Friday, February 21, 2014

Students and opposition leaders say that National Guard troops have fired rubber bullets and clubbed some protesters. State security agents, along with motorcycle gangs of militant supporters of the ruling Socialist party, have also fired live ammunition on crowds, witnesses have said.

LATIN AMERICA NEWS

Venezuela Youth Drive Protests Against 'Chavismo'

Students, Recent Graduates Form Backbone of Challenge to Maduro

Updated Feb. 21, 2014 5:13 p.m. ET

CARACAS, Venezuela—Day after day since early this month, on streets clouded with tear gas, William Colmenares and other young Venezuelans raise their voices against President Nicolás Maduro's government. They accuse him of acting like a dictator and wrecking the country's economy.
Mr. Maduro calls the protesters fascists, part of a plot by the U.S. government to derail Socialism in this oil-rich country, and his government has arrested dozens.
Students and opposition leaders say that National Guard troops have fired rubber bullets and clubbed some protesters. State security agents, along with motorcycle gangs of militant supporters of the ruling Socialist party, have also fired live ammunition on crowds, witnesses have said.
Six people have been shot dead since Feb. 12, including a local beauty queen, from the ranks of a surging opposition movement.
Yet that hasn't deterred Mr. Colmenares and other young people—from high-school and university students to recent graduates looking for work in a moribund economy. They form the backbone of an increasingly raucous movement that has become the most formidable challenge the president has faced since taking office in April 2013.
"I had to come out after all that violence," said Mr. Colmenares, who is 23 years old and works in a department store, referring to the first outburst of deadly gunfire.
"As long as there is repression, we will keep coming out," he said. "And something horrible is bound to happen again."
Attorney General Luisa Ortega on Friday said eight people had died as a result of the protests, including a woman who died of a heart attack in an ambulance stuck in traffic.
An additional 137 people have been injured, she said. Some 24 people are in jail and dozens more free on bail pending legal action. Opposition sympathizers estimate the numbers of arrests and injured are much higher.
Many of the demonstrators are so young that they have known only Chavismo, the ruling system named after the late President Hugo Chávez who came to power in February 1999 and transformed Venezuela into a Socialist state closely aligned to Communist Cuba. They have spent their formative years listening to lofty Chavismo rhetoric—only to see their prospects dim as the country sinks further into economic crisis.
Many of Mr. Maduro's top aides have said the protests are led and organized by rich children of the country's elite and middle class, funded out of Miami and Bogotá. "The tough guys of fascism are out in the streets looking down on the people, kicking people in the streets, destroying public property, firing at apartments," Mr. Maduro said on television Thursday.
Those claims sound hollow to people like José Materano, 21, whose parents work for the government. He attends a state university but says he is tired of living in a country with inflation of about 60%, the highest in Latin America, and widespread food shortages.
Mr. Materano lives with his parents in a hillside slum—the kind of place where Mr. Chávez built his following. His parents were Chavistas, and he was taught as a boy to revere the presidential palace, which can be seen from the slum. That drove him to study law enforcement, which he hopes he can use to protect the country one day, he said.
But, he added, he also has seen how his parents' combined salaries haven't been enough to move them out of their crumbling home, which mirrors the crumbling of their support for the government.
"They don't dare speak out against the government because they would lose their jobs," Mr. Materano said. "They are even pushed to attend government rallies."
Mr. Materano said he wasn't particularly political until late last year, with consumer prices rising at breakneck speed and supermarket shelves increasingly bare of basics. "There is no cooking oil, no sugar, no rice, no toilet paper. Venezuela isn't making anything except [petroleum]. Where is all that money going?"
In 1958, Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the longtime dictator, was toppled in a popular uprising that began with student strikes. A wave of massive protests in 2002 resulted in Mr. Chávez being briefly ousted from office.
More recently, in 2007, students—many of them from the Central University of Venezuela—led a series of street protests and rallies against a referendum that would have rewritten the constitution to give Mr. Chávez more powers. The referendum was voted down.
The current protests, which range day by day from several hundred to tens of thousands, are far smaller. They began after the alleged attempted sexual assault of a university student on Feb. 2, and then spread. The government reacted by arresting protesters, triggering more outrage.
But they come at a time when Venezuela's economy is seriously dysfunctional, said Demetrio Boersner, a former diplomat in the Chávez government and a historian who has written frequently about politics here.
He said the protests could energize the opposition, which had become resigned to having little voice and few options.
"The fact that the students have come out into the streets has brought a sort of psychological release, and people are starting to have hopes that things might change," Mr. Boersner said.
Javier Corrales, an Amherst University professor who has written a book about the political system here, said that the young people present a particularly prickly challenge to the government because they cannot be easily typecast as oligarchs, fascists and "parasitic bourgeoisie," as Mr. Maduro frequently labels critics.
"The government is at a loss of words for dealing with them," said Mr. Corrales. "They government cannot easily justify its belligerent attitude since these challengers emerge in ways that defy the government's traditional enemy categories."
At the same time, Mr. Corrales said that the uprising benefits the government in one important way: the divisions apparent in Chavismo can unite because of the threat. "Now, Chavistas can focus on one common goal, surviving this attack, and this inevitably produces a centripetal force within the ruling party toward Maduro."
Between Feb. 7 and Feb. 14, Mr. Maduro's approval rate tumbled more than 10 percentage points, to 41.5% from 52%, according to Luis Vidal, director of Caracas-based research firm More consulting.
"You are seeing this loss of support among people who identify themselves as independent or swing voters because of the government's response to the marches," Mr. Vidal said. But he agreed that the president was consolidating support among hard-core supporters of the ruling party.
"He has framed the protests as protest against him and the legacy of Hugo Chávez and not against the problems of the country," he said.
María Mendez, a 19-year-old marketing student who comes from a family of government supporters, said she joined the protests because she was tired of scouring multiple grocery stores each day looking for milk to feed her infant daughter.
"I go to school and I work, so I don't have time to stand in a line at a supermarket for hours," she said during a recent rally. "I'm so sick of it. People are tired of the crime and food shortages. We are tired of this government."
Many students say that a common topic of conversation is whether they will stay in Venezuela, a country that once was a destination for immigrants, or try to leave for another country, where job prospects are better and public safety more secure. Lines of visa-seekers at local embassies have grown.
"The situation is really bad, brother, in all aspects," said Edwin González, a law student who has been among the hundreds of hard-line demonstrators who have made Altamira Plaza in eastern Caracas the rally point for daily protests. "The economy is a mess, you can't leave your house because you might get murdered or robbed, the devaluations have made our money worthless. With Chávez things were bad but things have nose-dived with Maduro."
José Francisco Rodríguez, a 21-year-old law student, said he would like to get married but all the uncertainty has kept him from popping the question to his girlfriend. If the protests don't bring about a change, he would reluctantly consider leaving the country, said Mr. Rodriguez, a fluent English speaker.
"But I still have that flame of hope inside me that we can bring a change here," he said. "I'm going to try at least."

