Dec 18, 5:57 AM EST
Venezuela Revels in Fireworks Celebrations
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Whistling rockets streak through the sky each night, and firecrackers still echo through the streets in Venezuela this holiday season despite a long-standing ban and a new effort by authorities to crack down on the tradition.
The sale of fireworks is illegal throughout most of Latin America, but fondness for them is widespread. Governments across the region generally make halfhearted attempts to enforce the bans, but this year Venezuela is trying to take a hard line.
Police have seized more than six tons of fireworks hidden inside warehouses since last month.
Interior Minister Jesse Chacon has urged street vendors to sell something other than fireworks and "find another way of making money."
But even as Chacon announced the no-tolerance policy last month, fireworks went off less than a block away.
The crackdown this year appears to have slightly reduced the amount of fireworks in the streets. But many Venezuelan merchants are still selling bottle rockets, Roman candles and other powerful pyrotechnics.
Many vendors stash their caches in storerooms or boxes that remain out of sight while soliciting to passers-by in whispers. Other merchants tip off each other when police approach.
Vendor Ernesto Gonzalez said police have confiscated his fireworks twice since he decided to start selling them two months ago, but he simply bought more.
"They caught me by surprise and took everything I had, but at least I wasn't arrested," said Gonzalez, a 28-year-old unemployed mechanic. "This is how I make ends meet."
In arguing for a fireworks-free Christmas, officials cite frequent injures, deaths and fires, including an explosion in downtown Caracas last December that left two dead and six injured.
Authorities make similar arguments across Latin America.
Fireworks are illegal in Chile and although authorities usually try to enforce the ban, sales skyrocket during the holidays.
The enforcement of a ban on fireworks in Mexico City - although imperfect - has increased since a fireworks-related blaze burned down much of the city's central marketplace several years ago. Fireworks are still permitted in many parts of Mexico and are a traditional part of village festivals.
Peru banned the sale of fireworks to the public after 291 people were killed in 2001 by a fire that roared through four blocks of downtown Lima, fueled by dozens of sidewalk stands selling fireworks. Fireworks are still sold - illegally - during year-end fiestas.
In Venezuela, tension between fireworks vendors and police played out in riots earlier this month when police tried to remove merchants selling various goods from areas that are off-limits.
Some vendors said fireworks were among the goods confiscated by police, and dozens were injured in the riots. Three people were arrested for launching powerful fireworks at police, who returned fire with plastic bullets.
Many vendors, however, say they plan to keep on with the business. And it is extremely uncommon for police to cite those who set off fireworks.
Browsing through bottle rockets at one stand, 13-year-old William Faruco said with a mischievous grin: "Nobody - not even the police - is going to stop me from firing off my rockets."
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