The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
After more than 70 days of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s bitter political standoff has burned down to a fiery core.
Anti-government demonstrations once drew turnouts of over a million, but weeks of tear gas and water-cannon blasts have dissuaded casual protesters. Those who remain are more strident, more disruptive and more willing to confront security forces, who intensify their response in turn. The result is that the mounting pressure has created a sense of bedlam on Venezuela’s streets as opposition leaders vow protests will drag on.
“This is a country long accustomed to immediate answers, but people no longer ask, ‘Until when?’ Rather, ‘What comes next?’†said Miguel Pizarro, a 29-year-old lawmaker who is part of the opposition coalition.
The loosely allied opposition parties have been trying to oust the ruling socialist regime since former President Hugo Chavez rose to power almost two decades ago. As the economy collapses, unrest has engulfed most major cities and violent clashes, looting and arson have dragged on for days in the countryside. Even the poor—long the ruling socialists’ base—have taken to the streets as basic services and staples fail to arrive to the country’s slums.
Protest invitations promote peaceful dissent, but demonstrators have hardened their tactics as they meet police. Prevented from marching across the capital, they erect barricades out of trash and debris to block traffic. They hurl stones and Molotov cocktails at national guardsmen in standoffs that drag on into night. Buses and government buildings—even bystanders—have been set ablaze.
Brazen Grab
Scenes of chaos emerge almost daily. During the evening commute May 31, a protest raged in eastern Caracas even as residents made their way home across the traffic-choked city by car and bus.
A half-dozen masked demonstrators wielding sticks and homemade shields piled on a flatbed truck and commandeered it. Some were on the cab roof, others on the hood or hanging out the doors. They cut across lanes, chanting “this government will fall†as they cruised to the front lines a few blocks away with the intention of blocking traffic where their comrades were squaring off with security forces.
Scores of motorists saw it happen, and waiters watched from nearby restaurants with little reaction. Civil disorder has so engulfed the city that a carjacking felt routine.
All the while Maduro has pressed on. Cracks in his administration have become fissures. And rather than yield to pressure at home and abroad to hold elections, he has opted to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution altogether—potentially doing away with the electoral calendar entirely.
“It’s not a fire extinguisher, it’s a can of gasoline,†said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the International Crisis Group.
The unrest is closing in on downtown Caracas, where the presidential palace and ministries are located. On Monday, blocks of a major artery on the capital’s east side, where protesters regularly rally, erupted in mayhem. A Supreme Court office was burned in broad daylight, a private bank was looted and a government ministry was attacked with rocks and Molotov cocktails.
But after two and a half months of street action that have claimed about 70 lives and left thousands injured and jailed, the opposition’s key demand—fresh elections—is still nowhere in sight.