Opposition

Following a range of sometimes violent protests across the country last week over the temporary suspension of TV station RCTV, as well as one protest last Monday in Merida which left two youths dead, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has called for calm.

On Monday, violent protests against the temporary suspension of cable channels that violated media social responsibility laws in Venezuela left one pro-government and one opposition student dead, more than twenty police injured, and parts of downtown Merida burnt and damaged, while peaceful protests occurred in other major cities.

In politically polarised Venezuela, both supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez marched peacefully in the capital, Caracas, on Saturday.

Venezuelan opposition groups seek to use human rights issues to discredit the government of President Hugo Chávez before the international community, according to Germán Saltrón, Venezuela’s human rights representative to the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Yesterday on the 33^rd anniversary of the bomb attack on a Cuban plane which left 73 people dead, Venezuela once again called for the U.S. to extradite terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the known mastermind of the tragedy.

During his weekly television show "Hello President" on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez criticised protests by right-wing opposition student groups over alleged political persecution in Venezuela as "defending impunity and corruption."

Nearly 98% of Venezuela's public schools successfully opened their doors without irregularities on the first day of the school year this Wednesday despite threats of opposition sabotage and boycotts.

In response to a "global" protest promoted over Facebook.com against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, there were marches and rallies across Venezuela and in various other countries on Friday and Saturday to both support Chavez and to reject the new US run military bases in Colombia.

Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega announced on Friday that protesters who disturb "tranquility and public peace" would face criminal charges, after a series of opposition protests turned violent. The protests are aimed at destabilising the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Ortega said.

The vice president of the legislative council in Táchira state, Jonathan García, denounced a campaign by Táchira Governor César Pérez Vivas (an opponent of President Hugo Chávez), together with other rightwing sectors, to promote a separatist movement in the Venezuelan state, which borders Colombia.