Venezuela students end hunger strike

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela students end hunger strike
By The Associated Press – 7 hours ago

CARACAS, Venezuela — University protesters in Venezuela have ended a month-long hunger strike, saying President Hugo Chavez's government has met their demands.

Student leader Diego Scharifker says the education minister has promised to increase budgets for university scholarships, cafeterias, transportation and other services. He says officials also also promise to discuss pay increases for the sector.

Dozens of students, professors and staff have participated in the hunger strike that began on Feb. 23 in Caracas. In recent days, four students partially sewed their mouths closed to dramatize the strike that ended Saturday.

University officials had warned that some schools were in danger of sharp cutbacks due to a lack of resources.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5j9r6U-Qli1Kz46w_y_9lqzIbTRtg?docId=6368984

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4788565

[Judi Lynn]

1. Students stitch lips in protest

Students stitch lips in protest
Saturday March 26 2011

Four students in Venezuela have partially sewn their lips together to press their demands for funding for public universities as part of a growing hunger strike.

One 18-year-old student, Gabriela Torrijos, stitched the left corner of her mouth together as she and a group of other students maintained their hunger strike outside the UN development programme office in Caracas. Three other students have partly sewn their lips in the past several days.

~snip~
Government officials dispute those claims, saying the students are being manipulated by president Hugo Chavez's opponents.
"If they want to walk naked through the street, let them do it. If they want to sew whatever they want to sew, let them sew it, but ... we're going to keep working for our homeland," foreign minister Nicolas Maduro said during a televised event in south-eastern Bolivar state.

~snip~
Miss Torrijos was in pain after she partially stitched her lips together with her own hands. "After seeing my friends take this action, I did it in solidarity with them," she told The Associated Press.

More:
http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/students-stitch-lips-in-protest-2595318.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Concerning U.S. funding to Venezuelan student opposition groups:

Violent Student Groups in Venezuela Coordinate Actions with the "Democratic Unity" Opposition Coalition
by Jesus Manzanarez

Many of the students involved belong to the youth divisions of the different political parties from the opposition. Since 2005, US government funding has gone towards training and advising youth leaders and student movements enabling them to enter the political arena.

Many question whether the recent student protests against the Chavez Administration in Venezuela are autonomous from the ongoing political opposition originating from the nation's traditional political parties that previously held power.

Though the student leadership publicly claims its actions and strategies are separate from those opposition groups that have led coup d'etats, economic sabotages and other attempts to overthrow the Venezuelan government during the past seven years, many Venezuelans, even some of the students involved in the demonstrations, believe otherwise. "They are trying to provoke violence that results in death," warned President Chavez, "it's a plan to generate destabilization and instability."

Roderick Navarro, president of the Federation of Student Centers at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), affirmed last Friday during a television program on Globovision that the "weapon will still be the factor of surprise." Stalin Gonzalez, representative from Un Nuevo Tiempo, a far right-wing party led by fugitive Manuel Rosales, the former governor of Zulia who fled to Peru last year after being officially charged with corruption and embezzlement of state funds, said that the opposition has "no reason" to notify public authorities about the routes of their marches and demonstrations.

More:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/manzanarez080210.html

[rabs]

3. Good thing there was a Burger King across the street

The AP reporters do not tell you that there is a video showing UCV hunger strikers eating sandwiches and drinking juice.

The strikers used black plastic bags to create a curtain they could go behind and eat.

Then the video shows two of them crossing the street to a handy Burger King nearby.

The video was taken last week and has been shown on Ven. TV. It makes the hunger strike a total farce.

Spanish (lots of laughing at the strikers)

http://noticiasvenezuelaenvideos.blogspot.com/2011/03/video-mario-silva-muestra-video-de.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. Priceless! Absolutely beyond compare. Nothing like a good clip like that.

Very, very funny, and it couldn't happen to a better bunch of con artists.

I've wondered about those curtains and screens they were putting up since I first saw them. Now I know.

Thank you, rabs! :woohoo:

[ChangoLoa]

5. And we sure trust la Hojilla for telling the truth...

[rabs]

6. Well, look at it this way

La Hojilla and Globovision cancel each other out.

El Universal and Correo del Orinoco ditto.

TeleSur and El Nacional the same.

:evilgrin:

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So, have not seen you around recently. Como van las cosas? Anyone on the opposition horizon who could challenge Chavez in 2012 so far? Or, for that matter, anyone from the Bolivariano circles?

Keep thinking of fatigue. Concertacion fatigue in Chile. PRI fatigue in Mexico. Strossner fatigue in Paraguay. Pinochet fatigue in Chile. Budding Kirchnerismo fatigue in Argentina. Somoza fatigue in Nica. Trujillo fatigue in DR. APRA fatigue in Peru. Uribe fatigue in Colombia.

Will there be Hugo fatigue next year ?