http://www.thepilot.c om/news/082704Coble.html

Coble Survives Scary Moment in Venezuela

BY MATTHEW MORIARTY: Staff Writer

A mob of Venezuelan voters surrounded the car of several U.S. Congressmen last week and rocked it back and forth and shouted support for President Hugo Chavez.

Congressman Howard Coble, who represents Moore County, was in the car. Coble and a group of congressmen returned from a trip through South America on Sunday.

"We were surrounded by 200 people shouting 'Chavez,'" Coble said in an interview at The Pilot Thursday. "They began rocking the car. It was an uneasy feeling. I don't think anybody was in panic mode, but it was an uneasy feeling."

Coble made several stops in Moore County Thursday. He spoke to the Moore County Republican Men's Club at the Country Club of North Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller of Illinois asked Coble to come on the trip to Venezuela because Coble heads up a subcommittee on crime and terrorism and thought it would be a chance to survey the drug producing areas of Andean countries.

Right before they left, Weller got a call from National Secu-rity Adviser Condoleeza Rice. The president, she said, needed a presence in Venezuela, where opponents of Chavez had managed to get enough votes to force a recall election.

"It might be perceived that he (Bush) was not interested," Coble said.

Bush was very interested, Coble said, since opponents of Chavez have accused him of steering the country toward communism and that Chavez controls the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Chavez retained his position by garnering almost 60 percent of the vote.

Weller agreed to include Venezuela on the trip agenda so that the congressmen could observe the electoral process.

When the American group arrived, they met up with the U.S. ambassador and a Marine guard. They traveled in two black SUVs to the first polling place in the city of Caracas.

For whatever reason, inaccurate security or simply poor planning, the two vehicles stopped in a narrow alley near the polls. There were people lined up to vote everywhere, Coble said.

At first, the Americans were met with mild applause, but then things changed. The crowd recognized the American ambassador and began shouting and cheering for Chavez.

Coble and the others checked out the voting machines and then returned to the vehicles. They got inside and were about to head to the next stop when the crowd gathered around and wouldn't let them move.

The vehicles eventually were able to back out, and no one was hurt. One of the congressmen who was originally from Wisconsin told Coble that it reminded him of Green Bay Packer fans.

Coble was thinking about the historical precedent. He remembers the late 1950s when a mob in Caracas, Venezuela, shook the car of then-Vice President Richard Nixon.

"My mind reverted to that," Coble said.

At the next polling place, there were more opposition supporters and things went more smoothly. That was the only incident of that type on the entire trip, Coble said, and he got to accomplish his purpose and examined the drug trafficking in Peru and Bolivia. He and the other congressmen returned to the States after a week abroad on Sunday.

Former President Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States have both certified the results of the recall election, but that hasn't settled things in Venezuela. Demonstrations continue and political violence erupted in Caracas.

According to reports, a gunman killed two and wounded 12 in a poor neighborhood Sunday. The next day, a shooting at an opposition protest wounded eight.

Coble got out before the problems escalated, but the fear won't soon be forgotten.

"My paternal grandfather used to say that he was oneasy, instead of uneasy," Coble said. "I think it's fair to say that during that exercise I was oneasy."

>>The former lieutenant colonel survived a two-day coup attempt in 2002 and two-month
>>national strike last year aimed at ousting him.

Two month strike?

Was this an actual "strike" or was it a bosses' lock-out? I reckon that when the bosses lead a "strike" it's not actually a strike, it's something else isn't it.

When the media talk about a "2 month strike" that kind of suggests that the trade unions organised a strike because they didn't like Chavez's policies. If the truth is that the bosses went on strike against the wishes of the workforce then the media is being dishonest and deceitful by using the word "strike" without making this clarification.

Can we HAVE a clarification please below from someone who knows the details.

What exactly was this "two month strike"??

I find it so fascinating when lefties defend autocrat (at least for the time they're in power and so long as that dictator reads Marx), although Chavez is actually a fascist in the truest term.

As for the strikes the "bosses" enacted, Ozy, don't forget that the oil industry was nationalized.

BTW--if it was business that halted work, then it's called a lockout, not a strike.

Things have gotten so bad that judges are floating the idea of letting poor thieves from going to jail. The currency exchange is a joke, unemployment is about 20%, and nothing is getting better anytime soon. The rich are getting poorer and the poor are dying. It's too bad for the Venezuelan people though, but it does teach us a lesson about just how incompetent the government really can be.

Just for your own viability, I'd suggest running from this guy like a hot potato.

that states that anyone who's found guilty of non-violent theft of food or medicine, in an emergency, can't go to jail. sounds pretty good to me - the point is not for the future (when hopefully there wont be too many desparately starving and ill people) but to get out those poor souls who've been rotting inside for stealing a loaf of bread and not being able to pay off a judge.

this is part of legislation that would also decriminalise personal use of all drugs, as well as decriminalise abortion, which in this very catholic country is a big deal. chávez had to take on a lot of his own constituancy (he's a catholic himself) to get them to approve of it.

and btw, of course it was a lock-out and not a strike. the nationalised oil industry was a "state-within-the-state" and was syphoning off $40 billion a year. $40 BILLION A YEAR! now that money's building homes and pumping water to places that have never had it before. and that's why almost 60% of venezuelans voted to keep him in office a couple of weeks ago - mainly the poor, not the rich. they know what side of the class-war they're on, it's a shame some so-called anarchists over here don't!