see this government finishing its term because it is too weak," said opposition leader Henry Ramos, touted as a possible leader for the new assembly. "Internal frictions are beginning. They're blaming each other for this huge defeat."

'COUNTER-REVOLUTION'

Maduro, whose government has replaced Cuba as Latin America's most vocal adversary of the United States, blamed the election result on an "economic war" waged by business leaders and other opponents out to sabotage the economy and bring him down.

"In Venezuela, a counter-revolution won, not the opposition," he added in his speech on Monday.

Many Venezuelans have not bought that argument, though, blaming him for the world's highest inflation, shortages from milk to medicines, and a devalued currency that trades on the black market at nearly 150 times its strongest official rate.

Maduro's persistence with complex currency and price controls have contributed to Venezuela's economic distortions but, unlike Chavez, he has also had to contend with a plunge in the price of Venezuela's only significant export, oil.

"This is Nicolas Maduro's defeat, not Chavez's," said Humberto Lopez, 57, a diehard Chavista well-known to Venezuelans for walking the streets dressed as Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. "I'm not hugely surprised."

Underlining the unprecedented mood in Venezuela, videos online showed five prominent socialist politicians - including Chavez's brother Adan - being booed at voting centres on Sunday, with crowds yelling "the government will fall!" or "thief!".

The government's defeat was another disappointment for Latin America's bloc of left-wing governments following last month's swing to the centre-right in Argentina's presidential election.

But various regional leaders praised Maduro for accepting defeat so quickly. And words of consolation came from the Venezuelan government's closest ally, Communist-run Cuba.

"I'm sure new victories for the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution will come under your leadership," President Raul Castro wrote to Maduro, referring to Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar as well as his late friend Chavez.

Another ally, Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales, cast the Venezuelan vote as part of "imperial" plotting but also said it should provoke "deep reflection" among revolutionaries.

(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Corina Pons in Caracas; Daniel Trotta in Havana, Danny Ramos in La Paz,; Sujata Rao in London, Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Girish Gupta, Kieran Murray and Frances Kerry)

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