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| This used to be a beautiful city |
Cocchiola is a deputy from Valencia, Venezuela's third largest city. Yesterday he went to the Municipal Council to request an inquiry on the current mayor, PSUV honcho Edgardo Parra. Cocchiola accuses Parra of corruption. Parra has been the mayor since 2008 and most people, even former Chávez supporters, are very disappointed about his work. The Chávez honcho has spent a lot of money in trips; the first one he took with a huge delegation was to China, but he kept traveling around the world. Parra has put friends and relatives to work as consultants for him. The construction of the city's subway is stalled, though, and crime is worse than ever. Streets are filthy, there hasn't been much wok on social programmes.
A group of Chávez employees shouted insults againt Cocchiola. After the opposition politician managed to deliver the petition, the situation got out of hand. Chavistas prevented journalists from taking pictures, they pushed them and threw mud at them. The municipality's police, under Parra's control, stood motionless.
After Cocchiola left the building, the Chávez employees ran after him and threw him a basket full of rubbish, they threw him stones and water.
Parra said there was no aggression. When journalists asked Parra about the mud, the stones and the water, the Bolivarian man said: "that's something else. Here there was no physical aggression".
Apparently, for the military and the extreme left honchos, physical aggression only happens if you use a gun or you hit somebody with your fists.
This is our daily bread outside Caracas. Few foreign journalists are interested in covering this kind of events. No EU or OAS observer will have time to see this kind of action.