From VenezuelAnalysis, Nov. 9:

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro rejected statements from the US State Department yesterday, and accused the government of the United States of being involved in the violent events in Caracas. US spokesperson Sean McCormack had criticized the recent student violence in Venezuela, calling it "appalling," but Maduro claimed that the statement from the US is proof of their involvement in the acts.

"We don't have any doubt that the government of the United States has their hands in the scheme that led to the ambush yesterday," said Maduro, referring to a shootout between students at Caracas' Central University on Wednesday. Opposition groups quickly blamed the Chavez government after several students were wounded at the university, including at least one from gunshot wounds, after a violent clash between pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez students.

"We know this whole scheme. And the people of Latin America have reached a level of maturity about the politics of the empire, so that we know when a high-ranking official comes out about something happening in the world, in some country, that it means that the government of the United States is involved in some way or is looking to produce a further action," said Maduro.

The US State Department criticized Wednesday's violent events at a press conference on Thursday. Upon being questioned by reporters, State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack labeled the events in Caracas "an appalling act."

"It's just an appalling act, and just another indication of the kind of atmosphere that you're seeing in Venezuela," he said, although he admitted that they do not know who is responsible, or who fired the shots. McCormack emphasized that violence had occurred against "peaceful protesters" who were expressing themselves against the proposed constitutional reform.

But the Venezuelan foreign minister rejected the claim and assured that the event at the university was "a vile attack" on a group of students that was meeting and organizing peacefully in support of the constitutional reform. Maduro accused both the US government and major media such as CNN of misrepresenting the events.

"It is obscene the role that CNN is playing right now, to attempt the impossible: the destabilization of the political atmosphere," he said.

Maduro accused the United States of playing a destabilizing role in the world, and assured that their discourse proves it.

"The desperation in the face, expressions, and language of this member of the state department that came out against our country, shows that their hand is behind all of these events." Maduro assured that the only thing that is "appalling" is the "criminal government" of the United States.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega also claimed that the government of the United States is behind the Venezuelan opposition movement, and offered his solidarity with the Venezuelan president.

"What we can do is express our solidarity with the revolutionary people of Venezuela and with our friend Hugo Chavez, who is being subjected to aggression from a counterrevolution fed by the traitors from inside the country and by the empire."

Ortega made the comparison to his own country, stating that the United States is also organizing opposition movements in his country that are "financed by the United States Embassy" in Managua.

But the Venezuelan minister discounted opposition efforts to defeat the upcoming referendum on the constitutional reform proposal, assuring that the Chavez government would win the election.

"We have no doubt that, as the surveys show, a huge majority of Venezuelans will vote 'yes' on the reform. And that moment on December 2nd, will be the moment that the Venezuelan people will cut down the declarations of the State Department, and we will teach them a lesson."

From the New York Times, Nov. 10:

...Mr. Chávez continues to disparage the student movement, calling the student protests a "fascist attack." The president has also described the students as "daddy's boys" — children of privilege resisting social change...

In other statements, the president has gone further, accusing opponents of conspiring to carry out a “soft coup” supported by the United States and being inspired by groups like the Albert Einstein Institution, a nonprofit group in Cambridge, Mass., that advocates nonviolent struggle.