Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan Opposition Candidate Attacked At Rally, Shots Fired (VIDEO)

A video posted on YouTube this past weekend depicts a frightening attack against Venezuelan opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, who is running against Hugo Chavez in the presidential primaries.

The video, recorded Saturday, shows the candidate speaking to her supporters and members of the press after having thrown the ceremonial first pitch at a championship softball game in a storied neigborhood of Caracas, Comunidad del 23 de Enero, now known for being a center of Hugo Chavez's political base.

As Machado compares working as a team to overcome challenges on the baseball field to overcoming challenges in real life, shots ring out. Immediately, members of the crowd flee as voices in the background yell, "Vamos, vamos, vamos!" (Let's go, let's go, let's go!)

WATCH:

A Caracas daily newspaper, El Nacional, further reported that 15 shots were fired at the scene and published a photo of two men on a motorcycle, one pointing a Glock pistol at Machado's campaign bus.

CNN en Español reported that they spoke with the candidate soon after the incident, who stated that while she was not harmed, despite shots being fired at her campaign bus and into the air.

The candidate said in Spanish that she blamed the Chavez government which has lost control, saying "in many cases, it has been complicit with the criminal gangs" and has even provided weapons to some of them.

This is not the first time Machado has faced aggression as she mounts her campaign. In early July, as the only opposition candidate to attend the official commemoration of Venezuela's independence bicentennial anniversary, members of the crowd hurled insults and objects in her direction, forcing military police to cover her with their helmets and cordon her way through the antagonistic crowd.

WATCH:

Comments

[albant]

10:58 AM on 11/23/2011

http://mesadealacranes.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/conversacion-de-maria-corina-machado-con-su-madre/

Check out this link.
This inmoral woman warns her mother not to worry about incoming news on being shot at by President Chavez's supporters.
This was a fake news spread around in complicity with falsemedia and masterminded by a thug named JJ Rendon, an expert in dirty media war, extorsion and blackmailing.

This "News" is what we call a"smoke can" designed to win some support mostly from international sources (State Department) and some symphaty inside Venezuela.

Even her mother protests the faked news as it can be heard during the conversation.

This is the same good looking woman that went to the White House to sell out her country to a war criminal like George W. Bush. She has got a lot of USA taxpayer's dollars via NED to mount this kind of cheap theatre.

This http://mesadealacranes.wordpress.com is a blog posted by some people that strongly oppose President Chavez, but they had it with opposotion "leadership". They do not like Chavez but do not want to be lied at anymore. It sounds weird but it is true.

I really feel sorry that a serious publication like the Huffington Post falls so softly in the hands of such an inmoral "politician" like Maria Corina Machado.

[Bruno Diaz]

09:32 AM on 11/24/2011

Are you serious? Those two links don't dispute at all the fact that this lady was shot at or trying to be intimidated by some thugs.

"This is the same good looking woman that went to the White House to sell out her country to a war criminal like George W. Bush."

If you are so concern about imperial powers influence over Venezuela you probably are also very worried about the latest multibillion $$$ loan of China to Venezuela.. Why such an oil rich country needs that much money now?. Perhaps Chavez need some cash to finance his campaign but is running out of Venezuelan petro $$?

[BlackRabbit]

06:40 PM on 11/15/2011

Any Venezuelan politician opposing Chavez is a braver man ... er, woman .. than I am.

[xhawk2]

07:54 AM on 11/15/2011

This is what Chavez supporters do to political opponents when they can't arrest them on bogus charges.

[OOOOOMY]

03:21 AM on 11/15/2011

Is this what may be coming our way? Remember, many scoffed, laughed with contempt and derision, if there was a possibili­ty that all the chaos and violence initially taking place in Europe and Greece would ever come here.
Still laughing now?
Who are the extremists? TheTea Party or Occupy Groups?

Occupy Groups
. No direction or methods in place for change or correct any injustice, other than the right of 'civil' disobedience mayhem and destruction. Intolerant of rights of others' freedoms, assembly, speech and movement .

Occupy general witnessed characteristics: The rise of Anti semitism, becoming more violent as recently observed in Brooklyn, NY, where cars were touched.
Thousands arrested all across the nation, murder, and other death, the selling and use of drugs, vandalism, property destruction, sexual assaults including rapes and 'other' physical assaults, theft, incidents public defecation, prostitution, cases child abuse,TB reported in Atlanta, Georgia, Lice, and other 'Intestinal' problems, sanitation 'trash' issues.

