PING – Hugo is at it again!
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HugoPing Archive
Posted on 04/21/2006 7:58:03 AM PDT by SmithL
CARACAS -- Victims reach the emergency room soaked in blood and dazed — wheeled in on stretchers, carried in people's arms, some still walking with the last of their strength. An elderly man shot in a robbery, a young man sprayed with gunfire, a woman who took a stray bullet in the head while on her way to church.
Venezuela is among the most violent places in Latin America, and critics of President Hugo Chavez are increasingly accusing him of failing to make crime a priority.
The government says it is making progress on the problem, but a series of particularly heinous murders sparked protests earlier this month by people demanding safer streets, and more rallies are planned for Saturday. While crime has long bedeviled Venezuelans, particularly the poor, some protesters say there's a new element to the danger now — class tensions incited by Chavez himself.
"There has always been crime, but not like this. Now they open fire and that's it," said Freddy Dos Santos, standing beside his father, who lay wounded on a gurney at a public hospital.
Relatives of 89-year-old Rodolfo Dos Santos, who was breathing through an oxygen mask, said he was shot while driving to a construction site to pay his workers. He had just braked at a hilltop when a teenager approached and shouted: "Stop!"
Dos Santos yelled for help. The teenager fired, wounding him in the chest, and then fled.
Dos Santos' son accused Chavez of virtually ignoring crime while also inciting the poor:
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
They haven't taken away the guns yet.
Castro in his old age forgot to mention that step to Hugo.
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