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Following a general strike in
Venezuela,
confrontation between people and president
looks likely to escalate |
Caracas is a noisy city, but the clamour there on December
10 was out of the ordinary. The bustle of commerce was drowned out
by the roar of jet fighters, a show of strength from a beleaguered
president. The middle classes responded by banging pots and pans in
protest at their leader's policies. And the sound was heard as far
away as New York, where Bear Stearns analyst Jose Cerritelli
started becoming bullish on the grounds of the inevitability of
what he calls "political changes".
Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, prides himself on knowing the
will of his people. The former coup leader eventually gained power
democratically, on a platform of dismantling the corrupt elite and
redistributing Venezuela's oil wealth to all its citizens. He
succeeded in the first task but he has failed in the second. Now
the population...
