Vzla: Repression backfires

The G-15 summit held in Caracas last Friday served as an impromptu thermometer of Venezuelan political forces. On the one hand a regime that has lost all vestiges of respect and credibility not only at a national scale but internationally and on the other side an opposition that has been gaining momentum having managed to surpass the wave of contrary opinion. The meeting turned also into a gladiator’s arena; the extraordinary deployment of military force by the government, in a desperate attempt to placate voices of dissent, backfired causing a rather undesirable breach of protocol by President Lula Da Silva who left the very same day he arrived. Argentina’s Kirchner went further; he met for nearly two hours with opposition leaders on Saturday which caused his delayed arrival to a meeting with Chavez.
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Nevertheless not all is lost; the international community’s opinion with respect to Hugo Chavez has changed dramatically in the last week or so. Amnesty International has expressed, in two occasions already, utmost concern about the current situation vis-à-vis human rights. Similar observations have been made by the EU, the Inter American Human Rights Court, the OAS’ Group of Friends, European and American politicians, media outlets and NGOs. Amazingly the BBC world service called me last night to gather information regarding the ‘opposition’s view’ of the conflict. One of the questions was ‘do you think the actual climate of instability in the country is due to America’s intervention?’ It is such good scapegoat, isn’t it?