Demonstrators clash in Venezuelan riots

CARACAS, Venezuela - Caracas riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas today at hundreds of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's supporters who attacked some 2,000 anti-government demonstrators on the streets of the capital.

Several people were injured in skirmishes around Venezuela's historic National Assembly building. The city police struggled to separate about 300 government loyalists from demonstrators bearing placards reading "Chavez Out."

During lulls in the clashes, rival factions squared off on street corners in downtown Caracas, throwing rocks or bottles, while a water cannon prowled the area to disperse the throng.

Venezuela's largest opposition party, the centrist Democratic Action, convened the march to protest the left-leaning Chavez's use of special legislative powers to decree far-reaching economic reforms without consultation.

"Our principal weapon is our right to demonstrate against this pitiful situation which is dragging Venezuela through the dirt, humiliated and discredited not only at home but abroad as well," said Democratic Action politician Henry Ramos.

The march quickly deteriorated into chaos as supporters of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement or MVR tried to block its passage toward Congress. Stores closed as tear gas filled the streets, and the metropolitan police, controlled by opposition Mayor Alfredo Pena, fired on the government loyalists.

"We are protesting against this march, we are Chavez followers and the police are opening fire on us," said Felipe Mundarain, 53, his leg bloodied by a rubber bullet wound.

At least three other people were struck on the head by flying bottles and required medical attention, witnesses said.

It was the second time in two weeks that supporters of Chavez battled their opponents on the streets of the capital, after another demonstration earlier this month deteriorated into violence.

Interior Minister Luis Miquelena dismissed the demonstration as insignificant and said the Chavez supporters who attacked it were not MVR members. He blasted Pena -- one of Chavez's sternest critics -- for using the police against the crowds.

Metropolitan Police Chief Henry Vivas defended the actions of his force, saying, "It is preferable sometimes to throw a tear gas canister rather than pick up a dead body from the floor."

Recent opinion polls have shown Chavez's popularity falling below 50 percent as many voters tire of his failure to deliver on campaign promises to tackle poverty, corruption and crime. Chavez's approval rating topped 80 percent after the former paratrooper took office three years ago. His current presidential term expires in 2007.

His "revolutionary" government has faced a wave of criticism -- from the Roman Catholic Church, the media, unions, the United States and political parties -- for its authoritarian style and animosity to the private sector.

Chavez, who rose to fame in a botched 1992 military uprising, has insisted drastic measures are necessary to oust the entrenched elites that have run the world's No. 4 oil exporter since the country's last dictator was toppled in 1958.

Venezuelan riot police fire rubber bullets and tear gas to stop President Hugo Chavez supporters from storming an opposition party march in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2001. Venezuelan police and National Guardsmen fired hundreds of shots into the air and sprayed tear gas to stop President Hugo Chavez's supporters from storming an opposition march Thursday. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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It was the second time in two weeks that supporters of Chavez battled their opponents on the streets of the capital, after another demonstration earlier this month deteriorated into violence.

(November 8, 2001) -HUGO CHAVEZ SUPPORTERS ATTACK PARENTS (protesting education takeover by Chavez) A supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds a brick and threatens the parents and teachers who marched against the government's proposed education reforms in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Nov. 8. 2001. The demonstration ended in violence when the protesters were met by hundreds of Chavez supporters when they reached Congress.

Thursday November 22 7:54 PM ET Venezuela Riot Police Quell Clashes-- By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, AP

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan police and National Guardsmen fired hundreds of shots into the air and sprayed tear gas to stop hundreds of supporters of President Hugo Chavez from storming an opposition march Thursday.

Eight people injured in the clashes were taken to the hospital, one after being shot in the stomach, said Capt. Carlos Cardozo of the Caracas fire department.

The march in downtown Caracas was organized by the centrist Democratic Action Party to protest a package of laws Chavez passed recently under special powers allowing him to avoid parliamentary debate.

