Venezuelans gearing up for more protests over TV shutdown
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| Published on Friday, June 1, 2007 |
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Thousands of pro- and anti-government protesters were planning massive street marches around the country later this week over President Hugo Chavez's decision to close an opposition TV station.
Hundreds of students marched for 182 minutes in Caracas Wednesday to demand the release of 182 people arrested earlier this week while protesting RCTV's closure.
A letter was delivered to the city ombudsman's office "telling him we have 182 students under arrest simply because they want democracy, freedom of speech," student leader John Goicochea told reporters.
He said the ombudsman had told the students that a few detainees would be set free later Wednesday.
The Attorney General's office, in turn, told AFP it was seeking to prosecute some 45 detainees, including several minors.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets since Friday to protest Chavez's refusal on Sunday to renew RCTV's license on grounds it was conspiring against him and had supported a brief, failed coup in 2003.
On Monday several people were injured in Caracas as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators.
The government later said 182 people, including 107 minors, were detained across the country during disturbances on Monday and Tuesday, and that 19 policemen were injured.
Chavez on Tuesday said the student demonstrators were being manipulated by people seeking to destabilize Venezuela, and called on Venezuelans to defend the country from "a new fascist attack."
In response, Central University of Venezuela student Carlos Julio Rojas told AFP that Wednesday's protest march was also meant to disprove Chavez's accusation.
"We want to show that we're not being manipulated by any political group," he said. "All we want is freedom."
Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB) student union leader David Smolansky called for a more demonstrations around the country on Friday, urging all Venezuelans to join in the anti-Chavez protests.
"We call on civil society to join us in expressing our discontent," he told AFP.
Chavez on Wednesday called for a massive demonstration on Saturday "to counter the provocations of the counter revolutionaries," according to a statement on a government-run website.
Most of the demonstrators around the country were university students, in what observers noted was a resurgence of student protest movements of the kind last seen in 1989.
"For a long time, there was a lack of motivation, but now there is hope (the student protest) will have an impact at the national level, around the whole country," UCAB faculty board member Francisco Vargas told AFP.
The United States on Wednesday renewed its concern over RCTV's shutdown and the erosion of human rights it signals in Venezuela.
"We are obviously concerned ... about any actions that would be taken that would limit freedom of expression, that would limit the rights of people to gain information from a variety of sources," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
Top Democratic US lawmaker Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, issued a statement calling on Chavez to "reconsider this ill-advised decision."
"President Chavez should know that efforts to suppress the media will not only ultimately fail, but are also a detriment to one of the pillars of democracy: freedom of expression," Pelosi said.
RCTV has been broadcasting for 53 years and until its shutdown midnight Sunday was Venezuela's most popular network. It has been replaced by state-sponsored TVES.
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