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Mobilizations in Venezuela against
secessionist project
CARACAS, March 7 (PL)—Broad sectors of Venezuelan
society began mobilizing today to express their
disapproval of secession plans by the wealthy state
of Zulia, believed to be part of U.S.
interventionist designs.
The political party Homeland for All (PPT), an
organization that supports President Hugo Chávez,
initiated the actions demonstrating support for
national unity by organizing a demonstration outside
the Attorney General’s office in support of its
investigation into the case.
The Attorney General’s office announced yesterday
that it is to investigate charges regarding a
secessionist movement in the oil-rich state in
western Venezuela made by a national newspaper and
confirmed by Chávez and other authorities.
Apparently, a group called Rumbo Propio is planning
to organize a referendum that would propose the
establishment of the Republic of Zulia, with its own
president and constitution, and a system of “liberal
capitalism.”
William Lara, national coordinator of the Fifth
Republic Movement (MVR), Venezuela’s governing
party, accused U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield of
participating in meetings in Zulia on effecting the
secession.
For his part, Giancarlo di Martino, mayor of
Maracaibo, the country’s second-largest city and the
capital of Zulia, affirmed that this is about a U.S.
plot involving Colombian paramilitaries and Governor
Manuel Rosales.
Rosales is one of the only two governors among the
country’s 24 states who is part of the Chávez
opposition and, according to various sources, is
participating to a lesser or greater extent in the
Zulia secessionist movement.
If Zulia were to secede, it would cut off the
country from important hydrocarbon reserves, and
observers say it would allow the United States to
establish a military base in the area and weaken the
Chávez Government.
In
response to that, Freddy Bernal, mayor of the
Libertador municipality of the capital and president
of the Association of Bolivarian Mayors of
Venezuela, has also called for a broad mobilization
by society to prevent the secessionist attempt.
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