Category: Latin America

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators faced off in streets blocked by burning barricades in several provincial cities on Thursday as protests escalated against President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government. At least five people have died since the unrest turned violent last week, with scores of injuries and arrests. The demonstrators, mostly students, blame the government for violent crime, high inflation, product shortages and alleged repression of opponents. They want Maduro to resign. In middle-class areas of Caracas overnight, security forces fired teargas and bullets, chasing youths who threw Molotov cocktails and blocked streets with burning trash. It was one of the worst bouts of violence the capital has seen in nearly three weeks of unrest across Venezuela, and trouble also flared in other urban centers. Many Caracas residents banged pots at windows in a traditional form of protest, and knots of demonstrators were out again early on […]

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Security forces and protesters fought around Venezuela on Thursday in streets blocked by burning barricades and a supporter of socialist President Nicolas Maduro was shot dead, the sixth fatality from more than a week of violence. Maduro said a "fascist bullet" killed Alexis Martinez, a brother of a ruling Socialist Party legislator, in the central city of Barquisimeto. A local journalist said Martinez was shot in the chest while passing an opposition protest. There have also been scores of injuries and arrests since the violence broke out eight days ago, the most serious unrest since Maduro was narrowly elected in April 2013. The protesters, mostly students, want Maduro to resign, and blame his government for violent crime, high inflation, shortages of goods and alleged repression of opponents. The most sustained clashes on Thursday were in the western Andean states of Tachira and Merida, which have been […]

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The only television station that regularly broadcast voices critical of the government was sold last year, and the new owners have softened its news coverage. Last week, President Nicolás Maduro banned a foreign cable news channel after it showed images of a young protester shot to death here. Opposition legislators have been barred from debates and stripped of committee posts in the National Assembly. And when an opposition leader called for a protest this week, Mr. Maduro scheduled his own march to start at the same spot and dispatched the National Guard to try to block protesters from rallying elsewhere. Venezuela is being convulsed by the biggest protests since the country’s longtime president, the charismatic Hugo Chávez, died nearly a […]

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Venezuela on Tuesday renamed its largest crude reserve, traditionally known as the Orinoco Belt, after the country’s late socialist leader. "I’ve decided as of today to name it the Hugo Chavez Oil Belt," said President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s protege and successor, during a rally of oil workers. "Do you agree?" The crowd roared its approval. "The biggest oil reserve on the planet was rescued by our Commander Chavez," Maduro said, referring to his predecessor’s crusade to boost state control over natural resources. Chavez died last year after a 14-year rule in which he built up a cult following thanks to liberal spending of oil revenue that helped him win repeated elections. His detractors accuse him of squandering a decade-long windfall and leaving behind an economy weakened by state controls. The United States Geological Survey in 2010 estimated the area held 513 billion barrels […]

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In a prerecorded video message released hours after his arrest , López urged Venezuelans to continue a campaign of “resistance” to force the resignation or recall of President Nicolás Maduro, a goal López calls “the Exit.” Seated on a sofa beside his wife and appealing directly to Venezuelan youth, López told viewers that what the country needed more than ever was for Venezuelans to make “a commitment for change.” “But that commitment can’t be passive,” he said. “It has to be active.” It was the kind of passionate, personal appeal and call to action that showed exactly why the Harvard-educated López has been at the center of the most serious challenge yet to the struggling Maduro, successor to the late Hugo Chávez. In a country floating atop the world’s largest oil reserves but facing worsening shortages of milk, medicines, toilet paper and other basic goods, many Venezuelans are angry, […]

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A local beauty queen died of a bullet wound on Wednesday in the fifth fatality from Venezuela’s political unrest, as imprisoned protest leader Leopoldo Lopez urged supporters to keep fighting for the departure of the socialist government. College student and model Genesis Carmona, 22, was shot in the head during a protest on Tuesday in the central city of Valencia, and died in a clinic. "How long are we going to live like this? How long do we have to tolerate this pressure, with them killing us?" a relative, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. "She only needed one more semester to graduate," he added of Carmona, who had been studying tourism and had won the 2013 Miss Tourism competition in her state. Tensions have risen in Venezuela since Lopez, a 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist, surrendered to troops on Tuesday after spearheading three weeks of […]

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Venezuela ’s opposition vowed to continue street demonstrations into a second week after National Guard troops arrested leader Leopoldo Lopez following protests that have left four people dead. The opposition Voluntad Popular party called on supporters to rally in downtown Caracas in front of the Palace of Justice at 10 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EST). Lopez was forced into a police vehicle yesterday while speaking to supporters after President Nicolas Maduro blamed him for instigating demonstrations over shortages of basic goods and 56 percent inflation in a country with the world’s biggest oil reserves. Related: “We are on the right side of history, on the side of justice, of truth,” Lopez, 42, said in a video that he recorded before his arrest. “Our cause has been and continues to be the departure of this government.” Confronting the biggest challenge to his 10-month-old presidency, Maduro announced plans to import […]

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Venezuelan security forces arrested opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez on Tuesday on charges of fomenting unrest that has killed at least four people, bringing tens of thousands of his angry supporters onto the streets of Caracas. Crowds of white-clad protesters tried to block the vehicle carrying the 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist after he made a defiant speech, said an emotional farewell to his family, and gave himself up to soldiers. Opposition leaders hope Lopez’s arrest will galvanize street demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro, though there is no immediate sign the protests will topple the socialist leader. "I am handing myself over to an unfair justice system," the protest leader told supporters, standing on a platform next to a statue of Cuban poet and independence hero Jose Marti. "May my imprisonment serve to wake the people up." The crowd lifted his wife up to give him a final embrace […]

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A prominent Venezuelan opposition leader surrendered to the authorities on Tuesday in the midst of a large crowd of supporters who tried to block his arrest on accusations that he was responsible for violence that erupted during recent antigovernment protests. Before giving himself up, the opposition politician, Leopoldo López , walked through a sea of thousands of supporters in the largest rally in more than two weeks of growing protests fueled by discontent over runaway violent crime, a stalled economy, government pressure on the news media and other issues. “We are living in a dark time when criminals are rewarded and they want to imprison the Venezuelans who want peaceful, democratic change,” Mr. López said, standing on the base […]

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