CARACAS, Venezuela (Agence France-Presse) — At least 16 persons were injured yesterday, seven by gunshots, as police battled supporters of President Hugo Chavez near an anti-government demonstration.     Violence broke out when city police — controlled by anti-Chavez Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena — fired tear gas at Chavez supporters in the shantytown of Petare. The Chavez backers were protesting an anti-government rally being held in their neighborhood.     The pro-Chavez crowd responded with rocks and firebombs. Then the neighborhood turned into a battlefield, as police and Chavez supporters exchanged gunfire yards away from the anti-government rally.     Chavez supporters destroyed a police shed and an office belonging to Copei, a once powerful political party now opposed to Mr. Chavez, that organized yesterday's march.     Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel blamed police, the mayor and state Gov. Enrique Mendoza — also a Chavez opponent — for the violence and vowed to sue them.     The mayor of the municipality that includes Petare, Jose Vicente Rangel Alvarez, was outraged that the protest was held in the area.     Authorities warned the anti-Chavez demonstrators not to hold their rally in a pro-Chavez neighborhood, said Mr. Rangel Alvarez, who is also the vice president's son.     "What are they looking for? Violence, injured, perhaps some dead?" he asked.     It was the second anti-government demonstration inCaracas in one month that resulted in violence. One person was killed and more than 20 injured in an anti-Chavez rally May 14 in Catia.     Mr. Chavezsurvived a 63-day general strike that ended in February. He earlier survived a civilian-military coup that briefly ousted him from office in April 2002.     In late May, Chavez agreed to be subject to a possible recall vote in a deal with opposition leaders brokered by the Organization of American States.

05 Jun 2003 00:25:09 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 4 (Reuters) - Supporters and foes of President Hugo Chavez traded insults and shoved each other in Venezuela's National Assembly on Wednesday in a noisy brawl over what opposition deputies said were government plans to force through legislation without debate.

The violent scuffles broke out when opposition deputies prevented leading pro-government members of parliament from taking their seats in the National Assembly, where Chavez supporters hold a slim majority.

The incident reflected simmering political tensions in the world's No. 5 oil exporter a week after Chavez's government and its opponents signed a peace agreement recommending that a referendum on the president's rule after Aug. 14.

Shouting "clowns" and throwing papers into the air, anti-Chavez deputies demonstrated their objections to the government's plans reform assembly procedures by eliminating quorum requirements in committees and other debating rules.

National guards in riot gear stood by as a small crowd of militant Chavez supporters gathered outside the National Assembly, shouting pro-government slogans and insults against the opposition. Opposition deputies complained they were being intimidated and said they were afraid to leave the building.

National Assembly president Francisco Ameliach suspended the day's session and called a new extraordinary session for Friday to discuss the proposed reforms. He announced as the venue a nearby monument, El Calvario, which is in a fiercely pro-Chavez district close to the presidential palace.

Opponents of the populist president, who was elected in 1998 six years after failing to seize power in a botched coup, accuse him of ruling like a dictator.

They are contesting a number of government-sponsored draft laws, including one regulating the content of television and radio broadcasting which the opposition says is an attempt to censure the press and muzzle criticism.

Paul Webster in Paris Wednesday June 4, 2003 The Guardian

There were eight Corsicans in the dock at a special Paris assize court yesterday, accused of complicity in a political murder that changed the course of the island's history.

But the focus was on the absent figure of the alleged assassin, a shepherd who has made a mockery of police for the past five years.

According to the prosecution it was Yvan Colonna, 30, the son of a former socialist MP, who walked up behind the central government's senior official on the island on the night of February 6 1998 and murdered him with three bullets in the head.

The killing of the prefect, Claude Erignac, 60, who had tried to stop 25 years of pro-independence violence, set off a series of manhunts through the wild Corsican maquis to catch Mr Colonna, portrayed locally as a modern Robin Hood.

Despite the mobilisation of hundreds of gendarmes it is still not known whether he is on the island or has been helped to escape abroad. His presence has been reported in a dozen countries, from Gabon to Venezuela.

His eight alleged accomplices, who staked out the streets of Ajaccio as Erignac walked to a concert hall, are being tried with three other men accused of terrorist attacks on the mainland before France conceded additional self-rule measures.

All the accused deny the allegations.

Seven judges will sit for five weeks without a jury.

The socialist interior minister at the time of the attack, Jean-Pierre Chevènement - who subsequently resigned in protest at the proposal to give Corsica more autonomy - said that the assassination team had achieved its political goal.

"The murderers wanted to force the state to bend and abandon firm policies," he said. "The assassination was the work of a violent clandestine movement [Corsica Nazione] which wanted to bring the government to the negotiating table."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 By: Oscar Heck

VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes:  “COPEI confirms second street offensive against government forces,” the Copei political party is planning a campaign effort in Petare on June 13, 2003.

This is a very dangerous and irresponsible thing to do, as was a similar event that took place in Catia recently.

Both Catia and Petare are two of the largest barrios (slum areas) of Caracas and if I am not mistaken, Petare alone has an estimated population of over one million.

