Capriles Calls Off Protest After Venezuela Threatens Crackdown

[joshcryer]

Capriles Calls Off Protest After Venezuela Threatens Crackdown
Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski took a step back from the brink of a mounting confrontation with the government by calling off a march planned for today to protest the results of the April 14 presidential election.

Capriles acted after Nicolas Maduro, proclaimed the winner by the national electoral council, vowed to come down with a “firm hand” on opposition supporters and seven people died in political violence, according to the public prosecutor. Capriles urged supporters to bang pots and pans at home to avoid violence. Maduro responded by telling his followers to drown out the protest with fireworks and music.

“We know that your agenda in the government is to try to get the country into a situation of confrontation and violence,” Capriles, 40, told reporters yesterday in Caracas. “Tomorrow we won’t mobilize.”

...

“This eases the tension, but I don’t know for how long,” Weeks, former director of Latin American studies at the university, said in a phone interview. Maduro’s response “is in many ways a provocation.”

So much for "inciting violence." I'm sure, of course, when some students still mobilize, that Capriles will be blamed.

Meanwhile Maduro keeps ratcheting up the rhetoric and trying to make it seem like Venezuela is descending into chaos.

[Marksman_91]

1. Would appreciate it if you replaced "Venezuela" with "government"(or something similar) in the title

That small group of radicals currently running the country do not represent the Venezuelan people.

Just a small favor

[joshcryer]

2. That's the title of the article.

Sorry, I'm going to leave it the way it is.

[Marksman_91]

3. Didn't know there were rules regarding keeping article titles as thread titles

[joshcryer]

4. There aren't.

But I'd rather not be accused of changing the title and imparting my own bias.

I would've used Globovision's article but then the topic would've been trashing Globovision.

Unfortunately Venezuelan state media (the only sources around here acceptable) does not typically show Capriles' statements.

[Daniel537]

5. Sorry boss, like it or not they do represent the people.

Don't like democracy? That's your cross to bear, but the people have spoken.