And the timing is perfect for Washington, who knows that the hands of the golpistas have weakened due to a remarkable recovery of the Venezuelan economy ("Venezuela's Economy Grew 9% in Fourth Quarter on Oil (Update2)," February 20, 2004, <http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aqd2nOfnw0sk&refer=latin_america>) -- and Venezuela is in the midst of the struggle over the referendum corrupted by the golpistas' frauds: <http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16152>.
Everyone in Venezuela got Washington's message, but Chavez and Bolivarians remain defiant:
***** Chavez calls Bush 'asshole' as foes fight troops By Patrick Markey CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) . . .
Chavez, who often says the U.S. is backing opposition efforts to topple his leftist government, accused Bush of heeding advice from "imperialist" aides to support a brief 2002 coup against him.
"He was an asshole to believe them," Chavez roared at a huge rally of supporters in Caracas.
The Venezuelan leader's comments came as fresh violence broke out on the streets of the capital, where National Guard troops clashed with opposition protesters pressing for a vote to end his five-year rule.
Military helicopters roared in low runs overhead as soldiers fired tear gas and plastic bullets to repel several hundred opposition demonstrators who threw stones and set up burning barricades in eastern Caracas late into the night.
Troops and opposition activists also skirmished in other cities. . . .
A soldier and a cameraman were shot and injured during the clashes and an opposition protester was wounded in the head by gunmen firing from motorbikes, witnesses and officials said.
Electoral authorities, citing the need to preserve peace in the country, said they were postponing until Monday the preliminary results of their verification of the opposition's petition for a recall vote.
One demonstrator carried a banner reading: "Bye bye Aristide, Chavez you're next," referring to Haiti's leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled into exile on Sunday in the face of an armed rebellion.
TENSIONS AHEAD OF POLL RULING
But the firebrand populist vowed to defeat any attempt to unseat him and threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States from the world's No. 5 crude oil exporter should Washington try an invasion or trade sanctions.
"Venezuela is not Haiti and Chavez is not Aristide," he said.
Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters marched earlier on Sunday to protest what they condemned as U.S. meddling in Venezuelan affairs. . . .
(Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher, Magdelena Morales)
BTW, check out Kim Scipes, "AFL-CIO Refuses to 'Clear the Air' on Foreign Policy, Operations," February 2004, <http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2004/02/articles/b.html>. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>