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Tear gas fired at protestors in Venezuela
Police firing tear gas clashed with thousands of protesters who gathered near a major summit meeting Friday, pressing for the recall of President Hugo Chavez. One man was killed and 26 hurt, officials said.
"Heads of state who have the highest responsibility to our peoples cannot passively accept the exclusive rules that this economic and social order imposes," Chavez said.
Near the summit site at the downtown Hilton Hotel, guard troops fired dozens of tear gas canisters at the jeering crowd of anti-Chavez protesters, who responded by throwing rocks. Some in the crowd set trash and tires ablaze and blocked a highway.
A 65-year-old man was killed and at least 26 people were injured, including two guard troops, hospital officials said. A cameraman for Televen TV was shot, according to the Caracas fire department. There was no immediate word on how the man died or who fired the shot.
Dozens of opposition protesters blocked a Caracas highway late Friday with burning tire barricades, while others banged pots and pans to protest the violence.
The military had put 50,000 troops and police on the streets for the summit and had warned it would not tolerate opposition protests.
Venezuela's government cut live TV and radio broadcasts of the violence on private channels and replaced it with summit coverage.
At the meeting of the 19-nation summit, Chavez accused the United States and the European Union (news - web sites) of spending billions of dollars on subsidies that shut out Third World products while demanding that poor countries "eliminate any barrier that could bar the entry of imports from the North."
"They want to recommend a suicidal formula," Chavez said of financial policies recommended by the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites). "But we know, friends, that people do not commit suicide. People awake, rise and fight."
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel accused an "aggressive, coup-plotting and terrorist" opposition of provoking Friday's violence. He said a house owned by a pro-government party was burned.
A government statement claimed radicals from the leftist Red Flag party and the center-right Democratic Action party triggered the confrontation.
Manuel Cova, head of the Venezuelan Labor Confederation, and other opposition leaders said the protests would continue.
Chavez insists an opposition petition for a recall referendum — being scrutinized by elections officials — is ridden with fraud. Elections officials have suggested they may toss out the petition for technical reasons.
The Organization of American States, the European Union and the U.S.-based Carter Center have urged Venezuela to ignore technical glitches in favor of voters' apparent intent.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, once considered a close ally of Chavez, urged Chavez recently to respect the will of voters. Chavez was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term.
Relations between Venezuela, a top U.S. oil supplier, and the United States have been strained over Chavez's friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro (news - web sites) and his criticism of free market policies.
Fighting poverty with oil wealth, dismantling industrialized nations' protectionist trade barriers and reducing foreign debt were central themes contained in a draft summit declaration circulated Friday. Formed in 1989 and still known as the Group of 15, the summit actually includes 19 countries: Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. The group's influence and work have waned in recent years, and a summit was canceled last year because of unrest in Caracas. Venezuela will turn the G-15 presidency over to Algeria on Saturday.
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