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Venezuelans pour into Caracas streets in anti-Maduro protest

By on April 8, 2017

By Joshua Goodman

CARACAS — Thousands of opponents of President Nicolas Maduro poured into the streets of Caracas on Saturday as part of a weeklong protest movement that shows little sign of losing steam.

Just as the march was beginning, angry opposition members snatched a TV camera from crew members working for pro-government state broadcaster VTV, chasing them away from the crowd with shoves and insults.

The protesters included 26-year-old Victoria Paez, who sported a baseball cap from opposition candidate Henrique Capriles’ last run for the presidency, when he lost to Maduro by less than 250,000 votes.

Demonstrators who are against the Venezuelan government holdup her banner outside of the Organization of American States (OAS) during the special meeting of the Permanent Council, in Washington, Monday, April 3, 2017, to consider the recent events in Venezuela. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Demonstrators who are against the Venezuelan government holdup her banner outside of the Organization of American States (OAS) during the special meeting of the Permanent Council, in Washington, Monday, April 3, 2017, to consider the recent events in Venezuela. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

“Every day, the government gives us more reasons to leave our homes and protest,” said Paez, who earns less than $20 a month as a chemical engineer. She said she’s thinking about joining a sister and scores of college friends who have left the South American country to seek a better future.

While she said she was hopeful the world is beginning to see there are injustices in Venezuela, her father, Carlos Paez, was more pessimistic. “Unfortunately, if there has to be bloodshed for the government to change, it won’t be the first time in history,” he said.

Past opposition demonstrations in Venezuela were sometimes planned weeks in advance to guarantee high turnout. But now the almost-daily churn of events in what’s being called the “ongoing coup” — the government’s alleged moves to accumulate more power — energized and united the normally fractious opposition leading up to Saturday’s march.

Authorities on Friday barred Capriles from seeking office for 15 years for administrative irregularities as governor of Miranda state, a move decried by his supporters and foreign governments as another step toward dictatorship. It followed last week’s decision by the Supreme Court to gut the opposition-controlled legislature of its last vestiges of power.

“Nobody can disqualify the Venezuelan people,” Capriles said from a stage in brief remarks before the demonstration began. When he called on protesters to march to the government’s ombudsman’s office, the crowd broke into a rendition of Venezuela’s national anthem and began marching toward downtown.

As is now customary, authorities had shut down the city’s subway in what’s widely seen as an attempt to discourage people from joining the protests, many of which have ended in scores of arrests, tear gas and rubber bullets. In another intimidation tactic, police also posted on social media mugshots of protesters taken undercover at recent demonstrations with a request for information about the whereabouts of the unidentified “generators of violence.”

As the most dominant figure in the opposition over the past decade, Capriles has been at the forefront of the protests, the most combative since a wave of anti-government unrest in 2014 that was blamed for dozens of deaths. On Friday, the two-time presidential candidate said the government’s order stripping him of his ability to run in future elections only strengthens his resolve to resist on the streets.

“When the dictatorship squeals, it’s a sign we’re advancing,” he said in a rousing speech surrounded by other leading opposition figures, many of whom themselves have been targeted. “The only one who is disqualified here is you, Nicolas Maduro.”

Leaders in the ruling socialist party have accused the opposition of trying to provoke a bloodbath and coup of its own. Maduro didn’t comment on the comptroller general’s order in an appearance late Friday on state TV, but urged his supporters not to be distracted by tough language coming from “Capriloca,” a play on the Spanish word for “crazy.”

“The right wing’s treason of our national interests is cause for indignation,” said Maduro.

The protest movement’s immediate goal appears to be forcing Maduro to call elections. Authorities last year cancelled an opposition campaign to force a recall referendum on Maduro and no date has yet been set for gubernatorial elections that were supposed to take place last year.

Together with jailed hardliner Leopoldo Lopez, Capriles is the most-popular opposition leader. With both seemingly out of the running, the government may be trying to manipulate the electoral playing field to leave the opposition with less viable options should the government bow to pressure and call presidential elections before they’re scheduled in 2018, analysts said.

“However, it is a risky strategy that will probably backfire,” Eurasia Group said in a report Friday. “The opposition is clearly fired up and this will further their cause.”

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