Venezuela has invited an A-list of foreign leaders and celebrities to observe the recall vote on President Hugo Chávez, but restrictions may limit their work.

BY RICHARD BRAND

CARACAS - The list of foreigners invited as observers of the Aug. 15 recall vote on President Hugo Chávez reads like a who's who of red-carpet celebrities -- former South African President Nelson Mandela, filmmaker Michael Moore, actor Danny Glover and Nobel-laureate author Gabriel García Márquez.

But it remains to be seen whether the more experienced observers, including the Organization of American States and the Atlanta-based Carter Center, will be able to do their jobs after the National Electoral Council approved restrictions on their participation.

RULES ARE VAGUE

OAS and Carter Center officials have said they believe they will be able to do the work -- as long as the Electoral Council applies a loose interpretation to the vaguely written rules it approved in July.

The rules prohibit observers from making declarations to the media during the vote, issuing opinions about Venezuela's internal affairs and ''interfering'' in the electoral processes.

''We have had meetings with the [Electoral Council] to discuss these restrictions and, based on what they have told us, we believe the conditions are satisfactory,'' said Francisco Diez, the Carter Center's representative in Caracas.

While this provision is not specifically included in the restrictions, council spokesman Alfredo Palacios has said that observers also will not be allowed to conduct independent audits of the recall vote, which are being sought by Venezuela's opposition.

''In Venezuela, according to the law, only the [council] is allowed to confirm the results of an election,'' Palacios told The Herald.

In what may be a sign of difficulties to come, pro-Chávez council member Oscar Battaglini, who is in charge of the foreign observer program, threatened last month to withdraw the Carter Center's invitation if it continues to ``meet with political actors.''

''We are not going to permit a repeat of previous problems,'' Battaglini wrote in a letter to the Carter Center, repeating complaints that the group led by former President Jimmy Carter has favored the opposition.

The Carter Center, which has observed dozens of elections around the world, has rejected such criticisms, saying its approach has been evenhanded.

The council has also taken jabs at the OAS, accusing the head of its mission in Caracas, Fernando Jaramillo, of favoring the opposition. The OAS has dropped Jaramillo from its team and replaced him with Brazil's OAS envoy, Valter Pecly Moreira.

TRADITION OF FRAUD

The observers have a crucial role to play in this country, with its long history of electoral fraud. Both sides have already accused each other of cheating or preparing to do so. Any problem with the vote itself has the potential to throw this petroleum-rich and severely polarized nation into chaos. Chávez's foes say the leftist populist leader is trying to impose a Cuba-style authoritarian regime. His supporters say he is fighting for the poor in a nation with widespread inequality and a history of corruption and mismanagement.

Those tensions have boiled over in recent years, producing a failed coup in April 2002 and a series of strikes and deadly street clashes.

The opposition has already complained of possible fraud in a massive expansion of the voter rolls -- by 1.5 million since April alone, a 12 percent increase -- and the purchase of touch-screen voting machines from two Boca Raton-based firms that have no previous experience with elections.

The large number of observers invited has the potential to create confusion, some analysts say. So do the invitations to a plethora of pro-Chávez groups.

''Don't be surprised if after the vote there are conflicting accounts from observers about what happened. Having all these groups may give the impression that the [Electoral Council] is being transparent, but it in fact may be the opposite,'' said Simon Alberto Consalvi, a former Venezuelan foreign minister.

''Besides, how can somebody like . . . Michael Moore do anything but ceremonially attend?'' Consalvi added.

Whether some of the big names accept the invitations at all is still an open question.

U.S. author Noam Chomsky told The Herald that he had declined Venezuela's invitation. A spokesman for independent U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader said he was not likely to attend.