Friday 15 / November / 2024
Caracas: Venezuelan security forces fired tear gas at protesters in Caracas on Wednesday amid nationwide rallies demanding a recall referendum to end President Nicolas Maduro's socialist rule.
In the third day of opposition rallies in the past week, several thousand protesters descended on downtown Caracas, witnesses said, for a march to the national election board.
But National Guard soldiers and police cordoned off the square where they planned to meet, so protesters instead milled in nearby streets waving flags and chanting anti-Maduro slogans.
Security forces used tear gas to control about 100 protesters in one street who were pushing to get past a security line, witnesses said.
"They're scared. Venezuelans are tired, hungry," said demonstrator Alfredo Gonzalez, 76, who wore a scarf over his mouth and said he had been sprayed with pepper gas.
In volatile Tachira state, which saw the most violent scenes during 2014 anti-government protests that resulted in 43 deaths, troops also blocked scores of marchers from reaching the local election board office on Wednesday. At a demonstration in the central town of Coro, near the Caribbean coast, protesters formed a chain in the streets.
An anti-Maduro demonstration last Wednesday in Caracas turned violent, with troops using tear gas to quell stone-throwing protesters and an officer pepper-spraying opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
Maduro, a 53-year-old former bus driver who narrowly won election to replace the late Hugo Chavez in 2013, accuses Capriles and other opposition leaders of seeking a coup with the help of the United States.
The opposition coalition, capitalizing on popular discontent over the OPEC nation's economic crisis, won control of the National Assembly in December elections. But all the legislature's measures have been shot down by the government-leaning Supreme Court.
The opposition wants a recall referendum against Maduro this year to force a new presidential election. But ruling Socialist Party officials say there is no time to organize a vote this year and the election board is dragging its feet over the complicated procedure.
Should Maduro lose a referendum next year, his vice president - currently Socialist Party stalwart Aristobulo Isturiz - would take over.
Beyond the opposition's formal protest campaign, spontaneous street protests and looting are becoming more common around Venezuela amid worsening food shortages, frequent power and water cuts, and inflation that is the highest in the world.
At the weekend, Maduro declared a 60-day state of emergency, widening his powers to sidestep the legislature, intervene in the economy and control the streets, because of what he called U.S. and domestic plots against him.
Authorities also closed subway stations in Caracas on Wednesday to impede the protesters.
"The people will stay in the street unless there is a recall referendum," said demonstrator Roberto Campos, 43, his forehead bleeding from where he said he had been hit by a tear gas cannister.
Around him, the crowd chanted: "This government is going to fall!" Protesters scrawled "recall" on security forces' riot shields.
Some drivers honked their support, while government supporters shouted against the protesters from balconies of nearby buildings.
