VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue reports: In what appears to be a step down, the head of the government in Caracas, Jacqueline Farias has announced that money has been deposited to allow Metropolitan Mayor, Antonio Ledezma pay salaries of his employees.

Farias confirms that the money should be in the bank and goes on to criticize the Mayor's motives for his hunger strike, which she claims had nothing to do the workers but to reject what was in the Constitution.

The head of the newly created Capital District, which replaces the Metropolitan Mayor's Office as the district governing body, insists that the condition for sending regular payments is to send her the payroll, something which the Mayor has not done.

To have the payroll, she insists, is necessary because the money belongs to the Capital District ... " if I made a payment to the Treasury fund of the Metropolitan District, then it would be illegal ... what I'm doing is transferring the money only to the payroll ... and to protect workers, we did what we considered best."

The Governor made a statement during an inspection of the drain cleaning in Gramoven.

According to Farias, she has incorporated 11,290 persons corresponding to the former Federal District and only pensioners have not been included and for that she still needs the payroll.

Yesterday evening, Mayor Ledezma ended his hunger strike and was carried to the hospital for a check-up decked in the Venezuelan flag supposedly with just seven stars, the flag representing the opposition's rejection of changes undertaken by President Chavez.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue
news.editor@vheadline.com