PANDEMONIUM  EVENING STAR

No. 692

ENGLISH & SPANISH:

*** Venezuelan Troops Fight Chavez Supporters. 

Venezuelan Troops Fight Chavez Supporters

Filed at 3:55 p.m. ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela troops fought pitched street battles Friday with supporters of President Hugo Chavez who tried to disrupt an opposition rally in an impoverished area of Caracas considered a government stronghold. At least three people were injured.

Troops in armored vehicles arrived at the scene while ``Chavistas,'' as the president's supporters are known, fought back, throwing bottles, rocks and firecrackers at security forces.

Hundreds of national guard troops and police in riot gear launched tear gas grenades to disperse more than 100 rowdy government backers. Columns of black smoke rose from tires burning in the street and mingled with thick clouds of white tear gas.

One police officer was wounded by gunfire from an unknown source and two others were hurt by rocks, said Pedro Aristimuno, the city's health secretary. The tear gas forced the evacuation of 25 children from a nearby hospital, he added.

Ignoring government warnings that violence could erupt, opposition parties called the rally as part of a series of events in Caracas slums to prove Chavez's traditional support among the poor has evaporated.

Interior Minister Lucas Rincon pleaded with march organizers to take the protest to an area where there would be less potential for violence.

``We alert the population to the security risks that this act carries,'' Rincon said in an address to the nation late Thursday. ``This isn't about impeding a political act. It's about taking it to a less risky one.''

Hours before the planned protest, dozens of Chavez sympathizers burned tires in a plaza on the only route to the opposition's chosen site -- an eastern Caracas street beneath hills covered by red-brick shanties.

The protest comes three weeks after unidentified gunmen killed one person and wounded 10 at an opposition march in a poor neighborhood on the city's west side. No one was arrested.

The opposition center-right COPEI party refused to cancel the protest, insisting it wouldn't be intimidated by what it called government-sponsored violence to silence dissent.

Chavez denies those allegations. He counters opponents constantly provoke chaos to justify the ouster of a democratically elected president. The president was briefly ousted in an April 2002 coup and defied demands he step down during a ruinous two-month general strike that collapsed in February.

Early Friday, federal police sharpshooters stationed themselves on rooftops overlooking the protest site. The city government dispatched another 3,000 officers to patrol the streets. At the protest three weeks ago, police snipers fired at public housing buildings where the shooting apparently originated.

Political violence has killed more than 50 people in Venezuela over the past year, mostly during clashes between pro- and anti-Chavez forces. The country is deeply divided between those who adore Chavez as a champion of the poor and those who revile him as a power-monger trying to remodel Venezuela after Cuba's communist regime.

Chavez foes are demanding an internationally backed referendum on his rule later this year, insisting it's the only way to restore stability to Venezuela, a key oil exporter to the United States.

First elected in 1998, Chavez pushed through a new constitution in 1999 that paved the way for his 2000 re-election to a new six-year term.

Alfredo Peña: Responsable de los muertos y heridos por autorizar manifestación Petarazo: Un muerto y varios heridos deja acción desproporcionada de la PM, brazo armado del golpismo Por: MS - Aporrea.org / Chapulín Publicado el Viernes, 13/06/03 04:41pm				imprímelo mándaselo a tus panas

Bomba incendiaria.

La Policía Metropolitana, brazo armado del golpismo, arremetió en contra de manifestantes chavistas usando armas cuyo uso está prohibido en manifestaciones.

El diputado William Lara señaló que "de manera inexplcable, la PM se avalanzó contra un grupo de manifestantes que estaban en el hospital Pérez de León".

Lara hizo un llamado al Ministerio Público para que investigue los actos desproporcionados en contra de manifestantes chavistas por parte de la policia bajo control del alcalde opositor Alfredo Peña. En cuanto a los lamentables sucesos durante "El Petarazo", Lara dijo "esto lo sabia Peña y Mendoza y no coordinaron con las policias para evitar esta situación trágica."

Varios personeros del gobierno nacional advirtieron sobre la inconveniencia de realizar la protesta en una zona chavista, donde hay una escuela y un hospital. Pero los empecinados opositores, hicieron caso omiso a las advertencias, demostrando una vez más que lo que buscan es la violencia y el caos.

Un muerto y varios heridos

Hasta ahora se ha confirmado que una persona resultó muerta, aunque testigos afirman que el saldo podría ser de cuatro. También hay decenas de heridos, algunos de los cuales han sido trasladados a hospitales.

Conchas de balas usadas por la PM.

 

Chavista herido por perdigones de plomo.

 

Perdigones de plomo usados por la PM.

 

Chavistas arremeten contra comando de la PM, en respuesta a la acción policial que dejo varios heridos.

http://www.aporrea.net/dameverbo.php?docid=7473

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17 heridos confirmados. Oposición declara "Exito total" de “El Petarazo” Por: Chapulín / MS - Aporrea.org Publicado el Viernes, 13/06/03 05:43pm				imprímelo mándaselo a tus panas

Gobierno solicitará al TSJ revisar competencias de alcalde opositor Alfredo Peña Por: Venpres Publicado el Viernes, 13/06/03 04:48pm				imprímelo mándaselo a tus panas