VENEZUELANS ABROAD
Venezualans in US donate protective gear, medicine and walkie-talkies to protestors
MIAMI of supplies on a table at a Colombian restaurant where donations were being accepted.
Half of the 225,000 Venezuelans living in the United States reside in Florida, mostly in the greater Miami area.
Most donations are geared towards protecting demonstrators from tear gas, pepper spray and other crowd-dispersal gases used by Venezuelan riot police.
Liquid antiacids — the kind sold at corner pharmacies — are good to treat gas-caused skin burns. For eye protection, swim goggles and over-the-counter eye drops are popular.
Also in demand are walkietalkies, hydrogen peroxide to clean superficial wounds, neck braces, anti-biotic cream, and leather gloves for protesters to pick up and hurl hot gas canisters back at the cops.
On Thursday, Venezuela’s opposition leader asked other Latin American countries to pressure Maduro’s government to implement a “democratic agenda”.
Opposition leader Julio Borges, the president of Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly, arrived in Lima to meet Peruvian legislators and President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who has been one of Maduro’s most vocal critics among Latin American leaders.
He said the humanitarian crisis and strong protests against Maduro’s socialist government had crossed Venezuela’s borders because of a wave of refugees across the region.
“It’s important that we get several governments in the region to unite to make sure in Venezuela there exists nothing other than a popular and democratic agenda.”
The opposition has decried Maduro as an autocrat, who has wrecked the country’s economy, and demanded elections to resolve the crisis. Agencies