Protests in Venezuela continue as students pack the streets, inflation tops 56%
The failures of socialism and a brutal dictator are again on display in Venezuela as student protesters pack the streets, violence surges under clouds of tear gas and inflation reportedly tops 56%.
Image/CIA
Opposition leaders and government officials blame each other for the unrest, and both sides show no sign of backing down. These anti-government demonstrations are the biggest threat President Nicolas Maduro has faced since his election last year.
“Anything can happen now,” said Javier Corrales, a professor of political science at Amherst College. “This is a real crisis on all fronts. The government has ways to survive…but at the same time, it can lose this battle.”
In Caracas, tens of thousands of opponents of President Nicolas Maduro filled several city blocks in their biggest rally to date against his 10-month-old government. Across town, at the presidential palace, Maduro addressed a much-smaller crowd of mostly female supporters dressed in the red of his socialist party.
Maduro has vowed to crack down on other opposition leaders like him, calling them fascists and comparing them to a disease that must be cured.
“Is capturing these people repression? Or is it justice?” Maduro said after airing videos during a national broadcast that he said showed opposition attacks on government buildings.
“Maduro has a lot of support,” said George Ciccariello-Maher, an assistant professor of political science at Drexel University. “He’s not Chavez, but he’s seen as a relatively faithful representative of what Chavez stood for.”
The divide is great and protesters seem to be lining up on each side to oppose one another rather than reach out to find common ground.
[…] dictator and claim that he is destroying the Venezuelan economy (with inflation topping an alarming 56 percent). As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Colmenares, a disgruntled Venezuelan youth, said: […]