The Devil's Excrement

During the opposition march celebrating MayDay a person in a motorcycle showed up and killed someone and apparently injured another one at the square that was the ending point of the march. The murdered person was a union worker that was in the march. Very confusing right now.

The march had not ended and most of the people had not reached the square, people are furious on TV, singing the national anthem as the police stops them from moving on.

Uinion Radio says that the shooting was part of a trap by Chavez’ supporters while TV station Globovision (live) is saying that curiously right before the shooting the municipal police disapeared. The intelligence police went into the building where supposedly the assasin was hiding and as they came out the outraged crowd started throwing stones at them. The police then started using tear gas on the demonstrators.

Now a group of Chavez’ supporters has shown up taunting the opposition people and a fight has started, people are throwing bottles and stones and the cops tear gas.

While witnesses are saying that it was indeed a trap in which a group of people showed up shooting, the Government is saying that it was a discussion between two people that ended up in a shooting. Another witness is saying that the shooter climbed in a police car after shooting. A Deputy is saying that the man was trapped and handed over to the cops and then the cops started shooting at the marchers too.

The dead worker was a construction worker from the West of Caracas. He was 46 years old. Two hours after his shooting, not a single Government authority has said anything or appeared on TV, including the Minister of the Interior and Justice who is in charge of security.

The US State Department said today that Venezuela has become a source of concern over terrorism. The Department mentioned Chavez critique over the use of force by the US in Afghanistan and his “mixed posture” in general over the fight on terrorism. This was par of the Department’s annual report on terrorism. The Department also accused Venezuela of not backing investigations and the “persistence of unconfirmed versions that there are links between the Venezuelan Government and the Colombian Revolutionary forces FARC. The full report in English is here and the section on Venezuela is here.

President Hugo Chavez announced today the increase in the minimum salary. The increase will take place on July 1^st. and will take the minimum salary to Bs. 218.592 on that date and later on Oct. 1^st. it will rise to 237.600. The numbers are somewhat unclear as Chavez spoke of percentages which do not correspond to the announcements. Apparently the correct percentages are 15% in July and an 8% on top of that in October which would not correspond to the numbers announced by the President. The increase is compulsory for both the private and public sectors. People do need increases as inflation last year was 34% and it has topped 10% so far this year. However, the economy contracted more than 10% last year (we are still awaiting the statistics) and is expected to shrink by more than 10% this year. Thus the likely effect of the salary increase will likely be even more unemployment.

Chavez took advantage of his nationwide address to invite Venezuelans to participate in the May Day march organized by his supporters and the new Bolivarian union sponsored by his Government (One more oxymoron in Chavez’ policies). There will be two marches/demonstrations here tomorrow (which is a holiday) one by Government supporters and another one by the opposition. Their paths do not overlap, but there is always a risk of violence.

Local daily El Nacional began charging today for using its on-line version. The paper will charge US$ 40 per year for its on-line version.  I doubt the policy will last as they will likely find that their on-line readership will drop off dramatically in the next few days. I would pay for it if it were useful for the information I try to document in my blog, but I actually find it to be a terrible source to use. First of all, if one looks at the prior editions section, one can only look at the last week or so which is too limited (Using the search engine is simply too cumbersome). But perhaps the most important reason is that El Nacional is using a software, apparently developed locally, which does not allow me to link to specific pages. (Tal Cual is using the same software). Thus, you will likely see more of El Universal links here, which has been the case ever since El Nacional began using the new software.