Cuban Embassy in Venezuela Besieged

yahoo.com ^ | Apr 12, 2002 8:01 PM ET | ANDREW SELSKY, AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - About 500 Venezuelans, chanting and blowing whistles, demonstrated outside the Cuban Embassy on Friday, angered by Cuban leader Fidel Castro's support of ousted President Hugo Chavez and claiming four of Chavez's lieutenants were hiding inside.

Riot police stood between the protesters and the embassy, its turquoise walls spattered with eggs. Demonstrators vandalized at least three cars in front of the embassy - breaking windows, puncturing tires and pouring white paint inside - thinking the vehicles belonged to the former members of Chavez's government.

The protesters also reportedly cut telephone and electrical wires leading to the embassy.

In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told journalists the Cuban diplomats had been instructed to protect the mission "with their very lives." He also denied any Venezuelans were seeking refuge at the site.

He said he expressed concerns to the United Nations about the safety of the embassy and its diplomats and blamed the protests on "coup leaders" backed by Cuban exile groups in Miami.

Henrique Capriles Radonski, mayor of the upper-middle class suburb of Baruta where the embassy is located, stood on a 10-foot wall surrounding the compound and urged to the crowd not to storm the mission - though he encouraged protesters not to leave.

He refused to say if any Venezuelans had sought refuge inside.

Chavez and Castro were good friends. Castro even celebrated his 75th birthday with Chavez last year in Venezuela.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, left, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wave to a crowd while touring Canaima National Park in eastern Venezuela in a canoe in this Aug. 12, 2001 file photo. Chavez, the former army paratrooper who polarized Venezuela with his strongarm rule and whose friendship with Cuba and Iraq irritated the United States, resigned under military pressure Friday, April 12, 2002 after a massive opposition demonstration ended in a bloodbath. (AP Photo/HO, Miraflores Presidential Palace, Egilda Gomez)

[McGavin999]

Gee, aren't you "cuban exiles" powerful? LOL

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba protests ouster of Venezuela's Chavez*** Rodriguez criticized the United States for not condemning Chavez's overthrow, saying that "the Yankees are almost always behind coups ... and install dictators."***

[Travis McGee]

BTTT!

[fieldmarshaldj]

"But the charismatic former paratroop colonel, who had staged a failed military coup in 1992, betrayed the voters and proved to be more of a pompous, left-leaning egomaniac than a true democrat."

But I thought true democrats ARE pompous, left-leaning egomaniacs !

[Grampa Dave]

Here is the link that I mentioned above!

Maybe our new friends in Venezuela have started to drive the wooden spike in the heart of the Vampire Opec!

This could be the beginning of the end of the vile Opecker Princes and Opec: (The beginning of the end of the vile Opecker Princes and Opec!)

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuela syncrude challenging Mideast oil in U.S.--[Excerpt] The first shipment of Sincor will go to TotalFinaElf's refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, this month. Sincor is expected to hit full production by the end of the year.

U.S. refiner Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp., a unit of Valero Energy Corp. has signed a three-year contract to take 45,000 bpd of the new ``Zuata Sweet'' crude to its Three Rivers refinery near Corpus Christi, Texas.

While analysts and oil companies warn that new oil terms put in place under Venezuela's new hydrocarbon's law may prevent further heavy oil investment, the Ministry of Energy and Mines said the tar belt would provide stable supply for decades.

``We have oil in the Orinoco to last for the next 35 to 40 years,'' said a Ministry spokesman. [End Excerpt]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

LOL!!

[The Bolt]

In effect, the revolution had eaten its young. Power had corrupted. Domestically, Clinton grabbed for power with both hands. He put his old military friends into high positions. He muzzled and intimidated America's leftist free press, got rid of honest judges along with some corrupt ones, rewrote the constitution and attacked middle-class businessmen, the Roman Catholic Church and labor leaders. He set the nation's U. S. Attorney's on a path to ruin. I thought they were talking about the big creep.

[bourbon]

para hispanohablantes:

Excellent editorial in a Venezuelan newspaper

Here's hoping that most of the Venezuelan people feel the same way this guy does!

FYI angloparlantes, here are some of the things this fellow calls for in his editorial. 1) an immediate end to diplomatic relations with Cuba and the expulsion of all Cuba ambassadors from Venezuela. 2) support for the Uruguayan measure submitted to the UN condmening Cuba for interfering in Venezuelan internal affairs. 3) a return to military cooperation with the government of Colombia and increased support for their civil war against FARC. [and my favorite] a declaration of the democratic character of the Venezuelan society and total support for the international war against terrorism!

isn't it fun to witness liberty and clear-thinking on the rise for a change?! The events in Venezuela should give hope to liberty-loving people worldwide. Pray for our brothers in Venezuela!

CW, I have greatly enjoyed your postings on this topic. Keep up the great work. You're faster, smarter, and a damn sight more thorough than the major media!

[bourbon]

(((ping)))

[PatrickHenry]

Last night, PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer did a segment on the resignation, with two guests to discuss the situation. Not once did anyone mention that Chavez was a communist. Transcript Here.

Probably just an innocent journalistic oversight.
</sarcasm>

[Let's Roll]

"But I thought true democrats ARE pompous, left-leaning egomaniacs ! "

Just the US variety!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

They never use the word communist. Hell, they hardly ever refer to "president" Castro as a communist. No, the closest they like to go is "left-leaning, fire-brand Hugo Chavez, who held such promise to help the poor." He wanted to use the poor to stay in power. He's a criminal and I hope they put him in jail.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I loved reading your post. Thank you.

[Shermy]

Yes. thanks very much for the ping.

[Erasmus]

``We have oil in the Orinoco to last for the next 35 to 40 years,'' said a Ministry spokesman. [End Excerpt]

Enya even sang a song about it!

[Deb]

From what I can gather of the coverage to date, the term "Communist" has been changed to "Populist".

The Left Angeles Times reported the story in an equally mystifying way. It even had a "Time-Line" of Chavez events without mentioning he was Che-adoring, Marxist revolutionary who tried to overthrow the government and created a peasant-led groundswell that got him elected by lying to the poor, ignorant peasants and using class envy in a vicious campaign against the government.

The Times called his actions of eliminating the Venezulean Congress and installing his fellow revolutionaries in the Supreme Court "reforming the government".

If I hadn't been following this story for years I wouldn't have recognized the person they were talking about as Chavez. John Ashcroft gets worse press than Chavez (or Arafat).

[tet68]

Ya sure that isn't Algore on the right?
Seems I saw him in an outfit like that before.

Fidel and Hugo ride the wild rapids at Six Flags over Cuber.
(Look at them, you KNOW they just burned a fat one!)

[Cincinatus' Wife]

John Ashcroft gets worse press than Chavez (or Arafat).

Well, this morning the media is having a field day believing Castro II is going to be back in the palace and in control again. Ugh!!

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

What happens when the hundreds of thousands who thought he was gone wake up to find out he is back??!!