Protests erupt against Venezuela's new government; new foreign minister seeks close US ties

yhoo.com ^ | Apr 13, 2002 4:44 PM ET | ANDREW SELSKY, AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"We don't recognize de facto juntas," Garcia said. He said Chavez's Vice President Diosdado Cabello should be named interim president and that elections should be held within one month.

(Jan 13, 2002) - Venezuela's Chavez Names Coup Plotter as VP

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Outside the presidential palace, police used tear gas to push back hundreds of Chavez supporters rallying outside the palace, chanting, "Chavez will be back!" and "Democracy, not dictatorship." Gunshots were heard coming from Catia slum near the presidential palace……. Government security forces continued searching for members of "Bolivarian Circles" - Chavez supporters who allegedly are armed - and for more than 1,000 rifles that were stolen earlier from a police station.

Chavistas: Venezuelan street toughs****CARACAS, Venezuela - From her bed in a Caracas military hospital, the wiry, chain-smoking prisoner vowed to continue a hunger strike and risk becoming the first death in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's "revolution." "Comandante" Lina Ron, who considers herself a modern version of "Tania," a woman who fought alongside Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, says she is a willing martyr for Chavez's cause. She was arrested after leading a violent pro-Chavez counter-protest against demonstrating university students. Thousands follow her lead in Venezuela and they have increasingly quashed dissent, breaking up anti-government protests, intimidating journalists and alarming the president's critics.****

Venezuelan youths who are studying in Cuba gather outside the Venezuelan Embassy in Havana, Saturday, April 13, 2002, as they rally in support of ousted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. At center is Kerman Figueroa, Venezuela's military attache in Cuba. Staff memers at the embassy signed a letter condemning the ouster of Chavez. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)

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Carmona was sworn in on Friday and abolished Venezuela's Constitution, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the attorney general's office and the comptroller's office. He said general elections would be held within a year.

Venezuela's Power Shift Condemned****Carmona dissolved the formerly Chavez-controlled congress, Supreme Court, attorney general's and comptroller's offices, and he declared a 1999 Constitution sponsored by Chavez null and void. Venezuela will return to a bicameral legislature under the previous constitution, he said. Carmona also suspended 48 laws decreed by Chavez in November that generally increased the state's role in the economy. A 25-member advisory council was appointed. ****

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba protests ouster of Venezuela's Chavez

Iran Sees U.S. Behind Chavez's Venezuela Ouster

[Dog Gone]

They have a point. It wasn't the constitutional manner in which to replace Chavez.

On the other hand, there wasn't time. There would have been no constitution worth reading in a few more months.

I had always assumed that if there were a coup, a general would assume power. Instead, it's a Chamber of Commerce type guy. That bodes well for an early return to full democracy.

The situation is still tense down there, and the sooner they kill Chavez the better. He simply can't be allowed to return to power.

[MarkWar]

>The businessman chosen by army commanders...

Well, you can't tell the players without a scorecard...

The last leader was the president of the local oil company. This new guy is some big business guy...

When I first heard about the military coup, I thought it might be the military striking out against OPEC overlords (V is the only OPEC country in the Americas). But, now, it appears to my eyes, that it is just an internal OPEC struggle, with one faction giving the boot to the other...

Does anyone know who the "good guys" are down there?

Mark W.

[HAL9000]

AFP via Babelfish -

The temporary president taken refuge at the height Tiuna

Saturday April 13, 2002 - 20h52 GMT

CARACAS, 13 avr (AFP) - the temporary president of Venezuela, Pedro Carmona, took refuge at the height Tiuna, the principal military base of Caracas, whereas thousands of people expressed in favour of the head of the State reversed Hugo Chavez.

Pedro Carmona "is taken refuge at the height Tiuna", declared with radio operator the Minister for the Secretariat of the presidency of the provisional government, the vice-admiral Jesus Briceno, who called the population with calms.