Venezuela Youth Drive Protests Against 'Chavismo' - WSJ

Venezuela Youth Drive Protests Against 'Chavismo'

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Students and recent graduates form the backbone of an increasingly raucous movement that has become the most formidable challenge President Nicolás Maduro has faced since taking office last April.

Updated Feb. 21, 2014 5:13 p.m. ET



CARACAS, Venezuela—Day after day since early this month, on streets clouded with tear gas, William Colmenares and other young Venezuelans raise their voices against President Nicolás Maduro's government. They accuse him of acting like a dictator and wrecking the country's economy.
Mr. Maduro calls the protesters fascists, part of a plot by the U.S. government to derail Socialism in this oil-rich country, and his government has arrested dozens.
Students and opposition leaders say that National Guard troops have fired rubber bullets and clubbed some protesters. State security agents, along with motorcycle...

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Protests Against Venezuela's Government Escalate - WSJ

Protests Against Venezuela's Government Escalate

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Updated Feb. 20, 2014 11:38 p.m. ET
Amateur video from Caracas appears to show a shooting on Avenida Panteon Wednesday night, as Venezuela's National Guard and quasiofficial motorcycle shock troops confront protesters. Via The Foreign Bureau, WSJ's global news update. Photo: AP
CARACAS, Venezuela—Protests against President Nicolás Maduro's government escalated Thursday, with thousands of demonstrators burning tires and cars and security forces fighting back to gain control of the streets in the capital and in other cities.
At least five people, four protesting the government, have died since protests by university students over high crime and a crumbling economy turned violent last week. Dozens of others have been injured or jailed, including opposition leader Leopoldo López, a former mayor whom the government has accused of instigating the violence.
Objects placed by opposition protesters block a road in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday. Associated Press
Leonardo Velasco, 25 years old, said dozens of national guardsmen and other armed supporters of the government swept down on demonstrators in a protest in which he participated on Thursday. "I heard a bunch of shots and hit the ground." Mr. Velasco said he and other demonstrators fought back with Molotov cocktails, as tear gas spread and people ran in different directions. "I was half blind, stumbling and running," he said.
One protester in Caracas was shot by what appeared to be members of the National Guard, according to a video posted on several Venezuelan media sites. The incident couldn't be independently verified. The protester remained in critical condition on Friday, according to El Nacional newspaper.
Other videos online showed dozens of armed men on motorcycles entering areas held by protesters during the night, amid sounds of gunfire and fireworks.
"The government came out to kill people, to try to shut up people with lead," Henrique Capriles, a leading opposition figure, said in a news conference on Thursday. Calls seeking comment over the past week to government officials haven't been returned.
The chaotic scenes across the country represent the biggest challenge faced so far by President Maduro since he took over from the late Hugo Chávez last year.
Members of a pro-government "colectivo," or "collective," march in downtown Caracas, Venezuela on Thursday. Associated Press
Mr. Maduro accused what he called "fascist leaders" financed by the U.S. of using highly trained teams to topple his socialist government from power. In a lengthy speech televised Wednesday night, he charged that the demonstrators were trying "to fill the country with violence and to create a spiral of hatred among our people."
He said his foes were hoping to generate chaos to justify a foreign military intervention. "In Venezuela, they're applying the format of a coup d'état," he said.
In a speech Thursday, Mr. Maduro also accused U.S. cable channel CNN of producing skewed coverage of the protests and said he had begun an administrative process to kick the channel off the air in Venezuela unless it moved to "rectify" its coverage.
"They want to show the world that in Venezuela there is a civil war," Mr. Maduro said. "In Venezuela the people are working, studying, building the Fatherland."
A CNN spokeswoman declined to comment.
While Mr. Maduro remains firmly in power, the level of violence has taken Venezuela on a new, uncertain path of instability that has no easy solution, said Cynthia Arnson, the director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Latin America program in Washington.
