Four suffer gunshot wounds after Venezuela protest
CARACAS (AFP) — Four people were wounded Wednesday when an armed group fired on students after a protest in Caracas, in new violence linked to a proposed reform that would boost President Hugo Chavez's powers.
The shooting took place on a university campus as the students returned from a protest against the December 2 referendum over the constitutional reforms the firebrand leftist president is seeking.
A government official initially said one person was killed, but university authorities later denied there was any fatality and said four students were taken to hospital for surgery after suffering gunshot wounds.
Authorities said it was unclear who the attackers were, but opposition members have in the past accused pro-Chavez militants of being behind similar incidents in the deeply polarized South American country.
"Armed groups started firing at students who were returning from the peaceful demonstration," said law faculty Dean Jorge Pabon.
He said the attackers arrived on campus on motorcycles.
They first set a bus alight, and later fired at students from inside one of a university building.
Thousands of protesters, most of them students, earlier in the day marched to the Supreme Court building in Caracas, where they filed a document calling for postponement of the referendum.
The changes sought by Chavez would lift presidential term limits and increase his mandate to seven years from six, as well as implement "economic socialism" and give the president the power to suspend media rights during a state of emergency.
The unicameral National Assembly, which is packed with Chavez supporters, earlier this month approved the proposal to change 69 of the constitution's 350 articles.
The president would be able to create new administrative regions and name vice presidents to govern them. He would also enjoy broader decision-making powers regarding military affairs, the national reserves and monetary policy.
The protesters said Venezuelans have not been sufficiently informed about what the reforms entail.
Supreme Court President Luisa Estela de Morales met with a delegation of protesters and announced the court would consider the petition.
A similar demonstration on Monday ended in clashes that left more than 50 people injured as police arrested 35 protesters.
Chavez on Sunday told government officials to deal firmly with what he said were unruly students.
"We won't allow these spoiled little brats, these rich kids with a silver spoon in their mouths to go around tearing up the center of Caracas," he said.
Critics say the proposed constitutional changes would give excessive powers to Chavez, who already gained political strength from a previous rewrite of the constitution approved in a December 1999 referendum.
A former paratrooper, Chavez won in 1998 at the ballot box the power he had failed to grab in an attempted military coup six years earlier. He was ousted in an April 2002 coup but was back in office after just two days.
A virulent critic of the US administration and an ally of Iran and Cuba, Chavez has maintained a high level of support from impoverished Venezuelans thanks largely to social programs financed with petrodollars. Critics accuse him of wasting away the South American country's oil wealth.