Thousands of people expressed at the same time in front of Fort Tiuna, requiring, according to witnesses', the "release" of the former president Hugo Chavez, who had been held on this basis after his renversemet in the night of Thursday to Friday.

Thousands of other people were also gathered in middle of afternoon in front of the palate presidential of Miraflores, in the center of Caracas, demanding that their the text of the resignation of Mr. Chavez is shown.

A little earlier, Mr. Carmona had left the presidential palate by leaving several of its ministers there, had declared with the AFP the lieutenant-colonel Antonio Rivero Gonzalez, saying to ensure the safety of the places.

Pedro Carmona "left itself and we ensure the safety of the people who are there because the population in the street is exacerbated", added the Gonzalez lieutenant-colonel, while refusing to specify if it were honest to Mr. Carmona or to Mr. Chavez.

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Chavez resigned and must leave Venezuela for the foreigner (minister)

Saturday April 13, 2002 - 21h02 GMT

CARACAS, 13 avr (AFP) - the former president vénézuélien Hugo Chavez "resigned verbally, we have the recording, and it will be sent abroad when it signs his resignation", affirmed Saturday the Minister for the Secretariat to the presidency, the vice-admiral Jesus Briceno, at Radio the Union station.

This advertisement intervened not very front 17H00 local (21H00 GMT), at the moment when the temporary president of Venezuela, Pedro Carmona, took refuge at the height Tiuna, the principal military base of Caracas, whereas thousands of people expressed in favour of the head of the State reversed Hugo Chavez in front of the presidential palate of Miraflores, in the center of Caracas.

The demonstrators require that their the text of the resignation of Mr. Chavez be shown. This document was still not published by the new mode, more than 24 hours after the coup d'etat of Friday.

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Hugo Chavez transferred on the island vénézuélienne from Orchila, according to his/her daughter

Saturday April 13, 2002 - 21h07 GMT

Havana, 13 avr (AFP) - the former president vénézuélien Hugo Chavez, reversed by a coup d'etat, was transferred on the island vénézuélienne from Orchila, at sea of the Caribbean, to 150 km of Caracas, declared Saturday his daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez in a telephone interview with cuban television. Questioned from Venezuela, the girl of Mr. Chavez, who said to be based on "very good sources", affirmed that his/her father "had been maltreated".

She moreover has indicated not to have been able to speak with her father for Friday, when he had affirmed to him that he had not at all resigned but that it had been stopped.

The mother of the reversed president, Elena Frias, joined by telephone by cuban television, in addition asked "all those which have to see with the humans right" that they "do not allow that they holds his/her son".

"I do not know what they did with Mo wire, it added. Please, made something, do not allow that they assassinate it. Renez counts to you in the way in which they took it along by helicopter and one does not know towards where ".

The soldiers and diplomatic vénézuéliens in station in Cuba in addition refused reconnaitre the new "government de facto" of the country, indicated the military attaché to Havana, colonel Kerman Rodriguez, which qualified "illegal" "provisional junta of extreme right-hand side" and the government of Pedro Carmona which seized the power in Venezuela.

[AngrySpud]

" 1,000 rifles that were stolen earlier from a police station ..."

Aye, carumba ... what's a police station doing with a battalion-sized armory?

[zog]

--that's what stood out to me as well, lotta firepower for "police" isn't it?

[Husker24]

How do you know this.

[jimkress]

Chavez has 'hundreds of supporters' and 'thousands of opponents'. The odds appear to favor his opponents - which is a good thing.

I hate to see civil war break out in any country. However, if that's what it takes to bring freedom to Venezuela, then so be it.

[LenS]

No, if your news is correct, then you should be saying "Viva Communism, Slavery and Poverty!"

[n.y.muggs]

Hoo-Ray, A few months ago, we both predicted the downfall of that pissant Chavez.

Hoo-Ray, Three cheers for te Army.

[xsmommy]

Che, is that you????

[AdvisorB]

No, he's just another one of Lenin's "useful idiots"