At least two men lost their lives at a march for the Venezuelan opposition candidate, Capriles Radonski, on Saturday, after a gunman opened fire in the western state of Barinas. The incident took place a day ahead of the Venezuelan opposition's closing march in the capital Caracas and just a week before the country's presidential elections next Sunday.
After the first week of electoral campaigning for the 7 October presidential elections, the National Electoral Council (CNE) has reported some media bias in relation to the campaigns. The national assembly has condemned two acts of violence by the opposition, and President Hugo Chavez has reported that his health is no impediment to his campaign.
The National Secretary of Venezuela’s Communist Party, Pedro Eusse, has warned that the opposition coalition, the Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD), is laying the foundations to dispute the results of this year’s presidential elections in October, as well as to possibly incite violence.
By Edward Ellis - Correo del Orinoco International, Jan 20th 2011
From the terrorist lynchings carried out by the Ku Klux Klan to the more recent “hate crimes” perpetrated against non-white, nonstraight, immigrant communities across the US, violence has been the palpable result of a coordinated campaign of bigotry and fear that has been the mainstay of right-wing media discourse for decades. Venezuela, by way of comparison, has also been no stranger to political violence.
Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega announced on Friday that
protesters who disturb "tranquility and public peace" would face criminal
charges, after a series of opposition protests turned violent. The protests are
aimed at destabilising the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
Ortega said.
Venezuelan police arrested four men and confiscated a large
quantity of sophisticated weaponry that government officials speculate
could have been part of an assassination plan against President Chávez.
This discovery occurred in the context of a wave of apparently
politically motivated violence.
