Red de Apoyo HR group warns government and opposition about 27F symptoms

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, February 28, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Red de Apoyo por la Justica y la Paz HR group director, Pablo Fernandez has warned government and opposition to get their act together if they don’t want to see a repeat of the February 27 (1989)  mass looting that gripped Caracas and ended with more than 200 deaths.

“The emphasis is on deep agenda and not immediate solutions ... conditions today aren’t the same as those which existed in 1989 … people are more organized today than they were then.”

Fernandez warns that if the State does not create suitable mechanisms to distribute wealth fairly and that respond to the population’s basic needs, then the gains earned during the current political process could be lost.

Criticizing the national stoppage, the HR leader comments that it was a great mover but now people haven’t assumed the consequences of their acts … "sectors used legitimate mechanisms, such as a stoppage but did not stop to measure the consequences.”

The State, on the other hand, has responsibilities that it cannot delegate but suffers from an enormous institutional weakness to provide answers to complex problems.