Soldiers of the fatherland

How much attention would international media organisations devote to a demonstration by 20 students outside the US embassy in London complaining about excessive US influence in British politics?

It's fair to assume that it would be ignored as puny and unrepresentative, apart from the unpalatability of its political message.

But puny and unrepresentative don't come into it when 20 student supporters of Venezuela's opposition dress up in ropes, chains and locks to demonstrate outside Cuba's embassy in Caracas, as they did on Thursday.

This was a major event for global media outfits ABC, AP, BBC, CNN and Fox, to name a few.

Not only did these media powerhouses despatch reporters to see what this underwhelming mobilisation was about but their coverage was framed in uncritical terms.

"We demand respect for our sovereignty. We don't want any more Cuban meddling in Venezuela's affairs," Gabi Arellano, described as a student leader, was quoted as saying.

She said that the micro-demonstration was also a protest against government handling of the lengthy absence of President Hugo Chavez, who has been in Cuba undergoing medical treatment for cancer for two months since romping home in the presidential election against twice-failed pro-imperialism candidate Henrique Capriles.

While Arellano lamented: "We can't continue in uncertainty and adrift," and fellow student Ricardo Fernandez claimed to be unaware if Chavez is "alive or dead," opposition leader Capriles accused Vice-President Nicolas Maduro at a press conference of lying.

Maduro has travelled regularly to Havana to see the president and has brought back and displayed on TV documents signed by him, most recently an order devaluing Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, against the US dollar.

Capriles asked disingenuously why, if Chavez is capable of signing a devaluation order, he is not well enough to speak to the country.

Presidential failure to appear publicly, he told Maduro, means that the vice-president is lying.

"Then it isn't true that the president talks and signs. You're forging a signature. You're all lying to Venezuelans using the president's signature."

Maduro responded by telling Capriles that he seemed "obsessed" with being a presidential candidate for a third time and advised him to return to work in Miranda, the state for which he is governor.

After successive comprehensive electoral defeats at the hands of Chavez, it is clear that the US-approved opposition hopes or believes that it would have a greater chance against Maduro, so Capriles is keeping up a constant barrage of propaganda facilitated by the domestic capitalist media and the overseas chains.

Local media has tried to drive a wedge between the vice-president and National Assembly president Diosdado Cabello, portraying them as rats in a sack at odds over the presidential succession.

Both men presided over last week's commemoration of the 1992 coup led by Chavez in protest at the anti-people policies of then president Carlos Andres Perez.

Military vehicles and soldiers in fatigues joined tens of thousands of government supporters in red T-shirts to celebrate what they understand as the first step towards the presidency for Chavez and the Bolivarian movement.

Maduro read out a letter from the president who expressed his sadness at missing this annual event for the first time, "but it is required by this battle that I'm fighting for my full recovery."

Chavez urged revolutionary forces to remain united, declaring: "My spirit and my heart are among you all on this day. I'm with you all, wearing my red beret."

Top officials wore a new cap for the commemoration, bearing the yellow, blue and red and the stars of the national flag, a silhouette of Chavez's face and the code 4F, referring to the February 4 coup attempt.

Capriles, who wore a cap styled on the national flag during his failed election campaign, accused the Chavistas of robbing his idea and denounced them as "rogues" and "little crooks."

Maduro pointed out that the 4F cap is a "revolutionary cap," while Cabello, who took part in the 1992 coup, derided the Capriles claim, declaring: "No, friend. This cap has long been a symbol of the Bolivarian revolution."

State TV showed archive footage of Chavez addressing his supporters on TV in 1992 after his capture, urging them to lay down their arms, since their efforts had failed - "for now."

Cabello mocked the opposition assertion that Havana wields excessive influence in Caracas, commenting sarcastically: "Now we're a colony of Cuba, according to them.

"Today they're attacking our sister Cuba, the Cuba to which we're very thankful for the enormous determination it has put into the healing of our commander," he said.

The length of Chavez's current stay in Havana indicates that treatment of his condition has moved to a new level and, while Venezuela's revolutionary forces are united in hoping for the best, there can be no guarantees despite Cuba's superlative medical capacity.

Even if the worst comes to the worst, the hopes of Capriles and the rich minority's student offspring should still come to naught.

As Cabello told the 4F rally, "United, the people and the armed forces guarantee the Bolivarian revolution," while Maduro declared: "We are all Chavez. We are all soldiers of the fatherland."