"Precisely when people are killed is when movements get radicalized and there is then a level of emotion that makes these movements especially volatile and difficult to predict," Ms. Arnson said.
Protests have spread beyond the capital to far-flung states over the past couple of days, in the Andean city of Mérida and in the state of Táchira bordering Colombia to the west, where power and Internet went out, local media reported.
In Táchira, the government's Russian-built Sukhoi fighters screamed overhead, local reports said. In Valencia, west of Caracas, another protest was mounted but was quelled by soldiers using water cannon.
Interior and Justice Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres said in a televised address on Thursday that a battalion of paratroopers has been deployed around San Cristóbal, the capital of Táchira. He said they would secure highways and prevent Colombians, who are often blamed of fomenting trouble here, from bringing in weapons for the student demonstrators. Possession of guns was banned in the state.
"They can't say the government is shooting people," said Mr. Rodríguez, who blamed antigovernment officials in San Cristóbal of triggering the violence.
In Caracas, meanwhile, the president also leveled responsibility on Mr. López, an opposition leader who surrendered to authorities on Tuesday after being accused of instigating violence on Feb. 12, when three people died in two demonstrations. He warned that other opposition leaders could follow him into prison.
"One of them is in jail," Mr. Maduro said of Mr. López, adding: "The others will, one by one, end up in the same jail cell."
Shortly after midnight, Mr. López was arraigned in the military jail outside of Caracas where he is being held on charges of setting fire to a building, instigating crimes and conspiracy to commit a crime, according to the newspaper El Universal. If convicted, Mr. López could still face 10 years in jail.
Lawyers for Mr. López couldn't be reached for comment on Thursday.
More serious accusations of homicide and terrorism leveled at him by government officials weren't filed, one of Mr. López's lawyers, Juan Carlos Gutierrez, told Union Radio.
Opposition leaders and witnesses, have said uniformed state security agents, as well as pro-government motorcycle gangs known as colectivos have cracked down violently on unarmed demonstrators.
The protesters say that the government is failing to control soaring inflation and rampant crime or resolve a serious shortage of basic goods. The economy, hamstrung by a 56% inflation rate and weighed down by foreign debt, may slip into recession this year, economists say.
The arrests of demonstrators, some of whom opposition leaders say have sat in jail for days without being charged, has only led more people into the streets.
One demonstrator, Jose Roche, 20, a university student, said that the trouble in the east side plaza of Altamira in Caracas this started Wednesday afternoon after traffic was blocked by protesters. That prompted the arrival of the National Guard and police, who confronted a crowd he estimated to number 1,000 people.
"They wanted to surround us, to beat us down," said Mr. Roche. "They don't stop until they catch you or until you drop." He said he ran as shots were fired.
Across much of Caracas on Thursday, residents banged pots and pans from windows and yelled obscenities at policemen and men on motorcycles as they rode through the streets, firing off tear gas and weapons.
In the video that captured an injured protester in Caracas, the person shooting the images or others near him can be heard shouting "dirty assassin" to uniformed agents several floors below. The agents are pictured walking alongside the wounded man as he lies writhing on a sidewalk.
Mr. Capriles, who narrowly lost to Mr. Maduro in an election last April to determine who would succeed the late Chávez, scoffed at the president's claim that a coup was taking place.
"Civilians don't launch coups," he said, "the military does." He suggested instead that a weakening administration would benefit the National Assembly president, Diosdado Cabello, a former military officer with close ties in the army who is seen as a rival of Mr. Maduro. A coup, opposition leaders say, would most likely come from inside the army.
"That would be the worst thing that could happen to the country," said Mr. Capriles.
There is no sign, though, that the military's support of Mr. Maduro is softening. The armed forces were purged of dissident officers in recent years, with many of them fleeing the country and others placed under arrest.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

