Colombia Passport

´No más Chávez,´ a march against the president Hugo Chávez of Venezuela,  has been reported in 100 cities according with Colombian, Venezuelan and Ecuadorian media. Although the march in Bogotá and Medellín did not reach the number of what was during the march against Farc last year, hundreds of persons accepted the invitation to manifest against the foreign relations of Chávez in the region, particularly with Colombia and Honduras.

The march was organized in Bogotá through social nets like Facebook, Twiter and Youtube by Alejandro Gutierrez and other young people who were angry when Chávez said that Colombians were traitors and invited them to join the Bolivarian Revolution through his program of televisión ´Aló presidente.´

The relations between Colombia and Venezuela entered in a new political crisis when Bogotá declared that the guerrilla groups were using Venezuelan arms. Caracas denied it. However, the main point of the crisis began when Bogotá announced a military agreement with Washington to fight drug dealers. President Chávez declared that such agreement was a threat to the region and asked a regional condemnation of Colombia and US. The president ordered the freeze of political relations and threated to suspend commercial interchanges with Colombia.

Chávez said this week that the march was Stupid, while the Venezuelan ambassador in Bogotá declared that it was an event of hate trying to divert attention from the real problems.

In Colombia, 30 cities reported manifestations at midday of this Friday. People were shouting against the president of Venezuela and his interventions in the domestic affairs of Colombia, they said.

The director of Fundación Colombia Herida, Rodrigo Obregón, one of the organizers, said:

Fue un éxito multitudinario de la democracia de nuestro país contra unos vendepatrias que quieren restringir la alimentación, la educación y la libertad de nuestro pueblo. Nosotros no queremos a ese dictador vecino.

´It was a massive success of the democracy of our country against some traitors who want to restrict the food, the education and the freedom of our people. We do not want the dictator of the neighbor.´

Some Venezuelans of the opposition living in Bogotá joined the march, according to El Comercio.

Estamos cansados ya de él, que esté en contra de nosotros allá y de verdad que así no se puede estudiar, no se puede trabajar, no se puede hacer nada.

´We are tired of him, of his opposition to us there, and it is true that in that way we cannot study, it is not possible to work, it is not possible nothing,´ said one of the demonstrators.

The march was not authorized to reach Plaza Bolívar in Bogotá, because there was another march at the same time, but it passed by the popular 7th Avenue. Another march against a third mandate of president Uribe and the military agreement with US took place the same day.

The president of the Colombian Catholic bishops, Mgr Rubén Salazar, criticized the fact that the demonstrators burned the flag of Venezuela before the embassy of that country. He called to respect and reminded that any manifestation should be done without violence.

In other countries there were also marches against president Chávez: Germany, Austria, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ecuador.

In Caracas, members of the opposition read a text stating that Chávez does not want to generate welfare but to oppress and impoverish the people (…)

At the other side, president Chávez, who is in a trip in Syria, received the support of his admirers in the Venezuelan consulate, who organized an Anti-Empire concert. In Syria, one of the most strongest enemy of Tel Aviv, Chávez said that Israel is a genocide state and a lackey of the Empire (US).

In Honduras, a country that has attracted the attention of Chávez after the army deposed leftis Manuel Zelaya, the march was assisted even by president Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed by the Congress. Zelaya was accused of trying to impose politics that imitate those of Chávez in order to remain in power.

En Honduras fracasó Hugo Chávez, no va a comprar este país ni a su democracia con su petróleo.

´In Honduras Hugo Chávez failed. He is not going to buy neither this country nor its democracy with his oil´, said Micheletti to the press while walking with the demonstrators in Tegucigalpa.