Fire at Electoral Board an additional source of concern

September 8, 2003

The National Electoral Council has been at the center of attention for the last few months. On Thursday and Friday, inspections by the Attroney General’s office raised the ire of the opposition as two judges even attempted to take away some signatures from the consultative referendum which never took place (The judges have been denounced in the Supreme Court for exceeding their powers). On Friday, in an intriguing turn of events, the National Guard actually blocked the inspection attempt, while another Court did a visual inspection at the request of a Deputy from one of the parties which backs Hugo Chavez. Today, the tension continued or intensified as there was a fire at the building where the Electoral Board is, raising eyebrows among those that do not believe in coincidences (including me). Now, it may be  fortuitus, but you have to remember that most buildings here are made of brick and fires are much less common than in the US. Moreover, the clouds of smoke were huge and a couple of dozen members of Chavez’ “Bolivarian Circles” were there protesting from the moment the TV stations started broadcasting the fire. Reportedly, it was an electrical fire caused by a short-circuit, but the event makes everyone very uneasy. You can read the news about the fire here in English, or here and here in Spanish.

This entry was posted on September 8, 2003 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Venezuela.

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