Well it wasn't me this time .... therefore, it must be you ... couldn't possibly be a crowd holding their breath on this puppy, could there? -g-
News from Vz has quieted down some, still there is a struggle going on ... this from friday -
' Venezuelan Troops Fight Chavez Supporters
Fri Jun 13, 3:55 PM ET
By ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela troops fought pitched street battles
Friday with supporters of President Hugo Chavez who tried to disrupt an
opposition rally in an impoverished area of Caracas considered a
government stronghold. At least three people were injured.
Troops in armored vehicles arrived at the scene
while "Chavistas," as the president's supporters
are known, fought back, throwing bottles, rocks
and firecrackers at security forces.
Hundreds of national guard troops and police in
riot gear launched tear gas grenades to disperse
more than 100 rowdy government backers.
Columns of black smoke rose from tires burning
in the street and mingled with thick clouds of white tear gas.
One police officer was wounded by gunfire from an unknown source and two
others were hurt by rocks, said Pedro Aristimuno, the city's health
secretary. The tear gas forced the evacuation of 25 children from a nearby
hospital, he added.
Ignoring government warnings that violence could erupt, opposition parties
called the rally as part of a series of events in Caracas slums to prove
Chavez's traditional support among the poor has evaporated.
Interior Minister Lucas Rincon pleaded with march organizers to take the
protest to an area where there would be less potential for violence.
"We alert the population to the security risks that this act carries," Rincon
said in an address to the nation late Thursday. "This isn't about impeding a
political act. It's about taking it to a less risky one."
Hours before the planned protest, dozens of Chavez sympathizers burned
tires in a plaza on the only route to the opposition's chosen site — an
eastern Caracas street beneath hills covered by red-brick shanties.
The protest comes three weeks after unidentified gunmen killed one person
and wounded 10 at an opposition march in a poor neighborhood on the city's
west side. No one was arrested.
The opposition center-right COPEI party refused to cancel the protest,
insisting it wouldn't be intimidated by what it called government-sponsored
violence to silence dissent.
Chavez denies those allegations. He counters opponents constantly provoke
chaos to justify the ouster of a democratically elected president. The
president was briefly ousted in an April 2002 coup and defied demands he
step down during a ruinous two-month general strike that collapsed in
February.
Early Friday, federal police sharpshooters stationed themselves on rooftops
overlooking the protest site. The city government dispatched another 3,000
officers to patrol the streets. At the protest three weeks ago, police snipers
fired at public housing buildings where the shooting apparently originated.
Political violence has killed more than 50 people in Venezuela over the past
year, mostly during clashes between pro- and anti-Chavez forces. The
country is deeply divided between those who adore Chavez as a champion
of the poor and those who revile him as a power-monger trying to remodel
Venezuela after Cuba's communist regime.
Chavez foes are demanding an internationally backed referendum on his rule
later this year, insisting it's the only way to restore stability to Venezuela, a
key oil exporter to the United States.
First elected in 1998, Chavez pushed through a new constitution in 1999
that paved the way for his 2000 re-election to a new six-year term. '
story.news.yahoo.com |
