Student Protests Wake Up a Sleeping Venezuela

MIAMI In the last week, hundreds of university students have taken to Venezuelas streets yelling, singing, throwing rocks and burning tires to demand that President Hugo Chvez put Radio Caracas Television back on the air, reports the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald. Chvez shut the station down last week, and has threatened to close Globovisin, another TV station critical of the government, reports Dallas newspaper Diario La Estrella. Thousands of protesters took to the streets again on Sunday, June 3 in Caracas, according to the Associated Press. Known as the rebellion of los chamos, the Venezuelan slang term for young people, the student movement uses text messaging, YouTube videos and the Internet as its tools of communication, reports El Nuevo Herald. Despite receiving funds from the opposition, the students have distanced themselves from anti-Chvez groups and are not calling for the presidents resignation. Chvez has accused the protesters of being manipulated by the U.S. government. The states official television station regularly makes fun of the students on its program La Hojila, with satires that portray them as daddys kids playing at being heroes. Student leader Luis Ignacio Hernndez of Monteavila University rejects this characterization, telling El Nuevo Herald that students see the daily attacks on freedom of expression and decided to do something about it. We are the creators of a new Venezuela, said student leader John Goicochea of the Andrs Bello Catholic University. Venezuela was asleep and the students woke it up, fellow student Fred Guevara told El Nuevo Herald.