Venezuela's Chávez deplores campaign violence

President Hugo Chávez Frías deplored on 30 September the deaths a day earlier of three opposition activists during an election campaign event in the Barinitas district in western Venezuela, Argentina's La Nación reported. Two members of the opposition coalition challenging Chávez in general elections due on 7 October were shot dead by presumed Chávez supporters, and another died later of shot wounds. Six members of the officialist United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) were later arrested as authorities investigated the killings, Europa Press reported on 30 September. Two victims were members of Primero Justicia and Acción Democrática, parties supporting the liberal candidate Henrique Capriles. Chávez declared in the western state of Zulia that he was "very, very" sorry for the deaths "where they were going in a caravan and others were standing at some point and someone fired shots." He said elections were not to be held "with violence," but "vote for vote, with ideas, with peace." On 30 September, the broadcaster Globovisión and other media depicted opposition supporters "filling" central Caracas for their closing campaign rally there. Capriles urged "hundreds of thousands" gathered in the grand Bolívar Avenue to vote out "the violent" and vote "not for me but for yourselves." Chávez he said, had "grown sick in power" and he was "the instrument of change," Spain's ABC and Europa Press reported.