Seeking to keep up pressure, opposition plans more protests
VENEZUELA: Venezuela’s opposition renewed nationwide protests yesterday to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to hold elections and improve a collapsing economy, and vowed to keep up pressure by staging three more protests in the next four days.
Yesterday’s crowds were smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people who flooded the streets of Caracas and provincial cities on Thursday, the latest and largest in several weeks of protests against what Maduro’s opponents condemn as a lurch toward dictatorship.
But still, thousands of people waving Venezuelan flags and shouting ‘‘No more dictatorship’’ took to the streets in the capital and across the oil-rich nation.
The opposition’s leadership then called for further protests in communities across Venezuela today, a white-clad ‘‘silent’’ march in Caracas tomorrow to commemorate the eight people killed during unrest this month, and a nationwide ‘‘sit-in’’ blocking Venezuela’s main roads on Tuesday. That sets the stage for prolonged disruption in volatile Venezuela, where security forces have been blocking rallies this month and protests have dissolved into clashes with rock-throwing youth.
‘‘Today the people of Venezuela showed they are committed to this cause,’’ said opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara during a news conference, urging people to stay on the streets.
Government officials dismiss the protests, characterised by street barricades and clashes with security forces, as violent and lawless efforts to overthrow Maduro’s leftist government with the backing of ideological adversaries in Washington.
The opposition counters that Maduro, deeply unpopular as Venezuelans grapple with tripledigit inflation and shortages of food and basic consumer goods, is seeking to stay in power indefinitely by barring opposition leaders from office and quashing independent state institutions.
‘‘Protests will need to grow and persist over the coming weeks to force a political transition,’’ Eurasia analyst Risa Graistargow said in a note yesterday.
‘‘The opposition’s response to regional elections, which the National Electoral Council will probably call in the coming days, will be key to maintaining momentum in the streets.’’
The current wave of marches, the most sustained protests against Maduro since 2014, has sparked regular melees.- Reuters