Venezuela Protest Gets Bloody, Algeria to Help Oil-Struck Sector
Chavez can call a “state of exception”, allowing him to suspend certain constitutional rights
CARACAS, January 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Clashes between supporters and opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez late Friday, January 3, claimed two lives and several more were wounded, as Chavez said that Algeria was sending petroleum experts to help jumpstart the country’s strike-crippled oil industry.
Snipers fired at anti-government demonstrators, police shot back and protesters from both sides hurled rocks at each other, witnesses and officials said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Pedro Aristumono told Globovision TV that two people died of bullet wounds in hospital following the violent clashes between supporters and foes of President Hugo Chavez.
Globovision earlier quoted firefighters as saying six people suffered gunshot wounds, 12 people were injured by rocks and bottles and another 75 were treated for teargas inhalation.
The reports came after Caracas metropolitan police fired live ammunition at snipers who shot into a crowd of anti-government protesters, while military troops repeatedly fired teargas and rubber bullets at pro and anti-government demonstrators.
The clashes further fueled tension as a crippling strike, led by rich businessmen, aimed at forcing Chavez, branded “voice of Venezuelan poor and needy”, from office entered its second month with no solution in sight.
The incidents started after hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest to the Fuerte Tiuna military complex, where tens of thousands of Chavez supporters, known as “chavistas,” staged a counter-demonstration.
The chavistas (allegedly) hurled rocks and bottles at the protesters, some of whom responded in kind. “Voice of Venezuelan poor and needy”, among his supporters
The protesters threw themselves to the ground as a first shot hit an 18-year-old paramedic, who suffered a flesh wound. A little later, an AFP reporter also saw a police officer fall to the ground after being shot in the knee.
Late in the day, as most protesters dispersed, a few from both sides engaged in running street battles, and at least two people fired revolvers from their windows toward the chavista camp.
Demonstrators at one stage prevented heavily armed members of the staunchly pro-government political police from entering a building where armed anti-Chavez protesters were hiding.
The opposition claimed 30 of its members were detained.
Alberto Carrillas, a leader of the pro-Chavez Tupamaro vigilantes told AFP: “We will take to the streets with or without arms, masked or not, whatever it takes to defend the constitution.”
However, strike leader Carlos Ortega denounced what he called “this criminal attitude by the current government against peaceful demonstrations.”
At the protest, architect Delfos Lopez claimed Chavez supporters “have been paid to come here, to spread terror.”
After 33 days of disruption, both sides were deeply entrenched in their positions.
Algerian Oil Experts May Help Clashes in Venezuela took a new bloody turn
Meanwhile, Chavez declared Friday that Algeria was sending petroleum experts to help jumpstart the strike-crippled oil industry, adding, however, that it was improving slowly but surely.
The state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) was making progress “despite ... the complexity of the operations ... and ... the progressive way an operation of this type must be handled,” he told reporters.
“Nobody should think that an act of sabotage of the oil industry ... can be rectified in one day,” he said.
Chavez said he met Friday with an Algerian delegation headed by ministerial advisor Abdelaziz Djafri and a member of President Abdelaziz Buteflika’s cabinet, Djaballah Zatout, who said Algeria was ready to “do all it could to cooperate.”
Both countries are members of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Algerian delegation, he said, was to make a preliminary evaluation of Venezuela's oil situation, visiting refineries and other PDVSA installations, to gauge the compatibility of assistance that Algeria could provide.
State of Exception
Chavez Friday raised the possibility of calling a “state of exception” which would allow him to suspend certain constitutional rights, but said he did not intend to do so at this stage.
“If they force me to do it, I will, let’s hope that’s not the case,” he said.
The latest anti-government rally was in protest at what the opposition called the illegal house arrest within Fuerte Tiuna of a dissident general, one of about 150 soldiers who have declared themselves in rebellion.