Young lawmakers on Venezuela’s frontline
Energetic National Assembly members are heroes to many opposition supporters
One was knocked off his feet by a water cannon. Another was pushed into a drain. Most have been pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, beaten and hit by pellet shots.
A group of young Venezuelan lawmakers has risen to prominence on the violent frontline of antigovernment marches that have shaken the South American country for three months, bringing 75 deaths.
On the streets daily leading demonstrators, pushing at security barricades and sometimes picking up tear gas canisters to hurl back at police and soldiers, the energetic National Assembly members are heroes to many opposition supporters. But to President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government, they are the chief “terrorists” in a US-backed coup plot aimed at controlling the vast oil wealth of the Opec nation.
The dozen or so legislators, all in their late 20s or early 30s, belong mainly to the Justice First and Popular Will parties, which are promoting civil disobedience against a president they term a dictator.
One of the best known, Juan Requesens, 28, has taken more hits than most. He nurses as car in the head from a stick thrown by government supporters, wounds around his body from pellets and gas canisters and bruises from being shoved into a deep drain by National Guard soldiers.
“The worst thing for me is when comrades die, when they fall at my side,” the burly, bearded Requesens said.
Some have dubbed the band of lawmakers “the class of 2007” for their roots in a student movement a decade ago that helped the opposition to a rare victory against Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez in a referendum.