One person was killed on Monday in protests demanding a recall vote to remove President Hugo Chavez, as electoral authorities postponed announcing whether a recall referendum will be held until midday yesterday.
Soldiers killed the protester during an anti-Chavez rally in Caracas, said Juan Fernandez, a spokesman for the opposition Democratic Coordinator umbrella group.
PHOTO: AFP
Since Friday five people have been killed and about 100 injured in political unrest.
Chavez foes were out in the streets on Monday and burning barricades blocked many streets, especially in southeastern Caracas.
In violent unrest on Sunday at least 30 people were seriously hurt. Firefighters treated another 230 for minor injuries.
The number of signatures calling for a referendum has actually been known since Saturday, Jorge Rodriguez, a member of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said in a late Monday press conference.
However it was not to be made public until midday yesterday. The results of the signature-collecting campaign were originally supposed to be made public on Sunday.
The pause "enables us all to reflect" and study the outcome within a democratic framework and without violence, he said. "With humility and patience, the CNE tries to maintain the players ... in the democratic game," he added.
Late Monday National Guard police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up anti-government protesters gathered in the Plaza Altamira, an opposition hotbed in eastern Caracas.
Protesters flooded the area after the postponement was announced, banging on pots and hurling rocks and fireworks at the police.
Military police also stood watch over a main east-west highway in the capital.
Police in upper- and upper-middle class districts to the east and southeast of Caracas, where many anti-government protests have been held, report to mayors who oppose Chavez's government. In some cases they have patrolled without stepping in as demonstrators burned trash, hurled molotov cocktails and in some cases opened fire with handguns.
But "this is not a protest by the rich, by the upper class. There already has been looting," said lawmaker Henry Ramos, a Social Democrat.
Protests turned violent on Sunday after the main opposition umbrella group said it rejected the authority of the National Electoral Council because it said it was reviewing the legality of more than one million of the 3.4 million signatures the opposition says it gathered in favor of having a recall referendum set.
The constitution requires a minimum of 2.4 million valid signatures. So the council's decision, if it were to disqualify the questioned signatures, would take the total to a potentially razor-thin margin between a green light and a red light for a recall vote. The government has claimed fraud was widespread in collecting the petitions.
At a rally Sunday, the president told some 60,000 cheering supporters he would block US access to Venezuela's oil resources if Washington moves against his government.
In a three-hour anti-US diatribe that singled out US President George W. Bush as an illegitimate leader, Chavez said "if Mr Bush is possessed with the madness of trying to blockade Venezuela, or worse for them, to invade Vene-zuela in response to the desperate song of his lackeys ... sadly not a drop of petroleum will come to them from Venezuela."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in