AP, CARACAS
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government could deny permits for opposition-led protests because of violence during demonstrations against proposed constitutional amendments that would let him run for re-election indefinitely.
"The next time they announce one of these marches, we'll have to evaluate whether to grant permission," Chavez told thousands of supporters during a rally on Sunday in favor of the reforms.
PHOTO: AP
He accused his opponents of planning to spur widespread political upheaval ahead of the Dec. 2 referendum on the 69 proposed constitutional changes.
"We're not going to allow them to fill Venezuela's streets with blood," Chavez said.
Human rights groups, the Roman Catholic Church and other critics say Chavez is seeking the changes in order to consolidate power, pointing to the proposed elimination of presidential term limits. Opponents warn that amendments allowing authorities to detain citizens without charge and censor the media during a state of emergency would violate civil liberties.
The president's stern warning came in response to violence last week during street demonstrations by university students protesting the proposed constitutional overhaul. On Friday, two students were killed and four others were injured by gunfire during a protest outside a university in the western state of Zulia.
Chavez condemned the killings and urged political rivals to settle their differences democratically. University students plan more protests this week.
Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez said Venezuelans would continue protesting against the sweeping reforms, but called for peaceful demonstrations.
"There won't be any police, National Guard troops or armies capable of stopping the country's transformation," he said. "They won't be able to stop Venezuelans who want democracy."
The reforms were overwhelmingly approved last week by the National Assembly, which is controlled by the president's allies. Chavez -- a former paratroop commander who was first elected in 1998 -- denies the amendments threaten freedoms.
The amendments would also give Chavez the power to create provinces governed by federally appointed officials, allow the government to expropriate private property without having to first seek court authorization, create new types of property managed by cooperatives, end the Central Bank's autonomy and extend presidential terms from six to seven years.
Chavez, who won re-election last year with promises to transform Venezuela into a socialist state, says the changes would actually expand democracy by empowering neighborhood-based assemblies.
"It's power for the people," he told cheering supporters. "That's the essence of the constitutional reform."
Venezuela -- a major supplier of oil to the US -- is deeply divided over Chavez's rule, with government opponents fearing an impending dictatorship. But a weak opposition has repeatedly failed to derail his initiatives at the ballot box.
Waving flags and wearing the red of Chavez's ruling party, thousands of "Chavistas" -- as the president's backers call themselves -- shouted pro-reform slogans in a march that stretched for several kilometers before reaching Sunday's rally in downtown Caracas, where Chavez greeted them.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS