Only heard about this today, opposition attack on a state hotel:
~snip~
Last night, violent groups also attacked the state run Hotel Venetur in Merida with rocks and glass bottles, and set off an explosion in the PDVAL food program office in the small town of Tovar, in Merida state. According to the Venetur hotel manager, Leonel Matos, the violent group also threatened to set the hotel on fire.
“It’s a tense situation right now, the opposition is still doing guarimba [violent disturbances], and its clearly totally planned, orchestrated. They want people to believe that it’s the people who are angry about the economic situation, but in reality it’s the right wing continuing to attempt a coup. Merida’s women’s collective rejects this, because we have had so many elections and the opposition has lost. There are peaceful mechanisms for protesting that are in the constitution,” Kristi Morales, a member of the collective, told VA.
Published on Feb 18th 2014 at 8.14pm
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10365
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Alliance for Global Justice Statement on Right-Wing Violence in Venezuela
February 17, 2014
February 17, 2014: Nearly a year ago, March 5, 2013, delegations of world leaders, dignitaries and millions of Venezuelans went to pay their respects at the funeral of President Hugo Chavez. The Bolivarian Process, since 1999, has brought greater equality and happiness to Venezuelans and true solidarity and inspiration to people and nations under the thumb of US hegemony. We knew we would have to defend it. The Venezuelan undemocratic and violent right wing includes US-funded private university students, civil society groups tied to the 2002 coup, and the old political and economic elite. The US government and transnational oil and corporate interests view this year as the time to destabilize and overthrow the new government.
Those of us who have seen directly the empowering changes gained by the Venezuelan people, and who are aware of the thirst of the US for this oil rich country and their need to stamp out its good example, need to stand up together right now and demand hands off Venezuela. The era before President Chavez, ruled by the violent elite interested in oil and blood drenched opulence, is not such a distant past. International solidarity is an important component of the Venezuelan people’s own struggle of defense against all outside interference. The lies and propaganda, effectively delivered through the US corporate media, sound unmistakably like past pretexts the US government has pushed to gain public support for covert war.
Lies must be reinforced over and over again whereas the truth stands out like a candle in the darkness. In the past year we have seen a campaign against the democratically elected socialist government of Venezuela reminiscent to the one of 2002. Then the former oligarchs, backed by the US, staged a violent coup which was quickly reversed by the popular movements. Following that failure, they tried capital strikes and a devastating employee lockout at PDVSA, the state oil company, that was then run to the exclusive benefit of the extreme wealthy. Again they were defeated by the social movement supported government.
With the death of President Chavez, the right has falsely believed that the strength of the Bolivarian Revolution would weaken to their advantage. They came within a couple of percentage points during the election of the presidency of an electoral victory by dressing their wolf (presidential candidate Henrique Capriles) in sheep’s clothing. Falsely promising to continue the programs that Chavez popularly championed, they still lost. Since then they moved on to capital strikes, the hording of commodities and the capital flight of their money to bank accounts in Florida and Panama. In the run up to the recent municipal elections, they thought they could use fear and misinformation to generate an electoral victory. But they were unable to manipulate the electoral system, which has been called, “the best in the world,” by former US President Jimmy Carter.
More:
http://afgj.org/alliance-for-global-justice-statement-on-right-wing-violence-in-venezuela
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