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".......Lisandro Barazarte, a photographer with the local newspaper, Notitarde, caught images of several of the men shooting into the crowd while steadying their firearms on their palms. "They were practiced shooters," Barazarte said. "More were armed, but didn't fire." When it was over, two La Isabelica men were dead: a 22-year-old student, Jesus Enrique Acosta, and a little league baseball coach, Guillermo Sanchez. Witnesses told the AP the first was shot in the head, the second in the back. They said neither was at the barricades when he was killed.... ....."They put a pistol in my face and said they...

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has taken a swing at golf as the latest threat to revolutionary progress. In a national television address two weeks ago, Mr. Chavez denounced golf as a "bourgeois sport" for lazy elitists. Now officials in Venezuela are moving to close two of the country's best-known courses, in the cities of Maracay and Caraballeda, in order to make way for either public housing, parks or an extension campus of Bolivarian University. Mr. Chavez's regime is closing an average of three golf courses per year, and there are only about 20 left in the country. Leftists have long...

Sources: Chavez Calls In Foreign Aid in Preparation for Crackdown?Dec 09, 2002 Summary The risk of violence is escalating in Venezuela, where multiple sources say President Hugo Chavez is arming domestic supporters and possibly calling in help from Cuban nationals and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Analysis The threat of major violence in Venezuela within the next two or three days is increasing rapidly in cities like Caracas and Maracaibo, Stratfor sources say. The government of embattled President Hugo Chavez is arming hundreds of civilian supporters, at least three small groups of Colombian rebels have crossed the border...