Chavez is relying on bedrock support: Opponents call Circles 'presidential gangs'*** "We have to demand that Chavez dissolve these groups for the good of the country," says Felipe Mujica, an opposition leader. "No one can believe that these are civilians fighting against poverty. That's a camouflage for a paramilitary organization." But dismantling of the groups, which have turned into a crucial source of support for Chavez, seems unlikely. ***
Venezuela's Media: Free or Footloose? (VRWC - South American style)*** APRIL 21, 2002. Imagine the owners of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN meeting at the home of Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. with the head of the Joints Chiefs of Staff and assorted military top brass to plot to bring down U.S. President John Doe, a blowhard populist who has been elected by a landslide.
The plan is wickedly simple. Organize a massive march to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of Omnicom, the behemoth conglomerate that generates most of the country's riches, ostensibly to show support for their valiant struggle against the meddlesome, regulation-crazy Doe. Then, suddenly, turn the march around and head to the White House, which, your military co-conspirators tell you, will be left unguarded, to demand that Doe resign, or else ... ***