Weekly Report - 9 March 2004

After nine days of violent protests, mainly in the more affluent districts of Caracas, the cooler minds in the Venezuelan opposition have decided that they will at least consider the opportunity to `repair' 1.1m suspect signatures endorsing the petition for a referendum to revoke President Hugo Chávez 's mandate. This opens the possibility that the referendum might go ahead, but does not make an opposition victory at all certain.