Chavez Crackdown: Troops Seize Police Station Controlled By Leading Opponent

CURIEPE, Venezuela — National Guard troops seized a police station controlled by a leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday, sparking clashes between soldiers and protesters that authorities said injured eight people.

Hundreds of townspeople massed outside the police station in this small town east of Caracas after the National Guard evicted police. The protesters hurled rocks, bottles and molotov cocktails. Troops in riot gear fired tear gas at the crowd.

The clashes added to tensions between Chavez's administration and elected opposition officials who denounce the government for trying to undermine them and strip them of authority.

"I hold the interior minister responsible because this is a premeditated plan," Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles said in a televised news conference, accusing the National Guard of acting like the "militia of a political party."

There was no immediate response from the national government, and the Defense Ministry did not return a call seeking comment.

As the conflict wound down later Wednesday, Adriana D'Elia, a Miranda state government representative, said state authorities agreed to move their police to another building after meeting with the municipality's pro-Chavez mayor, Liliana Gonzalez.

"We believe that dialogue is the most important in these tense situations," D'Elia said.

The conflict began shortly before dawn when about 40 soldiers from the National Guard tossed tear gas canisters at the police post, forced officers to leave and took over the building, said Elisio Guzman, director of the Miranda state police. He contended the troops were following orders from the mayor.

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Gonzalez blamed the police for the confrontation. "We needed this space for the municipal police," she said. "We asked them to leave within the legal time frame, and they didn't do it. That's what caused this situation."

Hours later, some protesters covered their faces with T-shirts while throwing rocks and bottles at troops outside the police station. Protesters set tires afire in the streets, which were littered with rubble and a torched car.

"We don't agree with the move to take out the state police," said Abigail Landaneta, a 41-year-old teacher among the protesters, who said the group was nonpartisan and simply upset with the National Guard's takeover of the police station.

Landaneta said the police are needed to fight rampant crime in the rural town, and "there should be dialogue between the government and the governor."

Tensions between Capriles and Chavez's government have been brewing since the opposition politician defeated an incumbent ruling-party candidate in elections last year.

Two people were injured and five required treatment after inhaling tear gas, Miranda state police said. An eighth person, a National Guard soldier, was injured by a thrown bottle, said Jose Manuel Prado, an official from Venezuela's civil protection agency at the scene.

Troops shot plastic bullets at the protesters, D'Elia said. She said a television cameraman working for the channel RCTV was among those injured, requiring five stitches on his face.

Guzman said the National Guard troops carried out "waves of attacks" on residents who turned out to protest. The police director said he ordered officers under his command to stand down, telling them to avoid conflict.

A similar clash erupted Friday when National Guard troops tried to seize another state police station on orders from a pro-Chavez mayor in Miranda, which includes part of Caracas and surrounding areas to the south and east. Guzman said four people suffered minor injuries during that fight in the town of Caucagua, where protesters prevented troops from taking the police post.

Chavez's government in recent months has taken over airports, seaports, highways, hospitals and schools previously controlled by opposition governors and mayors who won elections last year. Opponents denounce the moves as a power grab, saying it aims to limit their powers and funding.

Chavez has defended such moves saying they are aimed at improving public service and fighting corruption.

Comments

[Ira7]

Flores, I like your analysis. But how do you explain Colombia's success? And Chile? And Brazil? The same external conditions and internal problems existed amongst all three, yet the people chose leaders with different paths in mind than the Castros, Chavezes, Ortegas, Correas and Moraleses of the world.

When people start blaming an imaginary oligarchy that is responsible for all of their problems, they accomplish nothing.

[sticksnstones]

How indeed do we explain Colombia's success ?

Easy ... you just can't underestimate the effectiveness of US-trained death squads in achieving a well behaved populace.

[Ira7]

Do you mean the millions of Colombians who can now actually leave their houses without fear of getting killed?

