CARACAS, Wednesday August 23, 2006 | Update
Chacao Mayor Leopoldo López and Baruta Mayor Henrique
Capriles held a press conference to answer to the threatening
remarks made by Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto Tuesday night during
a swearing-in ceremony of the members of the Metropolitan
Public Policy-Making Council.
Mayor López promised to take legal action against Mayor
Barreto, both for his enraged wording and the events at the
end of the ceremony.
"To be sure, solicitation to hatred, mob law, confrontation
was apparent. Yesterday's (Tuesday) message has serious results,
not on mayors, but on people going through insecurity and
violence resulting from crime," López commented.
For his part, Major Capriles Radonski vowed defense of municipalities
and their residents. "Your threats, Mr. Barreto, failed to
echo in our ears. We do not mind what you may say. Regrettably,
your ineffectiveness has reached such intolerance levels,"
he said.
04:17 PM. Western Hemisphere. "Damned empire; I curse you one thousand times; some day you will be finished off and wrecked. I curse you one thousand times, empire." This is the least that President Hugo Chávez has uttered to refer to the US government. In urging the Bolivarian Armed Forces to prepare for war, he said that a US raid on Venezuela through Colombia would trigger and spread over the region "the 100-year war."