Grenade attack harms Carter's peace efforts
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Your support makes all the difference.The former American president Jimmy Carter was trying to salvage a Venezuelan peace-making mission yesterday amid tensions stoked by a grenade attack on an independent television station.
Mr Carter has failed to get government officials and opposition politicians to talk to each other. Venezuela, a leading oil supplier to the United States, remains polarised after a coup briefly ousted the leftist President, Hugo Chavez, in April. Mr Carter was reported to be holding more meetings yesterday.
On Monday opposition leaders rejected Mr Carter's offer to mediate a meeting, saying they wanted the Organisation of American States (OAS) to intervene. The government, which invited Mr Carter, insists that it is ready to talk, but it has so far rejected an OAS role.
Early yesterday a grenade explosion destroyed the entrance and several cars at Globovision television, a 24-hour news channel. No one was injured and there were no immediate arrests.
Diosdado Cabello, the Interior Minister, condemned it as "a terrorist attack". Globovision's director, Frederico Alberto Ravell, said he was "sad, seeing that in Venezuela there is a hate war".
The attack came after several incidents of aggression against Venezuelan journalists. Mr Chavez has accused much of the news media of siding with the opposition and distorting his accomplishments. David Natera Febres, president of a media owners' group, said the attack may have been fanned by Mr Chavez's anti-media rhetoric.
A small pro-Chavez group demonstrated outside El Universal newspaper yesterday, shouting, "Tell the Truth!"
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