Shouts of ``Chavez out!'' were met by ``Long live Chavez!'' as supporters from the president's leftist Fifth Republic Movement Party streamed downtown to disrupt the opposition protest.

Riot police tried to separate the two groups - a total of about 6,000 people - and trained a water cannon on Chavez backers to keep them from storming the march.

``Next time, we'll come with guns!'' some Chavez supporters warned after the opposition march made its way to Congress for a brief rally.

Dozens of ``Chavistas'' - as Chavez's supporters are called here - also threw tear gas canisters and rocks at police outside the offices of Greater Caracas area mayor Alfredo Pena. Pena is a Chavez critic who, citing the use of tear gas by protesters, suggested that government officials incited Thursday's violence.

City Mayor Freddy Bernal, a leader of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement Party, condemned the violence.

No arrests were made, city police commissioner Henry Vivas said.

Several journalists were attacked during the melee, Globovision television reported.

A tense calm prevailed at midday. Vivas said police would remain on the streets until the Chavez supporters went home. A helicopter hovered overhead and police officers stood guard on rooftops. At least 100 National Guardsmen surrounded the Legislative Palace.

The protest follows Chavez's approval last week of a package of 49 laws affecting the economy. The most contentious is a Land Reform Law that outlining government expropriation of private land that lies idle.

Venezuela's biggest business group, Fedecamaras, complained that the law requires farmers to conform to a national agriculture plan drawn up by the government.

Opposition parties and business groups accuse Chavez's government of failing to consult with the private sector.

Chavez insists the government consulted a wide range of economists, business leaders, lawyers and farmers about the laws.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez supporters line up to stop the Democratic Action supporters during an anti-Chavez march in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2001. Venezuelan police and National Guardsmen fired hundreds of shots into the air and sprayed tear gas to stop President Hugo Chavez's supporters from storming an opposition march Thursday. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Democratic Action supporters protest against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during an anti-Chavez march in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2001. Venezuelan police and National Guardsmen fired hundreds of shots into the air and sprayed tear gas to stop President Hugo Chavez's supporters from storming an opposition march Thursday. The poster at the background reads " Chavez resign." (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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A look at Hugo "Left-leaning" Chavez and his "peaceful revolution."

It's Cool Again to Be Communist---[ "In the 1980s we observed that Marxist-Leninist antidemocratic groups were consistently supported and helped by misguided members of the left wing of the Social Democratic parties in Europe and a number of other regions," says Constantine C. Menges, a former national intelligence officer at the CIA who is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington. "Regrettably, they seem to have learned little from the revelations that followed the unraveling of communism in Eastern Europe, and it appears that many of these misguided groups and individuals are back supporting antidemocratic, radical causes. As examples, they are supporting the [Hugo] Chavez regime in Venezuela and the communist guerrillas in Colombia."

Inspired by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and Cuba's Fidel Castro, military strongman Chavez is turning oil-rich Venezuela into a populist, anti-U.S. dictatorship, say U.S. intelligence sources. They tell Insight that Chavez is providing a safe haven for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) narcoguerrillas, an 18,000-man insurgency that began decades ago as an offshoot of the local Communist Party and still clings to Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Agreed!

On another note, I read today in the Spanish press that Fidel Castro refused to attend the Iberoamerican Conference in Lima because Mario Vargas Llosa was receiving an award from the Peruvian government. The ostensible reason for Fidel's absence was Hurricane Michelle, but it was evidently widely known that he was enraged by the fact that Vargas Llosa, his ideological enemy, was receiving this prize.

It is interesting that, while Communists claim that they are regaining power in Latin America, they feel so easily threatened. I think they actually have a lot less support than they think; witness Ortega's recent defeat. So long as they are not able to put in place a locked-down Castro-style dictatorship, I think any initial enchantment they may have for dissatisfied Latin Americans will wear off rather quickly and this will be shown publicly, as is now happening in Venezuela. I certainly hope so, at any rate!

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