Empty pots clang as ‘hungry’ Venezuela opposition hits streets
CARACAS: Banging empty pots as symbols of hunger, opponents of President Nicolas Maduro tried to bring their fight for his departure to more of Venezuela’s poor.
But the protest march – designed to go from a middle class area of Caracas to a poor one – was broken up by police firing tear gas, water cannon and buck shot. Protesters fought back with rocks and Molotov cocktails, some shouting ‘murderers’ at the National Guard troops.
“How can they attack people like this?”, said opposition lawmaker Jose Manuel Olivares, who was sprayed in the face with pepper gas as soldiers put down the protest.
Demonstrators blame Maduro, an elected socialist due to serve through January 2019, for the country’s economic collapse as he has aligned it ever more closely with the communist-led Cuban model. Two months of deadly demonstrations have left 64 people dead, jolted the Maduro administration and drawn international concern.
Cuba is Caracas’ closest ally. Venezuela, used to spending its huge oil wealth freely, has seen its revenues shrink due to sharply lower crude prices.
“If there is anything that is going to resonate, it is the lack of food. Hunger. It may be the new political focus on the streets,” sociologist Ramon Pinango told AFP.
He said marching to El Valle, a sprawling low-income area near the capital and the intended destination of thwarted procession, was part of the new tack. — AFP