Venezuela Chavez Forces Gas Stations Open (Chavez nationalizing oil!)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent troops to force gas stations to open and threatened to take over private gas delivery companies Sunday amid increasing signs of scarcity due to a strike that has shut down production by the world's fifth-largest oil producer.

Lines of cars stretched for blocks in Caracas on Sunday as panic-buying at gas stations began on the general strike's seventh day. Shoppers emptied store shelves, worried about political unrest and Chavez's threat to declare martial law if needed.

Last week, Chavez sent soldiers to protect oil wells and refineries from possible sabotage by strikers. On Sunday, he sent soldiers to gasoline stations to ensure continued service and delivered a warning to striking gasoline truck drivers.

"They are failing to provide a public service, and that's a crime. We can seize those vehicles," Chavez said during a five-hour-plus edition of his weekly television program, "Hello President."

Chavez said late Saturday that martial law was "a possibility, depending on the evolution of the situation."

The strike has forged a deep divide between supporters of Chavez and those who want him toppled. It has stopped shipments of crude to the United States, which purchases more than 10 percent of its imported oil from Venezuela.

Angry mourners wept Sunday over the flower-covered coffin of a teenager killed at an opposition rally Friday night.

Relatives held an overnight wake before burying 18-year-old Keyla Guerra, the youngest of three people killed when gunmen opened fire on the peaceful rally.

"If my daughter's death contributes to the freedom of my country, I will have some consolation," her mother said at the private wake, according to family friend Marisabel Hernandez, a 48-year-old dentist.

Well-wishers left flowers as they filed past to hug her grieving parents. Friends passed around photographs of Guerra dressed up for carnival at age 4, and hamming it up at a friend's recent birthday party.

A senior in high school, Guerra was looking forward to her graduation present, a trip to the beach resort of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Friends said Guerra became more studious in her senior year because she hoped to study graphic design at a university.

She also became more political. The walls of her room were plastered with photographs taken at anti-Chavez marches, said her friend, 16-year-old Xelmira Da Silva.

On Friday, Guerra accompanied her father to the Plaza Francia, an opposition rallying point, to support the general strike.

At about 7 p.m., gunmen opened fire on the crowd of hundreds. Demonstrators carried bloodied victims to ambulances; they draped a red, blue and yellow Venezuelan flag over one of the dead. Three people were killed and 28 were wounded. Opposition supporters blamed the attack on pro-Chavez thugs. The investigation is continuing.

"It's sad to see such a young person killed by the hatred of another," said friend Marylena Hernandez, 24. "She has become a martyr for freedom."

Hundreds of supporters marched across town Sunday, waving Venezuelan flags adorned with black tape to represent their grieving. Funerals for the other two victims were also being held Sunday.

Six shooting suspects were brought before a judge on Sunday. Heavily armed police held back incensed opposition supporters as they hustled the suspects into a car.

The slayings caused the opposition — until now seeking only a referendum on Chavez's 4-year-old government — to demand his immediate resignation and new elections.

Talks between the opposition and government — suspended when the strike began Dec. 2 — resumed Saturday night but appeared to make little progress.

Declaring martial law so he can nationalize everything in the country? Fidel must be proud!

He's been taking lessons. This is getting serious.

From the linked thread:

Hugo Chavez type innitiatives...
#1 - "Free" oil to Castro 'in trade' for Cuban advisors running secret 'internal security' training camps here.
#2 - FARC/ELN Columbian revolutionists, that US is fighting, are supported materially in exchange for lucrative drug trade that's transported via official health dept vehicles here across Venezuela with Puerto Rico as the foreign destination.
#3 - Relationship with Gaddafi has secured Katushka missles and their Libyan technicians here.
#4 - Relationship with Saddam Hussein has produced both support and material trades with his regime.
#5 - Chavez donated 1 million $'s to Al Queda in Afganistan shortly after 9/11. He also publicly excused his Chavista supporters burning USA flags then by saying USA brought 9/11 upon itself.
#6 - Has deposited 4.5 Billion $'s into Chinese banks and has visited China more frequently than any US President. Also, China has made larger ¨investments¨ in Venezuela than in all other South American countries combined, even if Mexico is also included.
#7 - Thursday, military informer reported, small unit of National Guard ordered by Cnel.(EJ) 2do. Comandante of the Reserve Orlando Zurita Ramirez, who was following orders originating by Chavez, to go to an armory to load up 750 FAL's along with 1.8 million rounds of ammo and transport them to poor neighborhood west of Caracas called "23 de Enero". There they were distributed to local gang of about 1,000 strong called "Caraoaica y Tupacamaro". The Generals told me here that this sort of desperation agitation to create additional street violence by Chavez is to be expected as the precursor and excuse for eventual martial law. This is clear insight and indication of why Chavez is so comfortable with the likes of Saddam Hussein, and Chavez is a whole lot closer!
#8 - Remember brief mention in media recently about accusations Castro had a bio-weapon lab in Cuba? Well, don't bother looking for it there anymore, it was airlifted out by a Chavez C-130 in a rush/hush mission shortly after that news story broke. It's here, still largely crated and being watched, awaiting final destination along with Cuban technicians that came with it.
#9 - As if all the above wasn't enough, and now after Chavez has embraced all the worlds greatest living dictators and their regimes as something to emulate here in Venezuela, he has found, yet another 'hero of the people' to serve up. He has been petitioning the French government to give him 'Carlos The Jackal', currently incarcerated there, so he might 'serve out his term' here in his home country and where his brother resides, Raphael Ramirez, who is Chavez Minister of Energy & Mines.

