CARACAS: Venezuelan protesters and supporters of embattled President Nicolas Maduro were taking to the streets on Saturday as a deadly political crisis plays out in a divided country on the verge of paralysis.
Freddy Guevara, vice-president of the opposition-majority National Assembly, said protesters would turn out in huge numbers to show the government “that after 50 days of resistance, of deaths and arrests, we are stronger than ever, and we will not give up.”
Maduro’s opponents expressed confidence that the march on Caracas’s main motorway will surpass that of April 19, the largest so far in seven weeks of demonstrations that have left 47 people dead, hundreds injured and 2,200 detained.
The opposition has complained of “savage repression” by the government, which in turn accuses them of “terrorist” tactics in service of a US-funded coup attempt.
But Maduro has his supporters, too. On Saturday, food workers who back his controversial plan for a pro-government constitutional assembly were scheduled to march to the Miraflores presidential palace, where the president will receive them.
Venezuela is bitterly divided, as locals bridle under chronic shortages of food and medicine, soaring inflation rates — prices could rise by 720 per cent this year, the IMF estimates — and some of the world’s highest crime rates.
As protests have turned violent an increasing number of gunshot wounds have been reported. Federal prosecutors said they are investigating the role of police and military personnel in the incidents.
Some of the shootings took place in Tachira state, near the border with Colombia, where Maduro this week deployed 2,600 soldiers after riots and looting.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said that one of his lawyers delivered a report on the crisis on Friday to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, after Venezuelan officials “cancelled” Capriles’s passport, preventing him from flying to New York.
Opposition protests have swelled since Maduro called for convening a “popular” assembly to re-write the Venezuelan constitution, with half its members coming from sectors loyal to him.
The opposition says the assembly would allow Maduro to avoid elections.
He denies this and has “guaranteed” that presidential elections will be held next year, as required by law. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
