Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched through the capital Saturday, protesting against President Hugo Chavez and insisting on the validity of signatures gathered to force a recall vote.
The march began at 11:45 am (1545 GMT), with protesters gathering at six points around Caracas and heading toward the central Avenida Libertador, near downtown and considered a neighbourhood strongly loyal to Chavez.
Two earlier protests one week ago and on Thursday turned violent, as protesters staged running battles with police in Caracas and other cities. Eight people were killed and dozens more suffered gunshot wounds.
Some 3,000 security forces were deployed on the streets, authorities said.
At issue are some 3.1 million signatures on petitions seeking a recall referendum on Chavez's government. The commission earlier this week ruled that only 1.8 million were valid - well short of the 2.4 million needed to organise a recall vote.
Talks between the opposition and electoral officials were set to continue Saturday, in a bid to agree on a system to validate the petitions in question.
Comments
Comments are closed.