Andean Group - March 2008 (ISSN 1741-4466)

On 26 February a congressional deputy and former minister of public security, Reinaldo Garcí­a, who is a strong supporter of President Hugo Chávez , admitted knowing the man who blew himself up while planting a bomb outside the headquarters of the country's main business organisation, Fedecámaras, in Caracas on 24 February.

Relations between the Federación de Cámaras Empresariales (Fedecámaras) and the government have been strained ever since its former leader, Pedro Carmona, took over as president when President Chávez was toppled by a short-lived coup in 2002. A previously unknown group, the Frente Guerrillero Venceremos-Ejército Izquierdista del Pueblo (FGV-EIP), claimed responsibility for the attack and for four other small-bomb explosions in March.

The interior and justice minister, Ramón Rodrí­guez Chací­n, said that the perpetrators of the attacks were "anarchists" from Movimiento 13 de Marzo and Bandera Roja, two originally ultra-left groups which he said had been infiltrated by the CIA to destabilise the government. This appears far-fetched.

Before the bomb outside Fedecámaras, the FGV-EIP set off bombs by a statue of George Washington, the Spanish embassy and the Papal Nuncio's residence, leaving behind pamphlets that insulted critics of the Bolivarian Revolution. All these targets symbolise powers much criticised by President Hugo Chávez recently: the US, Spain and the Church. There was also a bomb attack on the national assembly building, probably by the same people.

Reinaldo Garcí­a said that the dead bomber, Héctor Serrano, who had an identify card giving him the rank of honorary inspector in the Policia Metropolitana (PM) which is responsible for policing Caracas, had been part of the government's "social intelligence network". This network is staffed by civilians who are given police powers when they work as minders for politicians or help to steward rallies. Their detractors call them informers.

The mayor of Caracas, Juan Barreto, who presided over the transfer of the PM from the city to Rodrí­guez Chací­n's ministry on 13 February, said that Serrano worked for Pedro Infante, a deputy for Chávez 's Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela. Seven of the 10 members of the group believed to have carried out the small-bomb attacks have been identified, the authorities say. They include active officials from the PM and the Caracas police as well as civilians.

The CCTV cameras around the Fedecámaras building filmed the bombers who arrived on police motorcycles. Rodrí­guez said that the police had already arrested one of the people accused of riding up to the Fedecámaras building on the motorbikes.

The Ultraleft: On 28 February President Hugo Chávez criticised the ultraleft for undermining the government. His targets were Lina Ron, a local leader in Chávez 's Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), and Luis Tascón, who has been expelled from the PSUV (see next story). Ron led a sit-in at the Archbishop's palace on 27 February during which she made threats to the Roman Catholic hierarchy and private TV channels and justified the action taken by Serrano. Chávez said that fond though he was of Ron she was displaying a "lack of revolutionary discipline". Chávez also said that people should remember what happened to President Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973 when the radicals started to take unilateral action. Two deputies - Pedro Lander and Reinaldo Garcí­a - took part in the sit-in at the archbishop's palace.

• Food riot

A mob ransacked a food depot belonging to the state distributor Mercados de Alimentos in Sabaneta, the hometown of President Hugo Chávez on 14 February. The protest not only shows the growing exasperation caused by the shortages of food and basic products but also illustrates, because by the fact of such events being so rare, that most people still expect the Chávez government to sort out the problem. Sabaneta's mayor happens to be one of Chávez 's brothers, Aní­bal.