who would participate in the referendum26. For example, in October 2003 President Chavez stated "those who signed against Chavez, your name will be registered for history, because you will have to put your name and surname and signature and ID number and your fingerprint" 27. 72. In turn, on November 22, 2003, Lina Ron, Coordinator of the Bolivarian Circles and then President of the Single Social Fund, a public institution responsible for managing resources for financing and regulating social programs, stated that "I will not allow that in any collection post people sign against my commander, against the greatest man of this country, against the messiah of this land, against the kindest man the nation ever had, whoever does [sign] it, either they kill me or I kill them"28. Also, again, on December 1, 2003 President Hugo Chávez referring to "The Reafirmazo" said "are you sure that there won’t be fraud against us? As the people say, here in these streets of God "cheating comes out"29. 73. On the specified dates, the collection drive was carried out again, and on December 19, 2003 over 3 million signatures were presented to the CNE requesting the presidential recall referendum30. 4. The “Tascón List” 74. On January 30, 2004 the President asked the president of the National Electoral Council, to hand over to Congressman Luis Tascón "certified copies of the forms used during the April 4 event in which a group of citizens requested a recall referendum of my mandate"31. Prior to receiving copies of the forms, Congressman Luis Tascón said that "now with the forms we will have the opportunity to give a face to fraud (...)"32. 75. After the CNE gave copies of the forms to Congressman Tascón, he published these lists on the website www.luistascon.com, accusing the signatories of participating in a "mega-fraud". On the website you could access the list of signatories of the petition for a presidential recall referendum by entering the ID number after a text that read "Enter your ID here (only numbers) to see if it appears in the ... MEGA FRAUD ...!". Referring to the website, parliamentary Tascón said that "this is a service also for people in the opposition who signed, if they signed, congratulations! OK? But unfortunately you participated, and that’s why the website says so. You participated in the fraud"33. 26 In its Annual Report 2004, the Commission indicated that it was informed “of growing tensions and polarization between opposition sectors and the government. This was evident in the events surrounding the process of verifying and validating signatures collected by the National Electoral Council (CNE), as well as in the charges voiced by senior government officials and the President himself about instances of "mega-fraud", and in the wave of peaceful street protests in some of which there were acts of violence involving the disproportionate use of force by the security apparatus responsible for public safety. See IACHR, Follow-up report on compliance by the State of Venezuela with the recommendations made by the IACHR in its report on the situation of human rights in Venezuela, February 23, 2005, available at: http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2004eng/chap.5b.htm. 27 Documentary "The List, a people under suspicion, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LuOQjhg8BU; The Universal, The infamous list, what’s upsetting is how millions of people came out of the slums to vote without fear, February 25, 2012, available at: http://www.eluniversal.com/opinion/120225/la-lista-infame-imp. 28 Active Citizenship, Documentary "The List, a people https://ciudadaniaactivavzla.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/documental-la-lista-tascon/. under suspicion" available at: 29 Active Citizenship, Documentary "The List, a people https://ciudadaniaactivavzla.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/documental-la-lista-tascon/. under suspicion" available at: 30 The Carter Center, Observation of the presidential recall referendum in Venezuela, February 2005, page 28, available at: https://www.cartercenter.org/documents/2021.pdf. 31 ABC, Chavez placed on a blacklist all who participated in the primaries of the opposition, April 10, 2012, available at:: http://www.abc.es/20120410/internacional/abci-chavez-coloca-lista-negra-201204092159.html, El Universal, 42 public bodies engaged in discrimination, November 11, 2006, available at: http://www.eluniversal.com/2006/11/11/imp_pol_art_65474. 32 Active Citizenship, Documentary "The List, a people https://ciudadaniaactivavzla.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/documental-la-lista-tascon/. under suspicion" available at: 33 Active Citizenship, Documentary "The List, a people https://ciudadaniaactivavzla.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/documental-la-lista-tascon/. under suspicion" available at: 12