| At least 16 people were injured, seven by gunshots, as police battled supporters of President Hugo Chavez near an anti-government protest. Violence broke out when city police — controlled by anti-Chavez Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena — fired teargas at the Chavez supporters in the shantytown of Petare who protested an anti-government rally being held in their neighborhood. The pro-Chavez crowd responded with rocks and firebombs. Then the neighborhood turned into a battlefield, as police and Chavez supporters clashed and exchanged gunfire just 300 meters away from the anti-government rally. Chavez supporters destroyed a police shed and an office belonging to Copei, a once powerful political party now opposed to Chavez that organized the march. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel blamed police, the mayor and state governer Enrique Mendoza — also a Chavez opponent — for starting the violence, and vowed to sue them. |