[News] Venezuela’s Maduro Proposes “Peace Conference” to Resolve Opposition Protests

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Venezuela’s Maduro Proposes “Peace Conference” to Resolve Opposition
  Protests

<http://venezuelanalysis.com/printmail/10401>http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10401
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/print/10401>

Mérida, 24^th February 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan 
president Nicolas Maduro has called for a “National Peace Conference” as 
a means of resolving the on-going violent opposition protests in 
Venezuela. The opposition has made a set of “demands” for dialogue to begin.

Protests began two weeks ago after opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez 
called supporters onto the streets to force the “exit” of President 
Nicolas Maduro. Lopez is currently in custody and being investigated for 
inciting violent acts.

Some opposition marches have been peaceful, and have incorporated 
complaints over shortages, inflation and high crime. Meanwhile, an 
extremist sector of the opposition has engaged in a strategy of street 
blockades and nightly riots in an attempt to undermine the government.

Last Saturday during a large “march for peace” in Caracas, Maduro 
suggested that a “National Peace Conference” incorporating “all the 
social and political sectors of the country” could create the dialogue 
necessary to resolve the situation.

“It will be a conference for peace. We’ve got to neutralise these 
violent groups,” he said. The Venezuelan president suggested this 
conference could be held over several meetings with representatives from 
different social sectors such as workers, students, and artists and 
intellectuals.

The government blames far-right groups within the opposition for the 
violence in the country, and points to the killing of several civilians 
on street barricades, rioting, and attacks on government infrastructure 
as evidence of this. President Maduro argues that these actions are part 
of a “coup attempt” being orchestrated by the conservative opposition.

The opposition rejects the allegation, and says the government and 
radical chavistas are responsible for repressing “peaceful” protests and 
causing the deaths of several pro-opposition students.

On Saturday Maduro welcomed the decision of opposition leader Henrique 
Capriles to attend a meeting with him and the country’s state governors 
in the Federal Government Council today. However Capriles, who is 
governor of Miranda state, said this morning he was still not sure if he 
would attend.

On Saturday the president also said he was open to “dialogue” with the 
United States, who he accuses of supporting the opposition’s protests. 
Maduro stated that he was willing to designate an ambassador to 
Washington, “So that the U.S. hears the truth about Venezuela and 
respects our people”. On 16 February Maduro expelled three U.S. consular 
officials from Venezuela for alleged “conspiracy” with the opposition.

However Maduro also told supporters that, “If due to the circumstances 
of fascist violence [the opposition] take power, I authorise you to go 
onto the streets and defend the nation, to rescue every millimetre of 
the homeland”.

*Opposition stance*

Henrique Capriles made a list of opposition “demands” to the government 
during a large opposition march in Caracas on Saturday. One of these was 
that all “students and youths” allegedly arrested during recent protests 
and violence be released, along with Leopoldo Lopez and Ivan Simonovis, 
a police captain convicted for his role in the killings during the April 
2002 coup.  Simonovis maintains his innocence.

A second demand was “the ceasing of persecution, repression, and so that 
exiles can return to the country,” and the “disarmament of 
paramilitaries” that the opposition blames for the violence.

The Venezuelan government denies charges of repression, saying it is 
maintaining public order against riots and street barricades, while 
investigating any reported cases of abuses by officials. President 
Maduro has also publicly warned /chavistas/ not to engage in violent acts.

Capriles on Saturday also made calls to violent opposition sectors to 
halt their actions, saying that they “make it easy for the government”. 
“What do you achieve closing yourselves in within your own street? It’s 
in the government’s interest that the protests are in Altamira [a 
wealthy area of Caracas] and not Catia [a working class area of Caracas]”.

He exhorted the opposition to have “the same agenda”, and turn the 
protests into “the greatest social movement in Venezuela”. The 
opposition leader also made a series of criticisms of Nicolas Maduro, 
saying that he had an “empty discourse” and telling opposition students 
not to let Maduro “mess them around”.

*Telesur interview*

On Sunday President Nicolas Maduro gave an interview to television 
network Telesur, where he gave his impression of the situation in Venezuela.

“It’s not another conspiracy plan or another day of street barricades, 
it’s a developing state coup, decided in the circles of power in the 
United States, conjured with the business elites of Venezuela, and 
directed and driven in the streets by a sector of the Venezuelan extreme 
right-wing,” he argued.

According to Maduro the alleged plan to remove the government from power 
was born before Hugo Chavez died in March last year, and was intensified 
with an “economic war” and “electricity sabotage”.

The president also referred to Henrique Capriles’ refusal to recognise 
Maduro’s narrow victory in the April 2013 presidential election, and the 
eleven pro-government civilians who were then killed after Capriles 
called on supporters to “drain their rage”.

In his interview Maduro said a national and international media campaign 
by the opposition was currently being used to “annul” the state’s 
constitutional right to maintain public order and defend citizens under 
attack from violent groups.

He also said there are groups in Colombia financing the far-right’s 
activities in Venezuela in order to create a “civil war” and provoke 
“U.S. intervention”. Maduro has previously accused former Colombian 
president Alvaro Uribe of involvement in the alleged plot.

Maduro cited a recent poll by private Venezuelan firm International 
Consulting Services (ICS), which found that 81% of Venezuelans consider 
that the protests in Venezuela “have been violent”. The poll was taken 
last week, with a sample of 1,400.

Also yesterday, pro-government journalist Jose Vicente Rangel revealed 
the results of another recent poll on attitudes to mechanisms for 
political change at Venezuela’s current juncture.

According to the poll, undertaken by private consultancy firm 
Hinterlaces with a sample of 1,400, only 29% of Venezuelans feel that 
the government should be forced from office through street actions.

Meanwhile 29% feel a recall referendum on Maduro’s presidency should be 
organised in 2016, and 42% feel that Maduro should be allowed to serve 
out his full mandate uninterrupted, until 2019.

As such, Vicente Rangel highlighted that 71% of the country feels that 
Venezuela’s political future should be decided through the 
constitutional electoral process, and that only 29% support the 
government’s forced “exit” through street actions. “The vote is [part 
of] Venezuelan culture and the majority support stability and hope over 
chaos and uncertainty,” he argued.

*Barricades and protests continue*

The positioning of Venezuela’s political leaders occurred over a 
backdrop of ongoing protests and violent street blockades in some parts 
of Venezuela. Opposition protesters continue to meet in the up-market 
Chacao area of eastern Caracas.

A total of 13 people have so far been killed in connection with the 
violence, according to a report by the Attorney General, Luisa Ortega 
Diaz, today. One of the most recent victims was student Geraldine 
Moreno, who was reportedly shot in the head with a pellet by a National 
Guardsman during a protest in Carabobo state. The scientific police 
investigation body (CICPC) are investigating the incident.

Ortega Diaz also reported that a total of 579 people have been arrested 
since the protests and barricades began, of which 529 have been released 
on bail conditions within 24 hours of their arrest. Of the other 50, 45 
have been held for longer periods to be charged, and 5 were released 
after it was determined they had nothing to do with the clashes, she said.

Further, Maduro claimed today that thirty people with respiratory 
conditions have been killed as a result of opposition street  barricades 
and the smoke created by the burning rubbish, tires and uprooted trees 
with which they are built.

A few cities, including parts of the capital Caracas, are currently 
affected by street barricades, which reduce the circulation of traffic 
and the normal functioning of urban zones. Several violent deaths have 
also occurred on the barricades.

In Merida city security forces and pro-government citizens have cleared 
many barricades, but barricaders have set them up again elsewhere. 
Barricaders have attacked National Guard forces trying to clear away the 
barricades with rocks and Molotovs.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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