[R-G] Venezuela: A warning sign

[Anthony Fenton]

A warning sign?
Submitted by Fred Fuentes on November 16th, 2007.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/blog/fred/2842

Not long after hearing a loud bang, we were told at work that our  
building was being evacuated. "There's been an explosion and everyone  
has to get out of the building" I was calmly told by a fellow  
workmate. As we approached the stairway (we are on the 20th floor so  
it would have been a hell off a walk down!) we could see residents  
from the apartment below climbing up with their faces covered. It  
turned out that a tear gas grenade had been set off on the 14th floor.

Quickly we began to feel our noses burning, as we began sneezing and  
coughing whilst the tear gas wafted up the building. Those that had  
come up the stairs had really red eyes and noses, with tears  
streaming out.

Whilst exact details are still to come out it seems someone “threw” a  
tear gas grenade into the 14th floor of the building. Who could have  
done this?

Here are a few clues:

1) The building I work in is the Anauco Suites in Parque Central. It  
is a residential building, with the Miranda International Centre  
(where I work) located in the penthouse. The residential suites are  
mainly occupied by Cubans who come to Venezuela for different reasons  
and a host of other Venezuela state officials, student activists and  
foreign intellectuals and journalist. It was once quoted in an  
opposition paper that nowadays you can only get in by showing your  
communist credentials.

2) Only three days ago they began implementing security measures for  
people coming into the building as tension rises in the lead up to  
the referendum on the constitutional reform

3) Over the last few days several tear gas grenades have been set off  
around the University of Zulia by opposition students, forcing  
classes to be temporarily suspended today

4) In the lead up to last year’s presidential elections some pipe  
bombs were set off near military bases and at the Central University  
of Venezuela.

5) As I wrote in my blog post yesterday “Whilst there is much to be  
optimistic about given the beginning of the campaign [in favour of  
the reform], this also means that Venezuela has entered into a new  
more dangerous phase. I think even the opposition know they will  
lose, but they also know that perhaps more is at stake now than in  
any other electoral process until now. This means they will try  
everything – including acts of violence and terrorism – to try and  
impede the referendum going ahead”.

It is still unclear exactly what happen (and I promise to post what  
ever information comes out) but one can’t help but have the feeling  
that this was is warning sign of things to come as the opposition  
tries all it can to create a climate of tension in the lead up to the  
referendum