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Monday, June 4, 2007
Hundreds of thousands of President Hugo Chavez's backers marched in a show of support for his controversial closure of an opposition television station, now an international scandal. Supporters of the leftist president marched under his slogan of "democratizing television and radio," one day after students surprised the government with large anti-Chavez demonstrations demanding freedom of expression. "The (pro-government) counterattack must be maintained across the country," Chavez rallied. " If the Venezuelan oligarchy ... does not accept this call to live together in peace that we are making, if it keeps on attacking using the things it still controls, it will keep losing those things one by one," Chavez warned. . The closure of RCTV has become a lightning rod for Chavez opponents. Chavez refused to renew the license of a station that openly called for his ouster in 2002, during a two-day coup bid against him that ultimately failed.
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