"Today more than ever, our cause has to be the exit of this government" - Leopoldo Lopez: Beauty queen the latest victim in Venezuela unrest - from Reuters: International

» Beauty queen the latest victim in Venezuela unrest
19/02/14 22:57 from Reuters: International
CARACAS (Reuters) - A local beauty queen died of a gunshot wound on Wednesday, the fifth fatality from Venezuela's political unrest, as imprisoned protest leader Leopoldo Lopez urged supporters to keep fighting for the departure of the s...

"Today more than ever, our cause has to be the exit of this government" - Leopoldo Lopez

» Jailed leader channels Venezuelans’ ire
19/02/14 20:19 from World: World News, International News, Foreign Reporting - The Washington Post
CARACAS, Venezuela — Leopoldo López, the defiant Venezuelan opposition leader taken into custody Tuesday in front of thousands of anti-government protesters, spent last night in a prison on a military base. Read full article >> &...

» Once-defiant Venezuelan TV goes quiet amid opposition protests
19/02/14 20:33 from Reuters: International
CARACAS (Reuters) - Twelve years after they played a key role in a coup, Venezuelan television networks have so heavily scaled back their coverage of anti-government protests that critics are decrying a "media blackout" that helps the go...

» Protests Grip Venezuela
19/02/14 19:36 from Voice of America
Nearly one year after the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, violent protests have erupted against his hand-picked successor, President Nicolas Maduro. The unrest is fed by deteriorating economic conditions and rampant lawlessnes...

» Venezuela unrest kills fifth person, Lopez faces court
19/02/14 19:17 from Reuters: International
CARACAS (Reuters) - A local beauty queen died of a bullet wound on Wednesday in the fifth fatality from Venezuela's political unrest, as imprisoned protest leader Leopoldo Lopez urged supporters to keep fighting for the departure of the ...