[FloresdelaHoz]

Let's not do anything impulsive with Honduras. Just baby steps. Castro and Chavez have geo-political goals for Honduras that are not friendly to the US. Venezuela is not a free country, but it is not yet a maximum security facility like Cuba. At least so far. But Venezuela is an economic basket case. Productive farmland and cattle ranches that made Venezuela self sufficient 10 years ago are now unproductive ghettos where the former workers now live day to day. Oil went to $143 a barrel and Hugo used the money to arm his country to the teeth rather than build hospitals, schools and universities. Hugo has driven foreign multinationals out of the country and with that over 300,000 middle class jobs in Caracas alone.

Capitalism has been abused in the region as it has on Wall Street. Today, the facts on the ground are that Castro and Chavez are heros throughout LatAm among the poor. The Oligarchies do exist as they do here in the US. Nonetheless, the majority of people in LatAm dislike the Oligarchy more because they are associated with inside dealing than class envy. Sounds like us here in the US.

The World Bank and the IMF also contributed to this regional "Capitalism Crisis" with their awful austerity budget mandates that punished the working and middle class. We need to make capitalism work again in LatAm and in the US. Castro and Hugo cannot be the answer. Obama has his work cut out for him. Godspeed.

[chicagomike]

Chavez has set in motion a "creeping dictatorship." One by one, every vestige of opposition to his total control is being eliminated. One doesn't need to rely on the anti-Chavez media to see this -- I regularly check out government sources such as www.vtv.gov.ve to read the Chavista POV. It is filled with shrill denunciations of the opposition and "enenies" quite reminiscent of would-be totalitarian regimes everywhere. Eventually Chavez will begin to bore the masses, and we can expect to see pictures of his bloddied corpse being dragged through the streets when he is overthrown.

[Ira7]

Unfortunately, I see it the other way:

He's going to drag VZ further and further down forever, like Castro did.

[chicagomike]

Perhaps not...unlike Cuba, Venezuela can neither fully control its borders nor prevent information from outside penetrating the wall of government censorship. And unlike Cuba, the opposition has not yet fled the country to South Florida in such numbers as to leave only the government apparatus and "the people" behind. However, the U.S. must be very careful about making moves easy to interpret as meddling in Venezuelan affairs. That fell flat during the 2002 coup attempt, bungled as usual by the Bush administration.

[peterg76]

There's something very fishy about 1) a police station being controlled by a leading political opponent in the first place, and 2) the article saying nothing about how the situation began.

[Ira7]

The article explained it very well:

Chavez doesn't want State or Local officials to control their own police departments. He did this with the the former Caracas Mayor as well, because he doesn't want anyone who disagrees with his political views to manage anyone holding a gun.

Mind you, crime and murders have SKYROCKETED under Hugo, but what does he care about that?

[DD1Prime]

Attacking the police will only drive the crime rate even higher - Chavez is empowering a terrible crime wave in addition to overthrowing officials elected by the people of his country.

[zaz33]

Socialism working pretty well in Venevuela - Unemployment remains at 7.7%

Maybe Obama should have read the book.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4605

[zaz33]

With Guzman, the AP, and Globovision we're only getting the right wing side of the story.

If it's an important story, stay tuned.

[jmama101]

COMMUNISUM RULES!

[Ira7]

Yeah--it rules the people.

[whoa20]

Hugo Chavez is a communist and must be brought down.

[sticksnstones]

So, go on down there yourself and start your little revolution. You know .... put some of your own skin in the game.

[dzent1]

Sorry, whoa20, nobody is afraid of communists anymore. It's Wall Street and the insurance cartels that have proven to all of us that they are worse than anything communism ever stood for.

That's who the average person thinks must be brought down, so we can retrieve our national treasury after spending it all on CORPORATE SOCIALISM via the Bush Administration.

[AlexFTW]

Well, then let's simply get our CIA operatives to go down there, orchestrate a coup and install a fascist puppet dictator. The good old American way of spreading democracy and freedom.