Weekly Report - 20 January 2004

A shadowy pro-Chávez guerrilla group has emerged in Caracas, sniping at officers of the metropolitan police (PM) and issuing threats of bombings against US, British and Spanish diplomatic premises - or so say the PM and its sister force of Chacao, both of them under the control of opposition mayors. Publicly, the government has ordered an investigation; privately, officials suggest that this may be an opposition ploy to link the Chávez government with terrorism in the public eye.