CARACAS
Coup Politics
Just when his international opponents, particularly the US, thought they had managed to extricate the Venezuelan thorn from their flesh, back came the charismatic President Hugo Chavez, riding the crest of popular support that swept aside the coup against him. Last week’s developments were bizarre: there were demonstrations on April 11 to protest Chavez’s interference in the state oil monopoly, pdvsa. When Chavez snipers opened fire and killed 16, the military secured the President’s resignation and appointed Pedro Carmona in his place. It was now the turn of Chavez supporters, mostly poor, to take to the streets. Carmona resigned, and Chavez was back in Miraflores on April 14. The Bush administration had egg on its face. It had shed no tears at Chavez’s removal, nettled as it had been by his policy of slashing Venezuelan oil supply, and tripling the prices of opec crude. Also, Chavez considers Cuban leader Fidel Castro his political guru, and was critical of Washington’s war against terror.
OSAMA BIN LADEN
Picture Perfect?
Osama bin Laden was back again on Al-Jazeera TV, sitting on a patch of grass next to Ayman al-Zawahri. But he has to do more than just that to convince the world that he’s alive. There’s nothing to counter the argument that the tape could have been made by putting together different clips shot before the US bombed Afghanistan. Mr Laden, how about appearing on TV holding a newspaper of, say, a day in April?
