The US ambassador to Venezuela has grown used to facing protests and shouts of "Yankee go home!," but supporters of President Hugo Chavez appeared to cross the line when they pelted his car with eggs and tomatoes, then chased after his convoy on motorcycles.
The incident on Friday drew a strong response from Washington, which summoned Venezuela's ambassador and warned him of "severe diplomatic consequence" if anything similar should happen again.
US Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said Venezuelan police escorts did nothing to intervene as a car carrying Ambassador William Brownfield was pounded, kicked and pelted. No one was hurt.
"We were under attack by these motorcyclists throwing fruits and vegetables," Penn said. "They were pounding on the cars, including pounding on the ambassador's car while they were driving. There was no one stopping them."
It was the third time in three weeks that Brownfield has been met by protesters; other times, demonstrators have burned tires and torched an American flag.
Emotions have run high among Chavez's supporters as the Venezuelan leader has accused the US of plotting against him and US officials have denied it while accusing him of stifling democracy.
The latest protest began when Brownfield visited a baseball stadium in a poor neighborhood to hand out bats and other donated equipment for a youth league.
He often holds public events to donate to charities and meet community leaders -- even in Chavez strongholds.
This time, a Chavez supporter who described himself as an official of the mayor's office walked up and said people in the area wanted Brownfield to leave, Penn said. The ambassador stayed and finished the event, while a few dozen people outside chanted, "Go home! Go home!"
Penn said the barrage of tomatoes, eggs, onions and other items began when the convoy pulled out and drove through an adjacent market.
The US Embassy released a video taken from inside a convoy car, its windows splattered with broken eggs, showing motorcyclists racing up to the four-car convoy and then dropping back.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS