<a href=www.hipakistan.com>Hi Pakistan At least 16 people have reportedly been injured during street battles between police and supporters of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

Police used tear gas to disperse more than 100 supporters of the president, who were trying to disrupt an anti-government rally being held in their neighbourhood, a poor area of the capital Caracas.

The Chavez supporters responded by throwing bottles, stones and firebombs at the police, and destroying a police post.

The opposition had called for a demonstration in the eastern Petare neighbourhood - a Chavez stronghold - to prove that the president's support among the poor was fading.

Gunfire from unknown sources injured one police officer and three civilians, said Caracas fire chief Rodolfo Briceno.

At least 10 people were slightly hurt by flying objects, he said.

Two police officers were injured when they were accidentally hit by police vehicles, said Caracas Health Secretary Pedro Aristimuno.

The opposition protest took place despite an earlier appeal from the Interior and Justice Minister, General Lucas Rincon, to call the rally off.

A similar protest last month led to violent clashes in which one person was killed.

Venezuelans divided

At least 50 people have been killed in street clashes and violence since April last year when Mr Chavez survived a short-lived coup.

In Friday's clashes, Chavez supporters burned tyres and blocked streets to prevent the opposition march.

The marchers refused to cancel the protest, only dispersing when the tear gas was used.

"I'm here for my grandchildren because I want a real democracy," opposition protester, Angelo Valles, 54, told the Associated Press news agency.

But a Chavez supporter, Rodolfo Garcia said: "While the opposition is looking for problems, Chavez is trying to help the poor."

Opposition leaders want to drive Mr Chavez out of office in a referendum expected after 19 August - halfway through his current term, which is due to end in early 2007.

The government has accepted to hold a referendum under a deal brokered by the Organization of American States in May.

The referendum has to be organised by a new National Electoral Council, but parliament has been deadlocked with government MPs staying away from proceedings.

A strike called in December by Chavez opponents struck a severe blow at the economy before finally petering out in January.

ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer Friday, June 13, 2003
(06-13) 16:56 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=www.sfgate.com>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 14 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. They also looted a nearby police station after tearing down the walls with sledge hammers and metal rods.

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.

Gunfire from unknown sources wounded one police officer and three civilians, said Caracas fire chief Rodolfo Briceno. At least 10 people were slightly hurt by flying objects, he added. The tear gas forced the evacuation of 25 children from a nearby hospital.

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.

"A truly dark story has repeated itself. We had said this was the least appropriate place to stage this demonstration," said Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

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.

BBC News Venezuela's parliament failed to debate new legislation making it easier for the government to pass security and media laws when members loyal to President Hugo Chavez stayed away.

The pro-government MPs accused the opposition of planning to use violence against them in the chamber while the opposition said Mr Chavez's supporters merely feared they would not win a majority.

Parliamentary business has been in turmoil since last Friday when pro-government MPs held a bizarre open-air, alternative "session" in the capital, Caracas, after scuffles a few days earlier in the chamber.

The dispute is threatening to disrupt opposition efforts to have a mid-term referendum held on the maverick president's rule and the boycott comes on the eve of the latest planned mass protest against him.

Chavez recently survived a coup, then a crippling strike

"We won't present ourselves in the chamber while this climate of violence against us persists," said Nicolas Maduro, an MP from Mr Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement.

The opposition has threatened to prevent pro-government members from physically taking their seats in the chamber in protest at their insistence that Friday's open-air session be declared valid.

The opposition narrowly won a vote on the issue on Tuesday - a rare defeat for President Chavez's supporters - but the pro-government members said they would press for a new one. The opposition promptly declared this illegal.

One opposition MP, Rafael Octavio Rivero, said the government boycott was proof that it was "not capable of facing defeat because they simply are not democrats".

Street protest

The dispute comes a day before an anti-Chavez demonstration which the opposition plans to hold in the city's eastern Petare district, considered a government stronghold.

Chavez supporters say they face violent attack in the chamber

A similar protest in May in another pro-Chavez district of the city, Caricuao, led to violent clashes in which one person was killed.

The opposition has long been pushing to oust President Chavez whose radical, leftist policies and populist style of leadership have alienated the Venezuelan establishment as well as many liberals.

Following the defeat of a general strike which damaged the vital oil industry earlier this year, the opposition has focussed on having a referendum held on the elected president's rule: a move which the government appeared to accept in a deal brokered by the Organisation of American States in May.

But the referendum has to be organised by a new National Electoral Council, which cannot be appointed without a parliamentary vote.

The government has a wafer-thin majority in the unicameral 165-seat National Assembly but on Tuesday it fell one vote short of the 83 votes needed to pass its motion after three MPs abstained and a fourth failed to turn up.

ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer Friday, June 6, 2003
(06-06) 20:14 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-AP) --

Meeting in a downtown park to avoid their rivals, lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez adopted parliamentary procedures that allow them to swiftly pass several new laws, including one that would tighten restrictions on the media.

The lawmakers, gathering in tents in a poor neighborhood of hard-core Chavez supporters, adopted new debate rules intended to make it more difficult to block legislation supported by the president. Opposition members of Congress said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the vote.

The bickering boded more turmoil for Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States convulsed by a brief coup in 2002 and a ruinous general strike earlier this year. It threatened to further delay efforts in Congress to choose election officials who would run a possible referendum on Chavez's presidency.

Under a recent pact brokered by the Organization of American States, Venezuela's opposition may seek to hold a referendum later this year on Chavez's mandate, which runs to 2007.

The president's supporters hold a slim majority in the 165-seat Congress, but they wanted to cut the opposition out of the debate by meeting Friday in a hostile neighborhood. They argued they were forced to do so after a shoving match with opposition lawmakers disrupted a session at the legislative palace Wednesday.

"I ask Venezuelans to applaud these legislators who have assumed their responsibility with courage and continued legislating," Chavez said of Friday's unusual outdoor assembly.

Opposition lawmakers called the session illegal and said it was a Chavez-sponsored attempt to undercut Congress. They tried to convene a separate session at the legislative palace, but the president's supporters ordered the doors locked.

"If the government persists in the progressive dissolution of the legislature, there will be no path left except popular rebellion," said opposition lawmaker Leopoldo Puchi.

The new parliamentary procedure would make it easier to move legislation through a key 21-member committee in Congress that is dominated by the opposition. Chavez supporters claim that the opposition has used this committee to block legislation.

The opposition plans to ask the Supreme Court to declare Friday's vote illegal.

The new media law would ban "rude" or "vulgar" language, prohibit depiction of sex or alcohol or drug use, and ban violence during daytime.

It would also require that 60 percent of programming be produced within Venezuela, half of which would have to be created by "independent producers" approved by the government.

Broadcasters, who tend to oppose the president, say the law will give too much influence to censors hand-picked by Chavez to crack down on the mostly opposition news media.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

According to Zulia State Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR)  deputy Rodrigo Cabezas,  more than 300 signatures have been collected demanding a recall referendum against State Governor Manuel Rosales. 

Speaking to Venpres government news agency, the deputy has announced that once the new National Electoral College (CNE) has been appointed, then the signatures will be presented. "The signatures are correct, no tricks,  no cloning with bank agencies or any other institution's databases." 

Cabezas insists that Zulia State Bolivarian forces will accept the verdict of the CNE and if necessary, will take to the streets again to secure signatures. 

MVR suggests that recall referendums against State Governors and Mayors should come before a recall referendum against the President. "We needed 270,000 signatures against Rosales and we got 300,000 ... I am certain the people of Zulia don't want these guys with Accion Democratica (AD) culture to rule them."