Venezuelans square off over 'circles'

But Mr. Peña insists that the president's followers were to blame, and he has called on the government to crack down on the circles.

"Anyone who illegally uses firearms must go to prison, whether they're from the government or the opposition," says Bernal. "They must be tried, and they must go to jail."

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Saturday denied that the government encouraged supporters to use violence against opposition marchers.

Bernal insists that the circles will remain a central part of the government's social policy. "This country's problems are so complex that the state alone cannot solve them," he says.

Named after national hero Simón Bolívar, some 70,000 groups have been set up across the country, each with about 10 members.

"The idea is that we all work together for the good of the community," says Elisabeth Desantes, a circle organizer in Catia, a hardscrabble neighborhood of cinderblock houses sprawling across the hills of west Caracas.

Here, local circles have organized street cleanups, set up shelters for battered wives, acted as guarantors for microcredit loans, and given free English classes to local school children.

A government booklet says circle members must swear loyalty to the Constitution and promote healthy living. It also tells them to train "revolutionary cadres" and defend the Bolivarian Revolution, as Chávez calls his broadly left-wing policies.

Some circle members say that they are prepared to fight for their beliefs.

"We are ready to defend the Venezuelan revolution at all costs, even if we must pay with our lives," says Lina Ron, head of the Popular Power Network, which links some 120 circles in Caracas. "And if anyone has a weapon, they are welcome, because the revolution must be defended with bullets."

Such fighting talk worries the president's opponents.

"The president's discourse is very violent, turning the poor against the rich," says Mr. Peña. "It is a discourse of confrontation, which has brought his supporters to feel that they have the right to take justice into their own hands."

Ms. Ron herself faces criminal charges for provoking street clashes at a demonstration earlier this year.

But the president's supporters say that for the first time in the country's history, Chávez has opened up political debate to the 80 percent of the population who live in poverty.

Similarly, says social worker Susana Rodriguez, the Bolivarian Circles are a way for the country's poor to "organize as human beings with rights and responsibilities, and to seek solutions to local problems."

"They don't replace the official apparatus, but they fill in the communication gap between society and the government," she says.

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