In Caracas, the rich and poor are suddenly less divided.
For most of Venezuela’s two-decade socialist experiment, the city’s wealthier, whiter east has been the hotbed of anti-government sentiment. Now, noisy protests are erupting in poorer-but-calmer western neighborhoods that were strongholds for embattled President Nicolas Maduro as crime explodes and medicine and food are scarce and expensive.
Riot police clash with residents of La Vega neighborhood in Caracas.
Residents in neighborhoods like La Candelaria, blocks from the presidential Miraflores Palace, erect barricades and yell slogans against Maduro’s government, banging pots and pans from inside their homes. They’re increasingly demanding a change in government, infuriated by mismanagement and Maduro’s proposed constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution — and perhaps seize total control.
“Everyone protests, without differences, because the hunger of the stomach and the hunger for democracy have been united,” said Carlos Julio Rojas, a La Candelaria activist who has been menaced by pro-government militants called colectivos. He said that opposition activists have been joined at protests by government supporters, public employees, housewives and the unemployed.
Crumbling Foundation
The spread of unrest across the nation’s capital poses a new and heightened threat to a regime under siege. Anti-government protesters have taken to the streets of Caracas and other major cities for three months denouncing Maduro for wrecking the economy and establishing what they call a dictatorship. Almost 80 people have died in near-daily clashes between protesters and security forces.
Venezuelans last mounted extended anti-government protests in 2014, demanding Maduro’s ouster, yet ultimately they fizzled with nothing to show. This time, the opposition has gained significant international support. And inside the nation, key defections from the ruling party and the west-side unrest show that Maduro may be losing elements of the base that has sustained the socialist ideology in the face of poverty and condemnation.
Source: Venezuela’s Poor Rebel, Roiling Maduro’s Socialist Strongholds – Bloomberg