A warning sign?

Not long after hearing a loud bang, we were told at work that our building was being evacuated. "There's been an explosion and everyone has to get out of the building" I was calmly told by a fellow workmate. As we approached the stairway (we are on the 20th floor so it would have been a hell off a walk down!) we could see residents from the apartment below climbing up with their faces covered. It turned out that a tear gas grenade had been set off on the 14^th floor.

Quickly we began to feel our noses burning, as we began sneezing and coughing whilst the tear gas wafted up the building. Those that had come up the stairs had really red eyes and noses, with tears streaming out.

Whilst exact details are still to come out it seems someone “threw” a tear gas grenade into the 14^th floor of the building. Who could have done this?

Here are a few clues:

1) The building I work in is the Anauco Suites in Parque Central. It is a residential building, with the Miranda International Centre (where I work) located in the penthouse. The residential suites are mainly occupied by Cubans who come to Venezuela for different reasons and a host of other Venezuela state officials, student activists and foreign intellectuals and journalist. It was once quoted in an opposition paper that nowadays you can only get in by showing your communist credentials.

2) Only three days ago they began implementing security measures for people coming into the building as tension rises in the lead up to the referendum on the constitutional reform

3) Over the last few days several tear gas grenades have been set off around the University of Zulia by opposition students, forcing classes to be temporarily suspended today

4) In the lead up to last year’s presidential elections some pipe bombs were set off near military bases and at the Central University of Venezuela.

5) As I wrote in my blog post yesterday “Whilst there is much to be optimistic about given the beginning of the campaign [in favour of the reform], this also means that Venezuela has entered into a new more dangerous phase. I think even the opposition know they will lose, but they also know that perhaps more is at stake now than in any other electoral process until now. This means they will try everything – including acts of violence and terrorism – to try and impede the referendum going ahead”.

It is still unclear exactly what happen (and I promise to post what ever information comes out) but one can’t help but have the feeling that this was is warning sign of things to come as the opposition tries all it can to create a climate of tension in the lead up to the referendum