Given the military liaisons between Cuba and Chavez, the biological warfare aspects of their mutual exchanges (Cuba possesses very sophisticated recombinant technology), their connections with Khaddafi and Saddam Hussein, and their connections to FARC, and I think our stake in the outcome is considerably higher than mere economic benefit or our altruism toward the prosperity of the Venezuelan people.

Consider how easily one could introduce a bioweapon to the US by contaminating cocaine.

Joe, I'm going to take the liberty of posting a reply from another thread that I think is relevant:

To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

It is not funny, and sadly it might be true.

I am a venezuelan and we need your help to get the international community into action, and NOT to back Chavez, as happened a few months back.

Here is a letter I wrote to a friend, that I want to share:

It is with alarm that I write to you, to explain the situation that we live in Venezuela. What I see is that the general American media is either silent, doesn’t realize the consequences of what is happening, or is an accomplice to the destruction of the Venezuelan democracy. As for the OAS or the local US diplomat (Charles Shapiro) they are “playing it safe” siding with the government, since they hold the power at the moment.

In a way I understand this US stance, since the opposition to Chavez is inherently pro-western, pro-capitalist, and maybe even pro-American. So the calculation is probably “since I know the opposition is in my favor, good if they succeed, but in case they don’t I will side with Chavez.” Aside from morally wrong, it is a calculation that can backfire. How reliable is a government headed by the first President that visited Saddam since 1991? How reliable is a government headed by a supporter of Colombia’s FARC? Please remember that Powell visited Colombia just last week to back Mr. Uribe’s anti-terror struggle, and that FARC is responsible for a lot of the drugs that get into the US. How reliable is a government headed by Fidel’s best friend and pupil? Not only Fidel, but also Chavez blames all the evils in the world to the US. But I am not writing to remind the US of the questions it needs to ask itself. I am sure that smarter people than me have reviewed these, and many more question, at all levels of your government. I write to explain, from an internal point of view, what is happening.

First of all, Chavez’s so called revolution has only made Venezuelan poorer. He has divided our society with rhetoric of rich vs. poor (which he will direct at the US in the near future, since you are, obviously, richer than the majority of the world). His government does not respect private property. He controls all the strings of government and has no respect for local authority. He has no respect for merit or ability, and his only measure of people is if they do what he says. He has no respect for the judiciary, and the equivalent of the Attorney General is at Chavez’s service. No matter that he was democratically elected, we have our own dictator, and he is not sitting on tobacco (as Fidel) but on the biggest oil reserves outside the Middle East.

Of course, the government’s speech to the outside world is one of respect for human rights, for debate, for negotiations. And I seem to believe that you are falling for it. We have been in a general strike for about a week. The oil sector joined the strike, and to the inside Chavez has to his thugs is no other speech than “let’s take to the streets to protect our revolution.” An oil tanker, filled with over 44 million liters of gasoline was raided by the military, and a captain with no experience was put on charge. Meanwhile the government’s line to the outside world is “the tanker was hijacked by pirates and we will solve the situation.”

As another example of the Venezuela that we would have if Chavez remains in power I would like to make known something that was not shown in the US media. In the midst of this strike gas carrying trucks have refused to carry gas from distribution centers to gas stations. The government sent the very pliable military to take control of the trucks, with no legal order whatsoever. It is private property and the owner of the trucks are free to do whatever they see fit with their own trucks. But the government’s actions resemble what happened in Cuba or 1920’s Russia.

