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Chavez Threatens To Send In Tanks If Opposition Wins Vote
Venezuela's increasingly bellicose President Hugo Chavez warned that he may put tanks on the streets if a former television star running for his Socialist Party loses a state election this month.Chavez is expected to lose control of some key states and cities in the November 23 nationwide elections for governors and mayors. In Carabobo, where a Chavez loyalist and former late-night talk show host risks losing the governorship, Chavez told party activists he might use the tanks to "defend the people." "If you let the oligarchy return to government then maybe I'll end up sending the tanks of the armoured brigade out to defend the revolutionary government," he said late on Saturday. In recent weeks the former tank officer also has threatened to jail the country's top opposition leader, Manuel Rosales, whom he accuses of corruption and of plotting to kill him. Chavez frequently uses polarizing rhetoric as a campaign tactic to mobilise party activists to vote, but rarely carries through on his threats. Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-11-11 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=254923 |