[R-G] Venezuelan Government Uncovers Video of Opposition Destabilization Plan

[Anthony Fenton]

Venezuelan Government Uncovers Video of Opposition Destabilization Plan
November 30th 2007, by Chris Carlson - Venezuelanalysis.com
Opposition leaders Alejandro Peña Esclusa and Leopoldo Lopez speaking  
at a church in Caracas (YouTube)
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2937

Caracas, November 30, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Venezuelan  
Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon presented a video revealing  
the opposition strategy of destabilization for Sunday's referendum at  
a press conference on Thursday. In the video, opposition leaders call  
on their supporters to reject the results of the referendum and to  
take part in nation-wide protests to overturn the constitutional  
reform. Two opposition leaders are being investigated for inciting  
violence and calling on supporters to break the law.

In the video that has been posted on the internet at various web  
pages, including YouTube, leaders of the Venezuelan opposition can be  
seen speaking to supporters in a church in Caracas, calling on  
supporters to create "pockets of protest" all over the country after  
the national vote this Sunday.

"It is a more efficient mechanism that generates a political crisis  
and a crisis of instability that forces the regime to withdraw the  
reform," says opposition leader Alejandro Peña Esclusa in the video.  
Esclusa insists that the plan for massive protests must be a group  
effort all across the nation, making the government unable to control  
it.

Alongside Esclusa is opposition mayor Leopoldo Lopez, who also speaks  
in the video, making the case that the electoral results cannot be  
trusted, but he does not give explicit support for the  
destabilization plan.

"The worst part," said Minister Chacón, "is that the mayor of Chacao  
and leader of Un Nuevo Tiempo [the opposition party A New Era]  
appears in the video. We'd like to know if Mr. Leopoldo López will  
tell the nation that he does not believe what Esclusa says, and that  
if the CNE says that the reforms are approved, if he will respect the  
results."

Chacón stated that he was not surprised upon seeing Lopez in the  
video and assured that he and Exclusa are not democrats, but rather  
"fascists." He also accused the bishops of the Catholic Church of  
endorsing the destabilization plans of Esclusa and called on the  
Venezuelan Catholic hierarchy to reflect on their use of the church  
to hold these kinds of meetings, and incite the Venezuelan people to  
the use of violence.

"How is it possible that the temple of God be used to incite  
violence?" asked Chacón. "The pulpit should be used to call for  
peace, not for violence."

As a result of the finding, the Venezuelan government launched an  
investigation of two opposition leaders, Alejandro Peña Esclusa and  
Carlos Guyón Celis, for publishing various videos online that incite  
violence. Government intelligence will investigate the two leaders  
for their involvement in calling on sectors of society to not  
recognize the results of the national vote on Sunday and to break the  
law.

Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez denied the accusations of the  
Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon and assured that he does not  
agree with the plans of Esclusa.

"It is not true that I said to not recognize the electoral results,  
or to create protests in that meeting," said Lopez. "On the contrary,  
I had a different position than Peña Esclusa, who didn't want people  
to go vote. I have always been working in favor of voting."

Minister Chacón called on all Venezuelans to respect the electoral  
process on Sunday, and to respect the results, no matter what they are.

"I imagine that the Venezuelan people that vote ‘yes' and ‘no' are  
going to respect the results. Because if not, what they are preparing  
is a situation of destabilization and violence on the night of  
December 2nd, which the government is not going to permit."

"We are not going to permit a situation of destabilization and  
violence on December 2nd," assured Chacón. "We are going to respect  
the results on Sunday, whatever they are."

Link to video: http://www.aporrea.org/medios/n105515.html