The government speaks of going back to the negotiation table, and OAS’s Gaviria echoes this speech. But they have not appeared in the negotiating table for over a week. On Friday there was a massacre on a square where the opposition holds rallies, and the government said it would rejoin negotiations. They have not done so. But OAS still is not condemning the government.

Some say that the Chavez was democratically elected. So? He has not been democratic lately (meaning 4 years). He stealthily got into power, and is trying to impose a regime that we Venezuelans don’t want. More than two million signatures (out of 11 million voters) were submitted to hold a referendum on his remaining in power, but the government still refuses to hold it. And the OAS, and the US, are still silent.

If the world doesn’t act soon, it might as well not act at all. The government holds the political power, by way of the executive branch, a rubberstamp legislative branch bought by corruption money, and a judiciary on the ropes due to constant punching by the previously mentioned. The government holds the military power. More than 100 high ranking officers that refused to turn the armed forces into the praetorian guard of the regime have left the military. The ones left are, as I showed before, pliable to the regime. Additionally, there are armed militias, modeled to the Cuban Revolutionary Guards, which wreak havoc and terror at every turn (this can be seen on the news about Plaza Altamira, were the massacre took place). What are left are the social and the economic powers. The social power is on the streets, but at the mercy of the guns. The economic power is in the oil industry, today in strike. But what will be left if the government pushed the guns all the way into the state oil corporation? Nothing.

I might not be a very eloquent spokesperson; in fact, I am not even a spokesperson. I speak for myself. The Venezuelan government has all the resources it needs to try to convince the world opinion that the situations is different. The media meets with the government; the Venezuelan ambassadors are in every capital, whispering their Goebelian lie to the world. Meanwhile, there is no one to tell the world what is really happening, or the world is not listening.

Please advice how can I push my opinion (and the opinion of millions of others) into the forefront. We need the world to see what this person is doing and that the next Hussein is here, right in Latin America.

Thanks,

Jacques

9 posted on 12/08/2002 5:07 PM EST by support venezuela

The slayings caused the opposition — until now seeking only a referendum on Chavez's 4-year-old government — to demand his immediate resignation and new elections.

Talks between the opposition and government — suspended when the strike began Dec. 2 — resumed Saturday night but appeared to make little progress.

Hey, where's that Nobel prize-winning peanut ~~brain~~ farmer when you need him? Jimmy was quick to commend both sides for getting to the negotiating table, but has been silent since the escalation of civil unrest. He ought to have been condemning the Chavez regime, and should have been first in calling for new elections.

The following note was found on the Carter Center website:

Declaration of Former President Jimmy Carter On The Venezuelan Negotiations

8 Nov 2002

ATLANTA, GA….I commend the Venezuelan government and opposition grouped under the Coordinadora Democratica for opening the Table of Negotiation and Accords today to resolve the deep differences between them. Direct conversation is the best method to increase understanding and to resolve conflict peacefully.

The international community and the International Tripartite Working Group including the OAS, UNDP, and Carter Center, will accompany Venezuela as it seeks to define a common future. I commend OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria for offering to facilitate the talks, and he has my full confidence and support.

Ultimately, it will be Venezuelans themselves who must choose between the paths of confrontation and division, or reconciliation and a promising future.

From the Dec. 9, 2002 Japan Today...

Chavez considers martial law in Venezuela

As the oil crisis deepened, Chavez sent national guard troops to many gas stations Sunday to prevent unrest. He said he might call a state of emergency — the equivalent of martial law — if the strike, which began Dec 2, is extended.

"It's a possibility, depending on the evolution of the situation," Chavez said. "You have to be patient when making this kind of decision. Like a good batter, you have to take a strike, sometimes even two."

*snip*

Talks between the opposition and Chavez's government, suspended when the strike began on Dec 2, resumed Saturday night but appeared to make little progress. Mediator Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, said they would continue this week.

During a meeting with foreign correspondents on Saturday, Chavez accused the opposition of trying to privatize the state oil monopoly and spark a coup against him.

Dissident officers drove Chavez from office on April 12 after 19 people were killed in political violence during another strike. He was restored to power two days later after a popular uprising.

"This fascist, violent and irrational opposition is planning the same thing," Chavez said. "If last time they caught me off guard and managed to surprise me, now they are very mistaken, because I'm ready to respond."

After the killings Friday night, opposition leaders vowed to extend their strike indefinitely. While most businesses are now open, Venezuela's oil industry — the world's fifth-largest — has remained shut down. (Compiled from wire reports)

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=241952

Uh, oh!

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