HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[The situation is developing rapidly. I just watched BBC WorldService at 6pm to see if they would talk about Venezuela. They showed images of huge crowds in Caracas storming the Miraflores Palace demanding that Chavez be reinstated. As the BBC correspondent said, it is very clear that there is a marked class distinction between the spontaneous protests of Venezuela's lower classes today and those middle-and-upper class individuals incited to protest by the media on Thursday. Venezuela's poor are converging on the capital and demanding a restoration of their constitution, the one they voted for, the President they elected, and the 80% MVR deputies they selected for the country's Congress. The images shown on BBC showed lower ranking military personal - i.e. those from the lower classes - who are guarding parts of the Palace as lifting their weapons in solidarity and waving their berrets in solidarity with the people of Venezuela. The elite is besieged and there's even talk that Carmona may be forced to resign and Chavez's VP assume power. However, the people want Chavez back, they are demanding his release, the situation "remains fluid" as White House spokesperson Ari Fleisher put it! This should be inspiration for us all....QUE LA LUCHA SIGUE!]
Saturday, 13 April, 2002, 21:24 GMT 22:24 UK
Pro-Chavez protests grow in Venezuela
'Chavista' demonstrators ringed the presidential palace
Tens of thousands of supporters of Venezuelan's ousted President Hugo Chavez have marched on the presidential palace demanding proof that he resigned rather than was overthrown. Interim President Pedro Carmona suspended the inauguration of his new cabinet while police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators in the capital, Caracas.
The Venezuelan people don't buy it that he has resigned
Chavez supporter
About 2,000 members of Mr Chavez's former paratroop regiment have also demanded the reinstatement of the president who was told to resign by the armed forces on Friday. Mr Chavez has not been seen since Friday morning. He had been held at the Fuerte Tiuna military base in the capital but there have been reports he has been moved to the Turiamo naval base on the coast, about 100km (60 miles) away. The pro-Chavez crowds that gathered in Caracas and other cities around Venezuela said they were not convinced the president had stepped down.
Chavez, elected with a landslide in 1998, has not been seen since Friday
Protestors said they wanted to see the letter of resignation which the provisional government said it has. Maria Brito, who lives in a slum near the presidential palace, said she was among a crowd which gathered outside the naval base where Mr Chavez was taken. "We want to see Chavez," she said. "The Venezuelan people don't buy it that he has resigned."
Laws swept away
The legitimacy of the new government has been questioned by Chavez supporters inside and outside Venezuela, and by leaders of several Latin American states who have not yet recognised the new administration. Mr Carmona, the 60-year-old former oil executive and leader of the Fedecameras business group who was sworn in as interim president on Friday, has already swept away many laws and policies of Mr Chavez, whose term of office ran until 2006. But he was forced to delay the inauguration of his new Cabinet as violence flared around the presidential palace between security forces and the "Chavistas". There was also sporadic looting in areas of the capital and other cities.
Human rights demand
Mr Chavez's administration fell on Friday after three days of violent street demonstrations and a general strike called by business and labour leaders against the president's appointment of people seen as cronies to head the national oil company. The army has blamed Mr Chavez for the deaths of at least 13 people and injuries to 240 more when soldiers obeyed presidential orders to fire on a crowd of 150,000 demonstrators. Mr Chavez won a landslide election victory in 1998 but has recently been facing serious political problems. Human Rights Watch, a US-based watchdog, said it was "deeply concerned" that Mr Chavez may have been forced from power by the military. The head of the group's Americas Division, Jose Miguel Vivanco, called on the "transitional authorities in Venezuela to restore the country's democratic institutions as soon as possible".
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