Venezuelans Protest Cuba Crackdown, Meddling

<a href=reuters.com>Reuters Fri April 18, 2003 05:15 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan troops blocked streets around the Cuban embassy in Caracas on Friday to prevent opponents of President Hugo Chavez protesting against Cuba's recent crackdown on dissidents and its meddling in their domestic politics.

Scores of opponents of Chavez, a close ally and friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, lined a street near the embassy where they traded insults with a small group of pro-Castro demonstrators waving Cuban flags.

A clutch of National Guard troops and police formed barricades between the rally and the embassy building.

"We don't want Venezuela to be turned into another Cuba and that is what we are heading for. We have to show solidarity with the repressed Cuban people," said Marielena Adrianza, a consulting firm employee joining the opposition protest.

Opponents of Chavez, a left-wing former paratrooper elected in 1998 on a populist platform, brand him a fledgling dictator and fear he will drive Venezuela toward Cuban-style communism. He scoffs at their claims.

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage riled foes of Chavez over the weekend when he criticized Venezuelan opposition leaders during a conference in Caracas.

Friday's small demonstration came a day after Venezuela voted against a United Nations resolution urging Cuba to accept a visit by a human rights commission following the arrest of scores of Cuban dissidents.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution was approved by 24 to 20 votes with nine abstentions.

Venezuela was the only Latin American country to back Cuba.

The decision came after Havana handed out long jail terms to more than 70 dissidents in a move to stamp out opposition to Castro's one-party state on the Caribbean island.

Cuba also sparked international outcry last week when it executed three men who had hijacked a ferry with 50 people aboard and tried to sail to the United States.

Chavez, who says his own self-styled revolution aims to ease the plight of the poor, has been locked in a bitter political battle with opponents since last year, when he survived a brief military coup.