Voters gunned down in Chavez poll

[seventhson]

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10458693^1702,00.html


Voters gunned down in Chavez poll
From correspondents in Caracas
16aug04

ONE person died and 10 others were wounded today when gunmen opened fire on voters just outside Caracas during a referendum on the mandate of Venezuela's controversial president, firefighters said.

"What we know is that voters were in line and people opened fire from motorbikes, and there are 10 people with bullet wounds and one person dead," said Caracas fire chief Rodolfo Briceno.
The incident occurred in an impoverished area 17km east of the capital.

[bemildred]

1. I hope they catch these pricks. nt

[BrotherBuzz]

2. Crap!

[Cocoa]

3. I hope they keep it together

they're just hours away from a Chavez landslide, there's going to be attempts to disrupt it.

[Just Me]

4. Figures it occured in an impoverished area.

Wonder why.

Not.

[mom cat]

5. Must have the ones who hate dictatorship..sarcasm essential.

[Just Me]

6. "Dictatorship" would be a relative term,...yes *smile*. n/t

[AP]

7. If this is true, it's strange.

Why shoot people at the end of the day?

If they shot them in the morning it would have discouraged people from voting, perhaps.

Is it sour grapes because they know they're losing?

Is it an attempt to start a riot?

I think one of the strangest thing about this recall is that the opposition fought so hard to get it, but once they got it, the sure didn't act like they wanted to win it.

Something strange is going on in VZ.

I think Chavez will win, but it won't be the end of the story.

I know Kerry has talked tough on VZ, but I sure hope he wins in November so the US can go back to having the relationship with VZ that we had when Clinton was president. It will be better for everyone. For the rich and poor of VZ and for Americans.

[seventhson]

8. It looks like chaos building - a favorite Nazi technique

setting the stage for a recount and uncertainty over the results.

The threads here are all over the place - but one thing is sure: we are not getting a straight story yet.

[Tatiana]

13. They are trying to create chaos.

And find some way to blame the shootings on Chavez.

[underseasurveyor]

16. yep. Divide and Conquer

And then who always suffers for it. Man this is so sad :-(

[AP]

21. If they wanted to blame Chavez, they would have shot up lines in the rich

neighborhoods, not the poor neighborhoods (which is what they did during the last round of violent protests -- they used wrist rockets that ended up killing opposition people, probably intentionally so they could blame Chavez).

Either this story is not true, or it was some stupid hothead opposition idiots who didn't understand the bigger picture of what they were doing.

I just don't understand why they would do this at the end of the day.

Maybe they did it at the beginning of the day but the government kept it quiet so as not to encourage retributions or non-voting.

Maybe it was a lie that took all day to reach the papers.

[w4rma]

23. That would require folks in the rich neighborhoods to die or be hurt.

It might even depress votes in those neighborhoods. The gunners might have accedentally shot and killed friends of theirs. Also, the folks in those neighborhoods, might start asking more questions and digging deeper, if this happened to someone they knew personally.

No. This was done to incite chaos, imho. They will keep trying to destablize things in everyway they can think of until they are back in power. Use California as an example.

[AP]

24. If they were losing, it was their only hope.

And they already did something like this during the recall protests.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Great points. The "opposition" DID start acting really strange, as if

they were almost trying to bail after getting permission to hold the recall.

Is it possible they were counting on Chávez to actually start ACTING like a dictator, like the right-wing nutjobs certain U.S. Presidents have supported in Latin America, while they called off elections, suspended consitutions, TORTURED people, had them killed, etc.?

If he had done something to flex his temporary (only lasting as long as his legal term of office!) muscles, then they would have reason to fight him. He never did, and they're screwed for justification for their nasty behavior.

On edit, forgot to include photo of a true "opposition" fave, ex-President Carlos Andres Perez, the impeached President who had his military gun down tons of protestors in "El Caracazo," and who stole $17,000,000.00 from the Venezuelan treasury. He was the one they always forget to tell us about, against whom Hugo Chavez led the unsuccessful coup attempt.

[AP]

22. You're probably right. Same thing happened in Zimbabwe.

The MDC set up their own guy. They gave Mugabe the edited tape of Tsvengerai plotting an assasination hoping that Mugabe would go all dictatorial on their asses so they could claim some sort of ethical highground which would justify an invasion to protect democracy.

Mugabe did not call off the election. In fact, I believe they booked Tsvengerai and then released him on his own recognaissance (is that the word?).

It sort of fucked up the MDC's last gasp effort (which they probably resorted to when they saw polling that showed Mugabe was going to win).

[struggle4progress]

9. 1 killed, 12 hurt as gunmen shoot at voters in Venezuela

CARACAS, Aug. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- One person was killed and 12 others were wounded Sunday when gunmen opened fire on voters just outside Caracas, during a recall referendum on the political future of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Caracas fire chief Rodolfo Briceno said.

"What we know is that voters were in line and people opened fire from motorbikes, and there are 12 people sustaining bullet wounds and one person died," said Briceno.

He added that the incident occurred in a poor neighborhood about 17 km east of the capital.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-08/16/content_1795278.htm

[Endangered Specie]

10. Yikes. eom

[goforit]

11. Orders straight from Cheney, eh?

[sattahipdeep]

12. Cheney gets his orders via Krongard

Published: August 1, 2004, Sunday

Mr. Krongard, who is 67 and is known as Buzzy, became the executive director of the
C.I.A. in March 2001. He joined the agency in February 1998 as counselor to its director in
McLean, Va. Previously, he was a chairman and chief executive of Alex.Brown & Sons, the
Baltimore investment banking firm, and a vice chairman of Bankers Trust, which purchased
Alex .Brown.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E0D7103DF932A3575BC0A9629C8B63

Alex Brown pays $15 million to settle yield-burning case
Largest amount paid by an investment bank so far for a qui tam case

http://www.phillipsandcohen.com/CM/NewsSettlements/PressReleasesandSettlements191.asp

[Zorra]

14. SOA boys? n/t

[4morewars]

15. You can be sure of that !!!!!

Some CIA down there as well ???
CLOSE THE SOA NOW !!!!!!!!!

http://www.soaw.org/new/

[Judi Lynn]

18. Not long ago, I believe I read that Hugo Chávez made the decision

to end Venezuelan participation in the School of the Americas. I'll bet that really went over well with _Bush.

Families of hundreds of thousands of Latin American people murdered by School of the Americas graduates would undoubtedly love to see an end to it.

You know, the School of the Americas finally seems more familiar to me now that we've heard about Abu Ghraib. We can start putting the pieces together far better now that we've seen what the secret world is like we've been supporting all this time with our obligatory taxes.

[4morewars]

20. You are correct !!!

Chavez did indeed tell the SOA "good bye."
Will you come to Ft. Benning in November? I will be there and I'd love to see some DUers there.
More info here :

http://www.soaw.org/new/

[daleo]

19. If the right wing loses the referendum (as I assume they will)

They can use these kinds of incidents to claim that the process was flawed and marred by violence, even though it happened at a pro-Chavez poll to likely Chavez supporters. Shortly thereafter they can start the drum banging for a new referendum, since the last one was "flawed".