Coverage angers Chavez's followers ***One of the president's favorite themes in speeches is the gap between what Chavez calls the media-created ''virtual nation'' and the real one. The media-made virtual nation is rife with exaggerated or imaginary troubles, he argues, including antigovernment work stoppages, demonstrations, and Colombian guerrilla camps on Venezuelan soil. ''Small groups with great economic power have made themselves owners of the mediums of communication,'' Chavez told the nation in his Sunday radio address April 7. The media ''circulate any number of lies when they want to create ... opinions in favor or against someone.''***
Chávez's citizens group, "political army," is fueling tensions *** CARACAS - Officially, Bolivarian Circles are groups of poor Venezuelans organized by populist President Hugo Chávez to carry out such neighborhood activities as cleaning up garbage and fixing potholes. But Chávez's opponents allege that they are armed gangs of pro-Chávez radicals and thugs who terrorize them, attack their street marches, shoot up their offices and cruise Caracas streets in menacing motorcycle packs.
Perhaps more than any other action, the creation of the Bolivarian Circles has heightened the impression -- consistently denied by Chávez -- that he is building his own political army. As a result, the groups have become a critical point of confrontation between the president and his opponents. Opponents now say they've had enough of the Bolivarian Circles and are demanding that the president disarm and disband them as the first step toward the reconciliation that he promised following the April 11 coup attempt. The debate over the fate of these groups might go a long way toward resolving -- or deepening -- the political crisis engulfing Chávez.***