SFGate - AP -- Venezuelans ring in the new year protesting the old one

"I say let's go," said Carlos Ortega, head of Venezuela's largest labor confederation. "And if they are going to kill us, let them kill us once and for all."

Nineteen people were killed in the opposition's last march on the palace, which prompted a failed two-day coup last April.

There has been speculation that a march on the palace will have casaulties which will build support for a US supported coup like last April's. The attempt to bring down Chavez by protest is failing and an opposition plot blaming Chavez could be next.