2 Die in Protests During Venezuela Summit

AP/YAHOO! News ^ | ALEXANDRA OLSON

[Luis Gonzalez]

CARACAS, Venezuela - Clashes between police and thousands of protesters pressing for the recall of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez overshadowed a summit of developing nations, with at least two people killed and dozens injured.

AP Photo

The confrontation came Friday as Chavez opened a two-day summit with the leaders of 18 other developing nations in Caracas, urging them to reject free-market policies imposed by industrialized nations.

"Globalization has not brought expected independence. It has increased dependence. ... It has extended poverty," Chavez said. "Free market ideology was created by the North to serve its own interests."

Near the summit site at the downtown Hilton Hotel in the capital, guard troops fired dozens of tear gas canisters at the jeering crowd of anti-Chavez protesters, who responded by throwing rocks. Some in the crowd set trash and tires ablaze and blocked a highway.

Two people were killed, Interior Minister Lucas Rincon said. Hospital officials said at least 26 people were injured.

Dozens of opposition protesters blocked a Caracas highway late Friday with burning tire barricades, while others banged pots and pans to protest the violence.

The military had put 50,000 troops and police on the streets for the summit and warned it would not tolerate opposition protests.

Venezuela's government cut live TV and radio broadcasts of the violence on private channels and replaced it with summit coverage.

Citing the possibility of more violence, the U.S. State Department late Friday urged Americans in Venezuela to monitor news broadcasts and avoid demonstrations.

At the summit, Chavez accused the United States and the European Union (news - web sites) of spending billions of dollars on subsidies that shut out Third World products while demanding that poor countries eliminate any barriers to their imports.

Fighting poverty with oil wealth, dismantling industrialized nations' protectionist trade barriers and reducing foreign debt were central themes of a draft summit declaration circulated Friday. A final declaration was to be issued after another round of talks Saturday.

Since his 1998 election, Chavez has emerged as one of the Third World's fiercest critics of U.S. economic and political domination. He is a vocal opponent of U.S.-led negotiations to establish a free trade zone throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel accused an "aggressive, coup-plotting and terrorist" opposition of provoking Friday's violence. He said a house owned by a pro-government party was burned.

A government statement claimed radicals from the leftist Red Flag party and the center-right Democratic Action party triggered the confrontation.

Manuel Cova, head of the Venezuelan Labor Confederation, and other opposition leaders said the protests would continue.

Chavez insists an opposition petition for a recall referendum — being scrutinized by elections officials — is ridden with fraud. Elections officials have suggested they may toss out the petition for technical reasons.

The Organization of American States, the EU and the U.S.-based Carter Center have urged Venezuela to ignore technical glitches in favor of voters' apparent intent. Chavez was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term.

Relations between Venezuela, a top U.S. oil supplier, and the United States have been strained over Chavez's friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro (news - web sites) and his criticism of free market policies.

Formed in 1989 and still known as the Group of 15, the summit actually includes 19 countries: Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

The group's influence and work have waned in recent years, and a summit was canceled last year because of unrest in Caracas.

[Luis Gonzalez]

**PING**

[Howlin]

Distressing, to say the least.

[Redcoat LI]

"Free market ideology was created by the North to serve its own interests."

Hugo Chavez and John Edwards,great minds think alike.

[Dan from Michigan]

I'll certainly be raising a glass when Chavez and his buddy Castro are out of power.

[Graymatter]

Ah, but they didn't have a permit. So it's ok to gas them. They started it.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Two people were killed, Interior Minister Lucas Rincon said. Hospital officials said at least 26 people were injured.

The military had put 50,000 troops and police on the streets for the summit and warned it would not tolerate opposition protests.

Sad state of affairs.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[marron]

Venezuela has never had a free economy. They have always had an economy in which key portions of it were controlled by the government, and local business protected by a strong tariff. They have suffered decades of economic stagnation as a result. Their national manufacture has been able to offer low quality at high prices, as anyone who remotely understands economics could predict, and a situation where the contraband man is a regular fixture and the locals, even those of modest income, do their shopping abroad whenever possible. It has always been common for families of modest means to save all year to send grandma shopping in Miami at K-Mart.

When Venezuela began to move away from these policies that were dragging her down, Chavez and his cohorts organized their military rebellion. The rebellion failed, but aroused so much support among the people that succeeding governments competed to essentially implement his policies. The result was runaway inflation and empty stores, droves of workers turned out of work, and a collapsing banking system.

So by the time Chavez himself ran for office, the country was in dire straits already. He ran with a promise to throw out the constitution and disband the congress and the supreme court, which he did upon his election. He has blamed the US and previous administrations for the condition of the economy, and almost no one realizes that his plan is simply more of the same, but in higher doses. And the result has been more of the same, only worse. More people thrown out of work, a weaker bank, weaker currency, more desperation, and all of this at the cost of their liberty.

[hchutch]

Time for CIA to get working...

[fuzzycat]

I am in the aircraft interor business. Had a shop in Ft. Pierce around 1980. When I did interiors for Venezuelan companies the pilot would go shopping before he returned to SA and load the damned airplane to over gross before he returned. They all did that cause they could not get US goods there. We need Ollie North big time now. Somebody needs to take out Chavez and deSilva before we have a real problem.

[blam]

I'm glad to see that the people are still fired up about removing the Castro commie, Chavez.

[BARLF]

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel

Charlies brother?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"Summit security" provides Chavez with necessary cover as he oppresses opposition to his recall.

[Hope from Venezuela]

I'll also drink to that!!!! By the way, this will be a long night in Venezuela. The "guarimba" is in effect. To those who don't know what the term means, it is the act of protesting peacefully near a hiding place and hiding when there is danger. The castro-communist government in Venezuela has been taken by surprise because, up to Friday, they thought the opposition was much like Jesus Christ (turn the other cheeck). What is happening now is that they are confronting the bully. Imagine, the unarmed opposition are fearlessly confronting the National Guard. Bu the way, it is rumored that they are made up of Castro Cubans and not Venezuelan military.

[Hope from Venezuela]

But they did have a permit. That is what is so unfair about the whole thing. When the officialists (Chávez's followers march, they never require a permit.

[Iberian]

Thats not the only glass raised. Chavez is a real problem in our continent, of course Raul and Fidel Castro must go as well.