‘May God help us’—Venezuela’s under-siege opposition

CARACAS: William Noguera, a street sweeper, brushed aside the remains of a roadblock on a Caracas avenue. But he knew it wouldn’t be long before he’d be back clearing the road.

“In a little while, it will be blocked again,” he smiled, working in an upmarket neighborhood in the Venezuelan capital opposed to President Nicolas Maduro that oscillates between despondency and impotence.

crossing the road.

One day earlier, the government held an election for a controversial Constituent Assembly that will supersede the opposition- controlled legislature and rewrite the constitution.

The vote was roiled by protests and repression from security forces, deepening deadly violence that has left a death toll of 125 in four months of demonstrations against Maduro.

than eight million voters taking part, “nobody believes that,” said Alfredo Quinones, a 57-year-old lawyer speaking with friends at a newsstand.

“It’s probably the biggest fraud in history,” said Ivan Hidalgo, a 60-year-old doctor hold- ing an opposition-leaning newspaper, El Nacional, in his hands. Its headline: “Fraudulent Constituent Assembly Fails.”

The opposition refuses to recognize the new assembly, which Maduro has hailed as the solution to dragging the country out of its political and economic misery.

Villarroel, 85, discussing the election in one of the numerous lines waiting to buy scarce food. “All that (Maduro’s words) are lies!”

Antonio Soto, 67, said he woke Monday

“We can no longer accept as a civilized nation the imposition of a dictatorship harking back to the early 20th century,” he said, worried about the uncertainty reigning over the country with a Constituent Assembly “with no clear rules of the game.”

‘I love my country’

In the lead-up to the election, thousands border into Colombia, desperate and seeking refuge from the turmoil.

The day after the vote, the main border crossing was relatively calm.

many Venezuelans have emigrated in recent months, as the political crisis deepened, but estimates are of between one million and two million.

Many, though, are determined to stay in their home country, either through a desire to see a positive change happen, or no opportunities for a better life outside. “I’m a Venezuelan, I love my country, I want my son to grow up here,” the 41-year-old said, wearing dark sunglasses to hide the tears she

The opposition has called for new demonstrations to take place, to continue to remind the government its stance is not without challenge.

A young woman belonging to a hardline group of protesters becoming known as the “resistance” admitted that the gatherings were imbued with “a little sadness and disappointment.”

“But,” she said, “today we are continuing which is abandoned.”