Big Turn Out at Celebration of Venezuela's Chavez's Fifth Year in Office

[Say_What]

Many great pixs at this site.

<clips>

Caracas, Dec 8 (Venezuelanalysis.com) Supporters of President Chavez came out in big numbers on Saturday December 6 to celebrate Chavez's fifth year in office and to celebrate what they claim is another electoral victory for the Venezuelan leader.

Chavez won the 1999 elections with the biggest percentage of votes in the history of the country's democratic rule. After a new constitution was drafted by an elected Constituency Assembly, and approved on a national referendum, Chavez won again in new elections. He is half way through his 6 year term.

The march started at Caracas' far east side, passed through upper-class neighboorhoods where anti-Chavez sentiment runs high, and ended at the downtown Bolivar avenue, where Chavez gave a speech.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1124

[el_gato]

1. Cool!

the anti-chavez clique are just elite fascists
if they try to overthrow him again it will be
a blood bath

[arcane1]

2. sweet!

VZ needs some good news.... and so do I, since I have a tendancy to compare events there w/events here...

go Hugo!

:toast:

:bounce:

:party:

[David__77]

3. He knows how to deal with the neo-con types...

There are lessons to be learned.

[Say_What]

4. Mayor evicts "rebellious" military group from Caracas plaza

Poor little golpista officers, evicted by the mayor who opposes Chavez. Can it be that the opposition is tired of golpista tricks?

<clips>

Caracas, Dec 8 (EFE).- The opposition mayor of a Caracas municipality on Monday evicted from a plaza a group of military officers who declared themselves in rebellion against the government and who with their supporters have maintained a "vigil" in the square for more than a year.

"What they have done with the platform is to destroy with the feet what was built by the hands," Gen. Nestor Gonzalez told Globovision television as he denounced the eviction, which took place in the pre-dawn hours.

Gonzalez said the police raid on Altamira Plaza was ordered by Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez, himself an opponent of President Hugo Chavez.
Lopez was forced to flee the plaza over the weekend after Chavez supporters hurled insults at the mayor and caused him minor injuries before proceeding to smear paint all over the speaking platform, which was subsequently cleaned up.

"The dismantling of the platform ... supports Saturday's savagery," said Gonzalez, the most prominent of the anti-Chavez officers who in October 2002 occupied the plaza on the capital's east side, declaring it "liberated territory." The government has accused several members of the dissident military group of being involved in recent bombings, charges the officers hotly deny.


http://www.efenews.com/includesasp/noticias.asp?opcion=0&id=5753719



Supporters of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez converge on Plaza Altamira, a symbolic opposition stronghold, as they march to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the former paratrooper's first presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2003. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch)

[Judi Lynn]

5. Interesting, to say the least.

Wonder if he's starting to get worried about his political future, weighing the value of supporting the non-representative elitists of the country, while purporting to serve the town's population himself.

[David__77]

6. Altamira wouldn't be tolerated for split second in the US of A.

Who can imagine that happening in this country? I cannot. So much for the accusations against Chavez as being "authoritarian."

[Judi Lynn]

7. Venezuela has reasons to doubt U.S. claims

Venezuela has reasons to doubt U.S. claims
By Bill Fletcher Jr.
-Guest Columnist-
Updated Dec 8, 2003, 10:10 pm Email article
Print page



(FinalCall.com) - Recently, U.S. News & World Report published a story suggesting that Venezuela was becoming a hotbed of terrorism in the Western hemisphere. The story was, at least in part, based upon information allegedly provided by unnamed individuals in the Bush administration. In many respects, this story epitomized the hostility toward the democratically-elected government of President Hugo Chavez that has been coming from the White House, particularly since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

As you might remember, Pres. Chavez—while condemning, in no uncertain terms, the terrorist attack—called upon the Bush administration to not respond by attacking Afghanistan. It appears, whether one agrees or disagrees with Pres. Chavez, that the Bush administration adopted the attitude that it was up to the rest of the world to unconditionally support any and all actions that the Bush administration deemed appropriate. Any question or any divergence from the White House line was seen as unfriendly.

Pres. Chavez was anointed unfriendly.

When he was temporarily overthrown in a coup in April 2002, the Bush administration rushed to support the ‘coup people’ (to borrow a term invented by President Bush’s father in describing another situation), whereas virtually every other country in the Western hemisphere condemned this undemocratic action. Upon his restoration to power, the Bush administration suggested that they hoped that he had learned something from this experience—an interesting comment for an administration that supposedly opposes terrorism and other forms of illegality. (snip/...)

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1155.shtml