What's in a flag?

Yesterday was flag day here in Venezuela and to celebrate the occasion President Chavez introduced a new flag. He made two changes. The Venezuela flag since 1863 has been three stripes - yellow on the top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom, with seven stars white stars on the blue stripe, and the coat of arms in the upper left corner. Here's the old flag:


What he did was add another star and change the coat of arms. Now the horse, which was looking back over his right shoulder, is now looking to the left. Here's the new one:


Now, lots of people are very upset about this. There were marches yesterday to protest the changes, with some fights breaking out. The star supposedly is to recognize the role of the province of Guyana in the independence movement and to carry out what Simon Bolivar wanted. The horse is now supposed to be looking forward rather than backward. Of course, he is looking left, which some people see as a metaphor for Chavez's left-leaning politics.

Here's what CNN said about it.