FILE PHOTO OF VENEZUELAN NATIONAL GUARDSMEN FIRING RUBBER BULLETS AT PROTESTERS, 2002-08-14 (photo)

File photo showing Venezuelan National Guardsmen fire rubber bullets at supporters of President Hugo Chavez during a protest in Caracas on August 14, 2002. Predicting the demise of Venezuela's pugnacious left-wing former paratrooper turned president, who survived a short-lived military coup against him in April, has become a national pastime in the world's fifth largest oil exporter. Rumors of another coup, early elections or a sudden violent twist to Chavez's self-proclaimed "Revolution" are flowing as thickly in Caracas as the city's notoriously chaotic traffic. In wealthy eastern suburbs, die-hard foes of the populist president, who was democratically elected with a landslide vote in 1998, greet each other with the same frantic question: "So when is it then? When are we going to get rid of Chavez?" REUTERS/Kimberly White/FEATURE/VENEZUELA-RUMORS KW