GUSTAVO MÉNDEZ
EL UNIVERSAL

Clashes last October 23 with students taking part in a march to demonstrate against the changes proposed to the Constitution did not meet the quota of violence of President Hugo Chávez' followers.

On Thursday, pro-Chávez students targeted the speakers at a forum on the constitutional reform hosted by the Venezuelan Professional Association of Teachers in the Caracas Pedagogic College.

They used their eternal allegation, they want a debate. However, the event taking place in the conference hall of the higher education institution was a forum, not a debate. When they were given a chance to take the floor, violence erupted in both the conference room and the parking lot of the college.

Alejandro Burgos, one of the pro-Chávez students, argued that the speakers taking part in the forum were "rightwing" people. The participants were student leader Yon Goicoechea, Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement to Socialism) Pompeyo Márquez, Enrique Sánchez Falcón and Edgar Bazán. "You cannot talk about democracy when you are listening to one trend only. We want to talk too," Burgos said.

Student leader Elizabeth Álvarez rejected the fact that no teachers or students of the Caracas Pedagogic College were invited to participate in the forum as speakers.

The forum was interrupted when Yon Goicoechea, a law student at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), was addressing the audience and pro-Chávez demonstrators entered the room demanding a debate.

Students started to struggle and an explosive device was detonated in the room. Then, the verbal and physical clashes continued in the parking lot.

Goicoechea ended up with wounds in his nose and face.

The chair of the Venezuelan Professional Association of Teachers Edgar Bazán claimed the pro-government students disrupted the event and prevented the forum from taking place. "They took an aggressive stance from the beginning. Their goal was sabotaging the event, but as usual they claimed they wanted to debate."

The principal of the Caracas Pedagogic College Pablo Ojeda rejected the vandalic attitude of four or five students," adding that such behavior did not match "the features of our students."

Ojeda clarified that the Caracas Pedagogic College authorities issued the relevant permission for the event.

On Friday, the college's authorities are holding a meeting to address the issue. Ojeda pledged to determine the "relevant liabilities."

Translated by Maryflor Suárez R.
msuarez@eluniversal.com