Wednesday, February 19, 2014

"The exit from this disaster, the exit of this group of people who have kidnapped the future of Venezuelans is in your hands. Let's fight..." | Venezuelan opposition leader to face murder, terrorism charges | CNN cameras taken at gunpoint

Jailed Venezuela protest leader urges Maduro's 'exit'

CARACAS Wed Feb 19, 2014 9:27am EST
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is escorted by national guards before handing himself over in Caracas February 18, 2014. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is escorted by national guards before handing himself over in Caracas February 18, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/JORGE SILVA

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(Reuters) - Imprisoned protest leader Leopoldo Lopez urged supporters to keep fighting for the departure of Venezuela's socialist government, even as he was due in court on Wednesday accused of fomenting unrest that has killed at least four people.
Lopez, a 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist, surrendered to troops on Tuesday after spearheading three weeks of often rowdy demonstrations around Venezuela that have turned into the biggest challenge yet to President Nicolas Maduro.
"Today more than ever, our cause has to be the exit of this government," Lopez said, sitting next to his wife in a pre-recorded video to be released if he was arrested. (t.co/uJGiXVm0AV)
"The exit from this disaster, the exit of this group of people who have kidnapped the future of Venezuelans is in your hands. Let's fight. I will be doing so."
The protests and the violence around them have left three people shot dead, another run over by a car during a demonstration, and scores of arrests and injuries.
Many Caracas residents banged pots and pans overnight in a traditional form of protest, while some protesters burned tires and clashed with police in the capital and some other parts of the nation. The western Andean cities of Tachira and Merida have been especially volatile.
The protesters are calling for Maduro's resignation over issues ranging from inflation and violent crime to corruption and product shortages.
Maduro, who was narrowly elected last year to replace Hugo Chavez after his death from cancer, says Lopez and others in league with the U.S. government are seeking a coup against him.
Street protests were the backdrop to a short-lived ouster of Chavez for 36 hours in 2002, before military loyalists and supporters helped bring him back.
Though tens of thousands joined Lopez on the streets when he turned himself in on Tuesday, the protests so far have mainly been much smaller than the wave of demonstrations a decade ago.
There is no evidence the military, which was the decisive factor in the 2002 overthrow, may turn against Maduro now.
Lopez was being held on Wednesday at the Ramo Verde jail in Caracas, and was due at a first court hearing mid-morning. Supporters planned to gather outside the tribunal, where he could face charges including murder and terrorism.
INVESTORS SPOOKED
In an intriguing twist to the drama, Maduro said his powerful Congress head Diosdado Cabello, seen by many Venezuelans as a potential rival to the president, personally negotiated Lopez's surrender via his parents.
Cabello even helped drive him to custody in his own car given the risks to Lopez's life from extremists, Maduro said.
Venezuela's highly traded and volatile bonds have seen prices fall to near 18-month lows on the unrest.
Yields are on average 15 percentage points higher than comparable U.S. Treasury bills, by far the highest borrowing cost of any emerging market nation.
"The heightened social unrest further undermines already fragile investor sentiment," said Siobhan Morden, Latin American strategy head for New York-based Jefferies.
With local TV providing minimal live coverage of the street unrest or opposition leaders' news conferences, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have become the go-to media for many Venezuelans desperate for information on the crisis.
Detractors call Lopez a dangerous and self-serving hothead. He has frequently squabbled with fellow opposition leaders, and was involved in the 2002 coup, even helping arrest a minister.
"I've hardly been in office for 10 months and for 10 months this opposition has been plotting to kill me, topple me," Maduro said after his arrest. "For how long is the right wing going to hurt the nation?"
Though the majority of demonstrators have been peaceful, a radical fringe have been tossing stones at police, blocking roads and vandalizing buildings.
Rights groups say the police response has been disproportional, with some detainees tortured.
The unrest has not affected the country's oil industry, which is struggling from under-investment and operational problems that have left output stagnant for nearly a decade.
Chavez purged state oil company PDVSA of its dissident leadership in 2003 after a two-month industry shutdown meant to force him to resign, making it unlikely workers could attempt something similar against Maduro.
In a nation split largely down the middle on political lines, 'Chavistas' have stayed loyal to Maduro despite unflattering comparisons with his famously charismatic predecessor. Many Venezuelans fear the loss of popular, oil-funded welfare programs should the socialists lose power.

(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas Javier Farias in Tachira; Editing by Brian Ellsworth and Chizu Nomiyama)

Venezuelan opposition leader to face murder, terrorism charges

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Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is set to appear in court Wednesday, a day after he turned himself in to authorities amid anti-government demonstrations in the country.

CNN cameras taken at gunpoint 

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Karl Penhaul explains how CNN's equipment was taken amidst anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela.
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