Deaths mount ahead of vote
Venezuela braced for more unrest as opposition calls for boycott of election
Venezuela is convulsing to a rhythm of daytime strikes and nocturnal clashes as the final countdown on a polarising vote begins.
At least five deaths yesterday drove the toll from nearly four months of unrest above 100.
Venezuelans are being asked to vote on Monday on whether to allow its constitution to be rewritten in a move critics say will hand more power to President Nicolas Maduro.
Most of the dead in antigovernment protests that began in early April have been young men killed by gunfire. The toll also includes looters, police allegedly attacked by protesters and civilians killed in accidents related to roadblocks set up during demonstrations.
The count by the county’s chief prosecutor has been highly politicised, with the opposition and other government agencies reporting varying tolls and causes of death that focus blame on the other side.
When Neomar Lander, 17, was rushed bloody and lifeless to a hospital early last month, officials came out within hours to say he had been killed by a homemade bomb he was carrying.
Opposition leaders maintained he was hit by a canister of tear gas fired by National Guard troops standing above the bridge where he was found dead.
“They try to question the humanity of the other side as a political tactic, and I think that ends up discouraging and dismaying people,” said David Smilde, a Tulane University expert on Venezuela.
The protests began following a Supreme Court ruling that stripped the opposition- controlled National Assembly of its remaining powers. Though quickly reversed, the decision ignited a protest movement against the socialist President fuelled by anger over triple- digit inflation, hours- long lines to buy basic food items and deadly medical shortages.
Addressing a multitude of government supporters dressed in red yesterday, Maduro called on Venezuelans to vote in Monday’s controversial election for delegates to an assembly that i s to rewrite the constitution.
He posed the vote as a choice that Venezuelans must make between being either “a free country or a colony of the empire” — Maduro’s term for the United States.
Earlier, officials announced a host of security measures that were being enacted including an order that no political protests be held through until Wednesday.
The opposition called for a mass demonstration in Caracas today, raising the potential for further clashes amid the rising tensions. Washington ordered relatives of US diplomats to leave the Venezuelan capital ahead of the divisive vote.
Opposition leaders are urging Venezuelans to boycott the vote, saying the election rules were rigged to guarantee Maduro a majority and arguing that a new constitution could replace democracy with a singleparty authoritarian system.
The mounting deaths of demonstrators have now become a separate source of outrage for the young people who march during the day and assemble nightly to fight police officers and national guardsmen at improvised barricades across the country.
“The ones who have fallen fighting repression motivate us to keep fighting,” said Sandra Fernandez, a 21- year- old university student.
The country’s chief prosecutor reported yesterday on Twitter that a 16- year- old was killed at a protest in the capital and a 23- year- old man died at a demonstration in Merida state. A 49- year- old man in Carababo, west of Caracas, was reported killed during a protest, and a 16- year- old died from a head wound suffered on Thursday at a protest in the capital. A 30- year- old man was reported killed during a protest in the southwestern town of Merida yesterday.
The oil- rich South American country, which was in the second day of a t wo- day general strike that shuttered businesses nationwide, has also seen thousands of injuries and arrests.
The chief prosecutor’s office has released little information about the victims of the unrest, but at least 44 are believed to have been shot while participating in protests. Many of those deaths are blamed on armed motorcycle gangs of government supporters known as “colectivos” who are often seen shooting indiscriminately at protesters while police and soldiers stand by.