'A Perfect Storm': The Failure of Venezuela's New President

By Jens Glüsing

REUTERS

He was hand-picked by Hugo Chávez, but Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has lost control of the country's economy. Vast protests have been the result, but the government in Caracas has shown no signs of bending.

The smell of smoke wafts over Caracas. A group of young women have built a barricade of wooden pallets and garbage bags and lit it on fire on the main street running through Bello Monte, a middle-class quarter of the Venezuelan capital.

ANZEIGE

A petite university student named Elisabeth Camacho fiddles with a gas canister and clutches a stick bristling with nails. She is wearing a white T-shirt and a baseball cap in Venezuela's national colors, a kind of uniform worn by many of the demonstrators. She appears relaxed and ignores the curses coming from drivers struggling to turn their cars around. "We demand security," she says. "The government needs to finally stop the violence."
Students have been protesting in Caracas for days, building barricades on city streets and occupying squares. The movement began two weeks ago in San Cristóbal, in the state of Táchira near the border with Colombia. In just a few days, it spread across the entire country.

The students are protesting against inflation, shortages and corruption. Mostly, though, they are taking to the streets in opposition to the violence meted out by the country's paramilitary shock troops. "We are going to protest until the government disarms the colectivos," says Camacho.

"Colectivos" is the name given to the brutal militias that even late President Hugo Chávez supported. Now, the government of his successor, Nicolás Maduro, is sending the thugs after opposition activists, with masked men on motorcycles speeding through the streets, firing on demonstrators and, sometimes, following students all the way back to their universities. At least 13 people have died in the unrest, with 150 having been injured.

Last Tuesday, government toughs terrorized the quarter of Altamira, a hotbed of opposition in Caracas. For hours, some 150 motorcycles sped through the central square with thugs firing guns into the air. A handful of passersby were wounded by the bullets.


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Students and police clash in Venezuela protests

Published time: February 28, 2014 09:23 

Student protesters have clashed with police in Caracas, prompting officers to use tear gas to break up the crowds. It comes after almost two weeks of massive street demonstrations that the government has condemned as an attempted coup d’état.
Students marched through the Venezuelan capital on Thursday, demanding the release of their peers who were detained during the last two weeks of protests. The demonstration descended into violence when a group of masked protesters attempted to block a road in central Caracas. The police used tear gas to break up the crowd, while demonstrators pelted officers with stones.

Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro clash with riot police during an anti-government protest in Caracas on February 27, 2014. (AFP Photo/Leo Ramirez)

“[President] Maduro, tell us when and where you are going to release the prisoners. Tell us when there will be justice for our dead,” the head of the student protest movement, Juan Requesens, addressed protesters on Thursday.
Over 50 people have died in the mass protests that have gripped Venezuela over the last couple of weeks, according to government figures. President Nicolas Maduro decried the unrest as an attempt at a coup d’état orchestrated by fascist elements in the Venezuelan opposition.
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Venezuelans Hold Rival Protests

Opposition supporters march protest against Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 22, 2014.

 

VOA News

February 22, 2014

Supporters and opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro held rival marches Saturday in Caracas as he summoned all sides to what he described as a peace conference in the coming days.
Opponents of Maduro began marching earlier this month against his government. They say they are tired of out-of-control crime and shortages in supermarkets in an oil-rich nation.
Thousands of Maduro backers held a counter-demonstration, saying he is the democratically-elected leader. His wife, Cilia Flores, described the opposition as "fascists."
Meanwhile, Maduro is calling on all sides to join him for peace talks Wednesday.
Late Friday, Maduro invited U.S. President Barack Obama to meet him for talks and condemned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as "arrogant" and "insolent" for criticizing the Venezuelan government's use of force against opposition protesters.
In a statement Friday, Secretary Kerry called on the Maduro government to step back from "its efforts to stifle dissent through force" and respect basic human rights. He also said every government has a duty to maintain public order, and all sides, including the opposition protesters, must refrain from violence.
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• Bloomberg