The Tea Party Goal. Limited/smaller government, control spending, balance the budget.The People spoke' during the last election, whereby The House of Representative, first time in 70 years, sent many democrats packing.
Hundreds of thousands of men women,children have gathered in public areas all across the nation...... with none of the above characteristics noted.

Who are the Extremists?

[OOOOOMY]

03:08 AM on 11/15/2011

Occupy Characteristics observed: The rise of Anti semitism, becoming more violent as recently observed in Brooklyn, NY, where cars were touched.
Thousands have been arrested all across the nation, murder, and other death, the selling and use of drugs, vandalism and property destruction, sexual assaults including rapes and 'other' physical assaults, theft, incidents of public defecation, prostitution, cases of child abuse,TB has been reported in Atlanta, Georgia, Lice, and other 'Intestinal' problems, sanitation 'trash' issues.

The Tea Party Goal. Limited/smaller government, control spending and balance the budget. Result, The People spoke' during the last election, whereby in The House of Representative, the first time in over 70 years, sent many democrats packing.
Hundreds of thousands of men women and children have gathered in many public areas all across the nation...... with none of the above characteristics noted.

Who are the Extremists?

[OOOOOMY]

03:05 AM on 11/15/2011

Is this what may be coming our way? Remember, many scoffed, laughed with contempt and derision, if there was apossibility that all the chaos and violence initially taking place in Europe and Greece would ever come here.
Still laughing now?
Let us compare what is currently ocurring here in America. ask yourselves, any moderates who may exist on the Huffington Post this simple question: Who Are The Extremists?
Is it The Tea Party or The Occupy Groups?

Occupy Groups. No stated direction or methods in place in order to change and/or to correct any injustice, other than civil disobedience, mayhem and destruction. Intolerant of the rights of others' freedoms of speech, assembly and movement .

[xoloitzcuintle]

02:28 AM on 11/15/2011

The report says that the gunmen were shooting at her bus and yet they ran to her bus to get away.

Another BS propaganda piece. At least nobody got killed this time, unlike in 2002 when they planted snipers on the roofs and shot innocent people in the streets in a clumsily failed attempt to blame it on Chavez supporters.

[amConcerned]

10:14 AM on 11/15/2011

That’s the account of 2002 put forth by Pro-Chavez interests. No truly credible proof of that. No substantial investigation of those allegations. The also very prevalent account that it was indeed Pro-Chavez factions initiating the violence is the most likely actuality with credible facts supporting that likelihood and no conspiracy theory leap necessary in that account of the events.

[xoloitzcuintle]

11:29 AM on 11/15/2011

Making a series of perfect head shots from 200 meters . . . with pistols.

We already know the coup was planned beforehand. We already know the change in the march route was planned. But I'm supposed to make the leap that Chavez also knew and put snipers on the roof ahead of time?

There's plenty of testimony on the preparations for the coup, including the CNN cameraman who filmed the military declaration . . . the day before the coup took place. That declaration justified ousting Chavez because his gunmen were killing Venezuelans in the street. How did they know that the day before if it wasn't part of their plan?

Incidentally, it's not a conspiracy "theory". It was a conspiracy. Anytime two or more people plan a crime together, it's a conspiracy. Are you going trying to claim that the 2002 coup was spontaneous?

[ZenCrusader]

06:33 PM on 11/15/2011

that they did not happen simultaneously would not occur to you bcuz you lack objectivity, being a cheerleader for Chavez.

[xoloitzcuintle]

07:09 PM on 11/15/2011

That they did not happen simultaneously does not occur to me because we know that the television announcement that Chavez was killing people in the streets was recorded the day before it happened.

Yet another of your completely meaningless posts.

[xoloitzcuintle]

02:10 AM on 11/15/2011

"The candidate said in Spanish that she blamed the Chavez government which has lost control, saying "in many cases, it has been complicit with the criminal gangs" and has even provided weapons to some of them."

Same thing they said during the 2002 coup only it turned out to be their own gunmen shooting people on the streets.

[Bruno Diaz]

10:34 AM on 11/15/2011

"The candidate said in Spanish that she blamed the Chavez government which has lost control, saying "in many cases, it has been complicit with the criminal gangs" and has even provided weapons to some of them."