Copei is one of the traditional Venezuelan political parties (and sides with the opposition) that has lost the trust of many Venezuelans due to it being associated with corruption.

So, why would such a party attempt to rally support in Petare?

Petare, a slum area with some very dangerous parts, is probably the last place that Copei will get support from. It is mostly the people from the barrios that have been affected by the past corruption of parties such as Copei. It is the people living in the barrios that had mostly been affected by the criminal tactics of the opposition during the stoppage in December 2002 and January 2003. It is mostly the people living in the barrios that have suffered from the antics of speculators and hoarders for the last several generations. (I am quite sure that most speculators and hoarders are pro-opposition … Chavez is trying to rid Venezuela of speculation and hoarding).

So why would a political party such as Copei (also an avid pro-opposition and anti-Chavez group) go to Petare?

It only makes sense if, as in the recent case in Catia, this planned rally has a hidden purpose. The purpose? To create another scenario of chaos, injuries and killings and then blame it on Chavez and the government.

It is almost certain that there will be violence at this “political rally.” All the opposition has to do is to pay people to dress in red (the Chavista color) and to don red berets, give them guns and let the shoot people.

The private opposition-backed media mafia will then say, “Bolivarian Circles, Chavez’ armed brigades, did it again!.” (Bolivarian Circles, contrary to what the opposition tries to make people believe, are small community-based groups that coordinate local community needs and improvements).

The planned June 13, 2003 Copei rally in Petare is further proof that the opposition is acting in a without-conscience fashion … as they did by blocking streets, sabotaging PDVSA, attempting to shut down banks and schools, hoarding, and heading a major anti-Chavez media campaign.

It is another example of how far the opposition is willing to go (murder?) in order to push their point and manipulate events to discredit the Chavez government.

Now, I recently received comments from a Venezuelan lady saying that I sometimes speak “against” Venezuela. As I mentioned to her, I do not speak against Venezuela or Venezuelans. I love Venezuela and Venezuelans. I do however speak (and will continue to do so) against the opposition and against the people who support the opposition. I also speak against the majority of the mid-to-upper classes because of their past and present abusive “habits.”

(Also, and not surprisingly, the vast majority of the mid-to-upper classes happen to be fiercely pro-opposition and anti-Chavez, and … as I mentioned to the Venezuelan lady, I have tried to find good things to say about mid-to-upper-class Venezuelans since I first stepped foot in Venezuela in 1976. To this day, I have, in a general sense, few positive comments to make about them).

The pro-opposition-mid-to-upper class Venezuelans that write to me (usually with insults and/or threats) seem to sincerely believe that “they” are representative of “Venezuelans.”

This cannot be. Only about 20% of the Venezuelan population is composed of mid-to-upper-class-pro-opposition people … and the socio-economic gap between them and the average Venezuelan (80%) is huge and often highly disproportionate.

There is also another interesting factor. Most mid-to-upper-class people are what would be considered as “white”, in generalized terms. This was very evident to a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ú equivalent to the BBC) cameraman that I escorted through one of the Caracas barrios earlier this year. He, as I, also went to one of the big anti-Chavez marches (in the upscale eastern Caracas region) and felt very much out of place and very uneasy. He is black, very black, and he said to me that he was the only “black” person in the crowd. He felt very uncomfortable. He noted a marked difference, especially after having passed an entire day in one of the big Caracas barrio with me the previous day … where most people are “not-white.”

So, again, I consider that Venezuela is best represented by the majority of Venezuelans, that is, by the 80%, and not by the minority economically well-off 20% traditionally living behind 10-feet high broken-glass-embedded walls, chained metal gates and armed security.

Oscar Heck oscar@vheadline.com

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, May 30, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan mainstream media jumped for delight when they discovered 23 de Enero website www.el23.net showing four photos of masked men carrying firearms in the 23 de Enero district ... instant spin had it that 23 de Enero-based Tupamaros and Carapaicas groups were responsible for last Saturday's armed skirmishes with Accion Democratica (AD) goon squads, Bandera Roja (BR), Metropolitan Police (PM) and National Guard (GN). 

In an editorial clarifying its position, the community website denies that it is the official organ of either Tupamaros, Carapaica, Coordinadora Simon Bolivar or Bolivarian Circles (CBs), all of which operate in the 23 de Enero district. 

The editorial hammers home the unequal struggle between mainstream and alternative media in Venezuela, complaining that since the page was set up 70% of news items are community- based and mainstream media sources have shown absolutely no interest in community stories, such as the efforts of a local schoolteacher and police officer organizing teenagers to deal with emergencies ... a young man in Sucre Barrio engaged in an anti-drugs campaign to protect 30 local children ...  two ladies struggling to get a library afloat in La Canada sector. 

• Tupamaros representative, Jose Pinto has said publicly on Televen that the website does not belong to the organization. 

The editorial ends reporting that the mainstream media are beginning to  right the wrong  and wryly concludes ... "in the beginning, the temptation for the media was too big and they couldn't resist it."