Followers of Venezuela’s late socialist leader Hugo Chávez flooded the streets yesterday for the anniversary of his death, an emotional but welcome distraction for his successor from violent protests that have been raging for a month.
A year after Mr Chávaz succumbed to cancer, his self-proclaimed "son," president Nicolas Maduro, faces the biggest challenge to his rule from an explosion of anti-government demonstrations that have led to 18 deaths since February.
Yesterday’s military parade and other events to honour “El Comandante” were a chance for Mr Maduro (51) to reclaim the streets and show opponents that he too can mobilise his supporters.
“This anniversary is enormously sad. There’s not a single day I don’t remember Hugo,” Mr Chávaz’s cousin, Guillermo Frias (60) said from Los Rastrojos village in rural Barinas state, where the pair used to play baseball as kids. “He changed Venezuela forever, and we cannot go back. Maduro also is a poor man, like us. He’s handling things fine. Perhaps he just needs a stronger hand,” he said.
Tens of thousands of red-clad “Chavistas” gathered for rallies in Caracas and elsewhere in honour of Mr Chávaz whose 14-year rule won him the adoration of many of Venezuela’s poorest, while alienating the middle and upper classes.
Hundreds of protesting students, though, set up barricades in various streets of Caracas and other cities nationwide from before dawn. Police fired teargas at stone-throwing demonstrators in one upscale district of the capital.
One 26-year-old man died in western Tachira state when he crashed his car swerving at a roadblock set up by protesters.
Coup attempt
Mr Maduro presided over a parade in the capital before going to the hilltop military museum where Mr Chávaz led the 1992 coup attempt that launched his political career, and where his remains have been laid to rest in a marble sarcophagus.
“Hugo Chávaz passed into history as the redeemer of the poor,” Mr Maduro said, comparing his mentor to both Jesus and South American independence hero Simón Bolívar.
Mr Chávaz’s humble roots, anti-US rhetoric, network of grassroots political organisations and lavish spending on slum projects made him a hero for many. Yet his tough line against opponents, sweeping nationalisations, and rigid economic policies such as price and currency controls angered many others. – (Reuters)