Immigrants protest Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

ATLANTA - Adolfo Landaeta is too young to vote, but he has been swept up in the pro-Democracy strike that has shaken up his Venezuelan homeland. <br> <br> The 8-year-old banged on a frying pan on Sunday and chanted ``Fuera!,&#39;&#39; or ``Out!&#39;&#39; in Spanish, along with about 300 other immigrants who oppose Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. <br> <br> ``I want liberty for Venezuela,&#39;&#39; Adolfo said, as his mother, Eglee, translated. ``I want Chavez to leave.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The protest and march around Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta was organized by a group of Venezuelans who live in Gainesville. They held signs calling Chavez an assassin and dictator and pleading for new elections. About 200 people participated in a similar protest organized by the same group a week ago. <br> <br> The immigrants are calling on Chavez to resign. They say he has violated human rights and thrown his country into turmoil. <br> <br> In Venezuela, meanwhile, a nationwide work-stoppage involving oil workers continued. <br> <br> The strike, launched Dec. 2 to force Chavez from office, has crippled oil production in Venezuela, which is the world&#39;s fifth-largest exporter of crude oil, and sent global oil prices climbing. <br> <br> Many of the Atlanta protesters have only been in the United Sates a few years and have relatives who work in Venezuela, but have shut down their businesses as part of the protest against Chavez. <br> <br> ``People stopped working, not because they want long vacations but because they want Chavez out of government,&#39;&#39; said Waldo Vinces, 35, an artist from Marietta. ``They are willing to sacrifice.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Enrique Montiel, the event organizer, said Venezuelans should have a right to choose another president. The 43-year-old poultry veterinarian drew a parallel to the uproar in the United States that led to the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. <br> <br> ``Chavez was Democratically elected, but so was Nixon,&#39;&#39; Montiel said. ``He broke the law and he had to go.&#39;&#39;

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/12/186333