Very true. She is right.

[xoloitzcuintle]

11:33 AM on 11/15/2011

An opposition politician blamed Chavez?

Wow. A real shocker there.

BTW, how is it that she's speaking out so freely against Chavez on television? Why hasn't she been imprisoned or disappeared? According to you guys, there's no free press in Venezuela and anyone who speaks against Chavez ends up murdered.

[tnlcallen]

12:45 AM on 11/15/2011

Karma is about to have her way with Mr. Chavez.

[evgolightly]

07:59 PM on 11/14/2011

I highly recommend the documentary, "South of the Border" for some perspective on Chavez and South America.

Seems to me, he's done a good job for the vast majority of the people and the rich of Venezuela (and the US) resent him for this.

[flossophy]

11:12 PM on 11/14/2011

It is untrue that Hug0's policies have been good for the poor in VenezueIa... In fact, their plight has become much worse since he took office and centralized power, clamped down on the free press and threw his opposition in pris0n (or worse). 

Hug0 apologist and dinosaur Iefty, Oliver Stone, is not a reliable source on politics in Latin America.

[Rus Viking]

11:16 PM on 11/14/2011

Or, North America, Southeast Asia....e&

[tnlcallen]

12:41 AM on 11/15/2011

Yeah, but he is still a dictator, regardless of what some on the left like to think.

[xoloitzcuintle]

02:11 AM on 11/15/2011

He has been elected by an overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan electorate. Maybe you should look up the word dictator.

[dbowie35]

05:07 PM on 11/14/2011

We have our own problems to deal with here, Not to say that we don't care here in AMERICA guys...

[MiserblOF]

04:18 PM on 11/14/2011

Notice that the Amerika media says NOTHING about what this candidate stands for in the article..

[Bruno Diaz]

04:35 PM on 11/14/2011

Yes this Amerika media again!!.... Letting this uncensored video out...
They should have waited to see if shooting at this lady was justified. Who nows she may be running against Chavez!!!.

[xoloitzcuintle]

02:11 AM on 11/15/2011

Or maybe this is just another opposition paid shooter like the snipers in 2002 that left 10 people dead.

[MiserblOF]

04:16 PM on 11/14/2011

Chavez is neither hero nor villain, but I wouldn't put it past the forces of the corporatist right, especially the American governmental entitites like the CIA and/or others to foment this kind of thing to make him and his supporters look bad. This kind of thing has happened too many times in the past and found to be that kind of thing to give it much import. Hey, could even be the work of private thugs .. Kochs??

[Bruno Diaz]

04:50 PM on 11/14/2011

You know what looks bad and discredit your cause? Apologizing for regimes that you don't know much about it just because the little you know matches your ideology.

[ProgressivesLoveAmerica]

07:04 PM on 11/14/2011

You've made an excellent observation. We always hear in the mainstream American corporate media that Hugo Chavez is a socialist "dictator."

What we never hear is that the man was DEMOCRATICALLY elected & that he still remains very popular in his country. Qualitatively speaking, he's done almost nothing too egregiously wrong other than run for more subsequent terms as president and, let's face it, that's even all that bad! New York City Michael Bloomberg did the same exact thing and nobody calls him a dictator.

Venezuela does have a lot of oil resources and it would make sense if our CIA or U.S. State Department did go in and foster yet another American-backed coup followed by a bitter civil war where our government basically props up a dictator-puppet doing our own bidding. It makes a lot of sense that the Koch Brothers would be interested that enterprise.

After, Qaddafi was killed in Libya, NATO started seriously talking about going into Venezuela and Bolivia, so you're not that far off at all. The new style of American-led military imperialism now subcontracts our military adventures to NATO.

[evgolightly]

07:54 PM on 11/14/2011

Great post.

[flossophy]

11:15 PM on 11/14/2011

You need to brush up on Hugo's illiberal, undemocratic and thu.ggish policies over the last few years.

[Eric Israel Fogelgaren]

03:57 PM on 11/14/2011

This is obviously a conspiracy to besmirch the name of a true hero and reformer, Hugo Chavez. I am sure that Sean Penn, the gifted Ivy Leaguers at Columbia, and the many civil libertarians at occupy wall street will leap to his defense between joints and defacating and urinating on the sidewalk.

[icmorhair]

02:59 PM on 11/14/2011

Hugo Chavez will go the way of all flesh.