Venezuela’s Maduro Vows to Protect Revolution as Crowds March

By Nathan Crooks Feb 22, 2014 5:12 PM CT

Photographer: Meridith Kohut/Bloomberg
Protesters clash with riot police during an anti-government demonstration in Caracas,... Read More
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro vowed to protect his government and keep National Guard troops in the streets as pro-government and opposition groups rallied in Caracas in the 11th day of unrest in the capital.
“I’m going to keep protecting the Venezuelan people with the National Guard,” Maduro said before supporters at the presidential palace in Caracas today. “If fascism eliminates me, I authorize you to take to the streets to defend the homeland.”
Maduro, who spoke shortly after opposition leaders including Governor Henrique Capriles rallied in eastern Caracas, said he would not permit protesters to blockade streets and remained willing to exchange ambassadors with the U.S. Capriles, who in April lost the presidential election by the thinnest margin in 45 years, today said he would accept an invitation by Maduro to hold talks Feb. 24.
Struggling to rein in 56 percent inflation and a shortage of basic goods and medicines, Maduro this week announced plans to import $1 billion in food and medicine and to unveil a new currency auction system designed to help companies and individuals have more access to dollars.
U.S. President Barack Obama, on a visit to Mexico Feb. 19, condemned the violence in Venezuela. His secretary of state, John Kerry, issued a statement last night accusing Maduro’s government of using force against peaceful protesters.

Photographer: Leo Ramirez/AFP via Getty Images

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a flower during a march in Caracas on February 22, 2014.

‘History’

“I’ve never seen another foreign ministry send a statement at 10:30 p.m. in the night,” Maduro said. “Obama, do you want to go down in history as George W. Bush and Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter?”
Crowds of government supporters dressed in red chanted “strong hand” as Maduro spoke today. Loud bangs could be heard this evening in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas that has become a focal point of demonstrations.


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Venezuela opposition's Leopoldo Lopez hands himself in the midst of tense rival rallies in the capital, Caracas.

 

 

Venezuela opposition's Leopoldo Lopez hands himself in

The moment Leopoldo Lopez handed himself in amidst the crowds

A Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, has handed himself over to the National Guard after holding a speech to thousands of his supporters.

He said he hoped his arrest would wake up the country to its "unjust justice".
It comes as several thousand of pro- and anti-government supporters took part in tense rival rallies in the capital, Caracas.
Mr Lopez was wanted on charges of inciting violence during recent street protests which left at least four dead.
Speaking before thousands of his supporters wearing red, President Nicolas Maduro said Mr Lopez would be brought to Justice.
'Sedition'
"He must answer before the prosecution, the courts, the laws his calls to sedition, his unawareness of the constitution," Mr Maduro told the crowd.
Tensions have been running high in the deeply polarised country.
Three of the dead - two anti-government protesters and one government supporter - died of bullet wounds sustained during demonstrations last Wednesday.
Another student died after being ran over during a march on Monday night in the eastern city of Carupano.
Before handing himself over to the authorities, Mr Lopez denied the charges against him.
"I present myself to an unjust judiciary. They want to jail Venezuelans who want peaceful, democratic change," he said.
Ahead of the rallies, Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodriguez warned that he had not authorised Tuesday's opposition march.

Supporters of Mr Lopez turned out in force in Caracas on Tuesday

Anti-government protesters are angry about Venezuela's homicide rate, one of the highest in the world

President Nicolas Maduro called on his supporters to join a rival rally

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 Boston Herald

Venezuelans clash as jailed opposition leader sits

Photo by:

The Associated Press

A opposition protester holding a Venezuelan flag yells at Bolivarian National Guards blocking the path leading to downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014. Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez emerged from days of hiding and surrendered to police before thousands of supporters on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Carlos Becerra)

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

By:

Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela — Violent clashes flared up across Venezuela on Wednesday as the nation waited to learn what charges jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez will face for organizing mass protests that have breathed new life into the movement challenging socialist rule in the oil-rich nation.
Gunfire echoed through downtown Caracas as President Nicolas Maduro spoke on live TV for more than two hours Wednesday night denouncing what he calls a "fascist" plot to destabilize the country. Elsewhere, protesters set trash fires in streets or threw rocks at National Guard troops, who fired tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.
There was no immediate word on whether there were any new casualties, after a week of demonstrations and clashes that have resulted in at least six deaths and more than 100 injuries.
Lopez, who dramatically surrendered to authorities before thousands of cheering supporters Tuesday, was supposed to appear before a judge inside a military jail to learn what charges he might face for organizing the protests that the government has blamed for the violence.
The hearing was closed and the outcome had not been announced by late Wednesday, but Maduro suggested in his speech that Lopez would remain in custody and face criminal charges.
"I said, 'Send him to jail,' and that's what happened and that's what will happen with all of the fascists," Maduro said.
The government has accused Lopez, a 42-year-old former mayor and the leader of the Popular Will party, of attempting to foment a coup in the South American nation and authorities had said he could face charges that include homicide and causing grievous bodily harm.
Before the president's speech, a judicial official told The Associated Press that prosecutors were leaning toward discarding homicide and terrorism charges, opting instead to pursue less serious counts such as arson and incitement to commit crimes. That would allow the possibility of Lopez being released pending trial, according to the official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name because the decision had not been made public.


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