XPost: 24hoursupport.helpdesk, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   Another Success for socialism!!   
   where have all the venezuela apologists gone?   
      
   CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela's government has barred opposition leader   
   Henrique Capriles - twice a major presidential candidate - from running for   
   office for 15 years, a surprise move sure to ratchet up tensions amid a   
   growing street protest    
   movement   
      
   Capriles read from excerpts of the comptroller general's order at a rally   
   Friday night in which he urged supporters to take to the streets, beginning   
   with a previously scheduled demonstration Saturday, to defend their political   
   rights and demand the    
   removal of President Nicolas Maduro.   
      
   "When the dictatorship squeals it's a sign we're advancing," he said in a   
   speech surrounded by other leading opposition figures, many of whom themselves   
   have been targeted. "The only one who is disqualified here is you, Nicolas   
   Maduro."   
      
   The 44-year-old Capriles has been the most prominent leader of Venezuela's   
   opposition over the past decade, twice coming close to winning the presidency   
   despite institutional obstacles that tilted races in favor of the government.   
   He's currently governor    
   of Miranda state, which surrounds Caracas, and is one of the most recognizable   
   leaders behind the protest movement that has been roiling the country this   
   week.   
      
   Maduro didn't comment on the order in an appearance late Friday on state TV,   
   but urged his supporters not to be distracted by tough language coming from   
   "Capriloca," a play on the Spanish word for "crazy." Leaders in the ruling   
   socialist party have    
   accused Capriles in recent days of trying to provoke a bloodbath through his   
   leadership of near-daily protests, many of which have ended in tear gas and   
   rubber bullets   
      
   "The right wing's treason of our national interests is cause for indignation,"   
   said Maduro.   
      
   The move against Capriles is part of a broader government crackdown that began   
   with a decision last week by the Supreme Court to gut the opposi   
   ion-controlled congress of its last vestiges of power. The move was later   
   reversed amid widespread    
   international condemnation, but with the unpopular Maduro under increasing   
   pressure to call elections, the constant arrests at marches and threats   
   against party leaders may be his best way to stunt the opposition's momentum,   
   analysts said.   
      
   "They are trying to raise the costs of protest, plain and simple," said   
   Michael McCarthy, a research fellow focused on Venezuela at American   
   University. "But this move may well backfire, as Capriles is likely to harness   
   this smear campaign to place    
   himself front and center in the push to hold transition elections."   
      
   Authorities have been investigating Capriles since the beginning of the year   
   for what they say are a half dozen administrative irregularities, including   
   taking suspicious donations from abroad.   
      
   Among Maduro's opponents, he's considered a moderate, having criticized a wave   
   of protests in 2014 that led to scores of deaths. Those protests ended with   
   the arrest of his main rival within the fractious opposition, Leopoldo Lopez,   
   whose dogmatic    
   politics appeals to hardliners but has often alienated poor voters who backed   
   Hugo Chavez's revolution but are fed up with Maduro's inability to fix   
   widespread shortages and triple-digit inflation.   
      
   Capriles is a scion of one of Venezuela's wealthiest families, but his   
   sometimes vulgar talk and mannerisms echo the late Chavez's populist style and   
   he has tried to reach out to Chavez supporters. He prides himself on staying   
   close to home when others    
   in the opposition have been quick to fly off to Washington and other capitals   
   to seek help.   
      
   While those divisions over strategy and style haven't gone away, the   
   opposition seems more united than it has for a long time.   
      
   This week's protests appear to have claimed their first victim Thursday night.   
   Nineteen-year-old law student Jairo Ortiz was shot dead by a police officer   
   near his home in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Caracas.   
      
   The Interior Ministry said that transit police officer had been arrested but   
   denied opposition claims that Ortiz was taking part in any demonstration.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)