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Spectre of coup, violence haunts Venezuela

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Alexandra Ulmer -


Venezuela appears to be sliding toward a more volatile stage of unrest after anti-government forces looted weapons during a weekend raid on a military base and frustration over what some see as an ineffectual opposition leadership boils over.


Last week’s installation of a new legislative body run by leftist President Nicolas Maduro’s Socialist Party loyalists, despite protests and global outcry, has left many Venezuelans feeling there are no more democratic options to oppose the government.


That sentiment may have helped trigger Sunday’s raid on a military base near the city of Valencia by soldiers and armed civilians.


In a pre-taped video, the group of more than a dozen men in military-style uniforms said they were seeking to restore constitutional order and called for Maduro to step aside in favour of a transitional government.


The raid has raised the spectre of a coup or a surge in already serious levels of violence in the country.


Even before Sunday’s attack, Maduro’s consolidation of power had left many protesters disappointed with what they see as a quarrelsome and self-interested opposition coalition.


Many hardliners felt betrayed as their leaders appeared to hesitate on strategy and postponed protests last week.


The coalition’s political parties have also diverged over whether to take part in gubernatorial elections in December, especially after widespread accusations of fraud in the constituent assembly election.


“We have to stop believing in the opposition coalition,” said a young man from the Andean state of Tachira, who quit university to move to Caracas and join the protests,


Government repression, however, threatens to push militants within the protest movement underground and into the formation of paramilitary or rebel groups in a country awash with weapons, according to political analyst Luis Vicente Leon.


“As the government radicalises, these groups will tend to grow and future could be full of conflict,” Leon said.


In what could be a harbinger of more violent tactics by protesters, an improvised explosive device wounded seven police officers on motorbikes during the election of the constituent assembly on July 30.


Maduro has said he is facing an “armed insurrection” designed to end socialism in Latin America and let a US-backed business elite get its hands on the OPEC nation’s massive crude reserves.


On the surface, at least, the prospect of a decisive military coup to oust the former union leader, who was narrowly elected in 2013 after being hand-picked by former President Hugo Chavez to succeed him, seems far off.


There have been no outward signs of any split between Maduro and the military leadership, which continues to back him.


But the purported leader of Sunday’s raid on the military base, fugitive former National Guard captain Juan Carlos Caguaripano, has called on his “brothers in arms” to disobey orders from military leaders.


And Oscar Perez, a rogue police pilot who attacked government buildings in a helicopter attack in Caracas in June, has said he is keeping up the fight while on the run.


“We support the military uprisings,” said Maria Rodriguez, 35, a cheese seller who was blocking roads in Caracas’ wealthier Altamira district on Sunday.


Turnout at marches called by the opposition has fizzled in the last few weeks, and some people just want to return to work quickly in the country plagued with empty food shelves, runaway inflation and a fourth straight year of recession.


The opposition’s attempt at a recall referendum against Maduro was scuttled by authorities last year.


The opposition-led congress has been effectively neutralised and the Supreme Court, stacked with Maduro’s Socialist Party allies, has been fully supportive of a leftist leader the United States and others call a “dictator”.


— Reuters


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