In Caracas, Thousands Support Opposition

AP ^ | 10/7/6 | ELIZABETH NUNEZ

[SmithL]

Hugo
must go.

[nutmeg]

CARACAS -- Thousands marched Saturday in the biggest show of public support yet for Venezuela's main opposition presidential candidate, who pledged to undo what he called the ills of President Hugo Chavez's government.

Manuel Rosales accused the government of mismanaging the country's oil wealth and ignoring crime. He also played on fears that Chavez's close friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro was leading Venezuela down the same path as the communist island.

Hugo must go!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[kinoxi]

I have a hard time seeing him staying in power. I've never read so much about a 'quote unquote' 'leader' that for all intents and purposes was Eric Cartman from South Park.

[Antoninus]

9,000? Has the AP actually seen any of the pictures? More like 90,000 or more.

[jazusamo]

Hugo ping.

[bpjam]

I wonder how long it will take for Rosales to catch a fatal cold or flu. There is no way Chavez lets him live to see an election.

[ZULU]

Let's hope our CIA is helping this guy remove that festering cancer Chavez from his position.

[Nextrush]

He fixed the last election like dictators do and he can squeeze the opposition to around 10 percent of the vote or less through fear and intimidation.

A few years ago tens of thousands would be in the streets to oppose him. Maybe there were that many today but only 10-thousand would be a disappointment to me and would reflect Chavez consolidating a dictatorship.

[kinoxi]

I hope you are being pessimistic in your assessment. The amount of good that can be done minus POS's like this cannot be measured.

[outdriving]

The American government should do their part and buy plane tickets for any of the expat. protesters in New York last week to return to their country and put their life where their mouth is.

[HelloooClareece]

We must respect his AUTHORITIE!

[HelloooClareece]

It looked more like 90k than 9k...definitely.

[hardworking]

$10 says the opposition candidate won't make it to election day.

[kinoxi]

The sad part is that people do.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

["Hugo must go. "]

Rest assured, unfortunately Hugo is going to take every step that he has to such that he remains in power.

[Nextrush]

The BBC story had a still photo that shows a really big crowd, so I'm a little more optimistic.

The link is: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4801521.stm

[kinoxi]

Thanks for the link.

Young and old took to the streets to throw their weight behind the campaign of Mr Rosales, a middle-class Social Democrat who governs the state of Zulia, on the Colombian border

Your a little more optimistic of what if I may ask...

[Nextrush]

That the opposition may be able to use mass demonstrations to defeat Chavez because I'm sure the electoral process is rigged at this point.

[kinoxi]

I think we both wish for the same thing here. A fair accounting of the electorate.

[cmsgop]

Si !