Oread Daily writes

VENEZUELA IS NOT HAITI

In eastern Caracas today opposition groups once more threw up roadblocks in the capital’s middle and upper class areas. Demonstrators lit tires and garbage at intersections throughout Caracas' wealthier neighborhoods. Barricades have been raised on roadways leading into and out of several neighborhoods, but traffic has not been blocked on the main east-west highways, which are being protected by the National Guard, a militarized national police force. Caracas' Plaza Altamira, the site of an October 2002 "insurrection" of dissident military officers, has reemerged as a focus of protest. At least five people have died and more than 50 injured over the past four days, officials said, adding that 50 people had been arrested Monday. Since Friday, the opposition Democratic Coordinator has called on its supporters to engage in "peaceful resistance" aimed at pressuring the National Electoral Council (CNE) to approve the 3.4 million signatures submitted in support of a recall referendum on Chavez's continuance in office. But the government says a large number of the signatures were forged and that the total falls short of the 2.4 million (20 percent of registered voters) needed to trigger the plebiscite. The CNE postponed its ruling on the signatures until Tuesday, pending a meeting with representatives of the Organization of American States and the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which are acting as international observers.

The Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) also has given its blessing to street protests and rejects National Elections Council (CNE) decisions.

Vice Minister of Citizen Security Carlos Bettiol said that Carlos Melo, a representative of the Democratic Coordinator opposition coalition, was arrested Monday while using a vehicle to transport a number of assault rifles.” We have information that certain radical groups are looking to cause deaths so they can later blame them on the government," he said. Information Minister Jesse Chacon says "their only aim is to take power through violence!"

In Valencia (Carabobo), home to the anti-government Salas (Romer/Feo) political family, opposition violence provoked another day of traffic stoppage, closing the main Central Western Highway and access routes. Thirty persons with gunshot and firearms wounds are reported to been admitted to the city hospital, one of whom is a Globovision correspondent. Government sources report that Seminario Impacto magazine reporters, Ricardo Adrian and Roger Trivino were set on and severely beaten along with Universidad Arturo Michelena School of Journalism students, while Carabobo police officers looked on. The local police there and opposition goon squads appear to be working hand in hand.

The timing of all this may be coincidental (re: Haiti), but there's reason to be wary of an encore performance by US policy makers in Caracas.

The opposition’s use of the “referendum” is little more than a ploy as it knows that Hugo Chavez would sweep any popular elections. But charges of fraud are always well received by the Bush Administration when it comes to governments of which it does not approve. Street protests by the largely middle and upper class opposition also always look good when left unexplained.

On Sunday, at least 60,000 supporters of the President marched in the capital and converged for a rally led by Chavez. Chavez - who says the US is backing opposition efforts to topple his leftist government - accused US President George W Bush of heeding advice from "imperialist" aides to support a brief 2002 coup against him. "He was an asshole to believe them," Chavez said to his followers. The president also threatened to cut off oil supplies to the US, should Washington try an invasion or trade sanctions. Then, Chavez insisted he would not resign. "Venezuela is not Haiti and Chavez is not Aristide," he said. Chávez reiterated his previous charges against the present White House administration of supporting opposition actions to defeat him that do not exclude violence. “…as a preamble to larger confrontations, the United States is trying to spread the image of generalized chaos in the nation that would propitiate foreign intervention,” he confirmed. The President warned that if the Bush administration carried out what he called American aggressions, "the people of the United States should know that they will not get another drop of oil from Venezuela." The American energy market is heavily reliant on Venezuela, one of the top four providers of petroleum to the United States. Chávez's supporters shouted pro-Chávez slogans and carried anti-American signs. "We're defending our president from the opposition, and our country from the United States," said Ana García, who had traveled from neighboring Aragua state. "And we're protecting the reforms our president has made. We're with his revolution, and we will defend him to the death.” Sources: Xinhua, Information Clearing House, EFE (Spain), V Headlines, Narcosphere, Granma, Pravda

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