Venezuela: massive movement, September 2020

“All you need is ~~love~~ class consciousness!”

…not all you need but a good beginning.

The bits quoted below are from Google Translate (my Spanish is very rusty).

28/9/20:

Venezuela: riots in 19 of the country’s 23 states…100 protests throughout country

“In the south of San Carlos, Cojedes, protests continue. At 7:30 pm citizens who were on Rómulo Betancourt Avenue, burned a vehicle due to the absence of electric service in the state….Likewise, residents of La Herrereña burned rubber due to lack of domestic gas. They register 17 protests due to lack of gasoline this Monday in Nueva Esparta. At least 76 protests have been registered this Monday in various regions of Venezuela due to failures in the supply of services such as: electricity, drinking water, domestic gas and gasoline, a situation that has unleashed numerous demonstrations in recent days . Through social networks, riots have been reported in 19 of the 23 states of the country, some of which have involved the use of tear gas and pellets by security forces…Since Friday, the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict has counted nearly 100 demonstrations in almost all regions of the country….Venezuela closed August with 748 protests motivated by the precariousness of services, especially due to the shortage of gasoline, but also due to the difficulty in accessing medicine and food and the “pulverization of wages”. The president in charge of the Republic, Juan Guaidó on Sunday urged Venezuelans to join the protests, especially one called by the teachers for next October 5.”

25/9/20:

Venezuela Yaracuy: clashes in 3 towns due to lack of everything (water, gas, electricity, food); mayor forced to leave town

“The security forces could not cope trying to suppress the protest …The street protest took place in the municipalities Bruzual, José Vicente Peña, Cocorote, San Felipe and Independencia, where a sea of people came out to demand from the government in power a better distribution of gas, food, equitable sale of fuel and better services of toilet, water and electricity….Abuses of power by representatives of Poliyaracuy were one of the most frequent complaints; The uniformed men openly entered the houses located on Avenues 4 and 5 of the Bruzual municipality to arrest the protesters, whom they mounted on their motorcycles with physical violence. This same irregular situation was seen in the municipalities of Peña and San Felipe, where neighbors reported to El Pitazo the arbitrary apprehension of a 16-year-old teenager and an athlete from the Yaracuy state cycling team for recording street activities….Likewise, State Police officials attacked a group of journalists who were covering the events of social protest in the municipality of Independencia, after throwing a tear gas at their feet….One of the most critical moments on the third day of the protests that shook the Yaracuy state was when an angry mob smashed the glass of doors and windows of the Mayor’s Office of the Bruzual municipality with stones and beat four military personnel guarding the headquarters with sticks …These actions of social discontent motivated the governor, Julio León Heredia, to move in the afternoon to the jurisdiction of Bruzual, guarded by a strong security cordon to assess the damage caused to state buildings by the social outbreak…The assistance centers located in the municipalities where there were street disturbances were not able to cope with the number of people who entered due to suffocation due to the inhalation of smoke from tear gas, as well as those injured by blunt objects.Unofficially, it was learned that of the 12 people who were injured in these street protests, eight are military personnel and four are civilians…“

More here “The municipality of Bruzual, in the Yaracuy state, in western Venezuela, turned into a nightmare. There has been no gas for four months, electricity is out several times a day and the water supply is constantly cut off. Fed up and desperate, the neighbors took to the streets. An unknown number of people were detained and at least one public building was damaged after a series of anti-government protests in the state…”Repression of special forces of the GNB (Bolivarian National Guard, militarized Police) was responded by demonstrators with stones and fire at the headquarters of the Mayor of Chivacoa, Bruzual municipality, (state of) Yaracuy,” said OVCS on Twitter. In the same message, the NGO attached a video in which around fifty people can be seen confronting riot police, who leave a sector after being overwhelmed. Later, the protesters set fire to the ground floor of the building where the Mayor’s Office operates, which also suffered serious structural damage caused by stones. …The protests in this state of the interior of Venezuela, punished by the severe crisis that the country is going through, began 4 days ago to demand the regularization of the supply of fuel, scarce like other goods, and of the electricity service, which presents failures throughout the country . According to the OVCS, this Saturday there were protests in at least 7 of the 14 municipalities of the entity, most of them dissolved by the police forces with the use of tear gas and pellets.”

23/9/20:

Venezuela, Yaracuy: massive protests

“Five days of protests leave at least 18 people injured and about twenty detained for demanding water, electricity, gas and gasoline…The constant failures of public services caused Venezuelans to return to the streets. Such is the case of the inhabitants of Yaracuy state, who since Tuesday, September 22, have not stopped protesting demanding water, electricity, gas and gasoline, receiving in return repression from state security officials. The citizens of the Urachiche community expressed their feelings through a demonstration to denounce the shortage of fuel, the collapse of all public services and the lack of public transportation in the region….The inhabitants who were stationed in the surroundings of the Plaza Bolívar, expressed that they will complete four months without receiving gas service, apart from the constant power cuts. Minutes later, the local security forces dispersed the demonstrators with tear gas canisters and detained at least eight people who were placed under the order of the Prosecutor 4 of the Public Ministry for the alleged crimes: disorderly conduct, terrorism and incitement to hatred. .
…The mayor of the Bruzual municipality, Carmen Victoria Suárez, indicated that street demonstrations are “prohibited” and that people who go out to “create” disturbances “do not have permission to concentrate on public roads.”

A few incidents from the last 6 months

26/7/20:

Anzoategui: cops kill man during riot over fuel shortages

“This is the second death in a month in protests against fuel shortages in Venezuela – on July 17 an 18-year-old man died of a gunshot wound on an island in the state of Zulia, in the west of the country.
Since the beginning of the year, the OVCS has identified more than 4,000 events organized in the country to demand in particular an increase in salaries or the improvement of public services. Dozens of people were injured and four people were killed – including the two deaths on Sunday – during these demonstrations“. Should be pointed out that this article doesn’t seem to be entirely accurate: 1 death was on the 26th, the other on the 17th.

9/5/20:

Venezuela, Monagas: riots and looting during food distribution day

8/5/20:

Tachira: riot over electricity cuts

1/5/20:

Venezuela, Guanare: “Socialist” state celebrates mayday by murdering 17 during prison mutiny

“Public order disturbances” took place in the Los Llanos prison center in Guanare (west), when detainees broke down “the security fencing around the perimeter” outside the prison, “in a mass escape attempt”…Prison staff, guarded by soldiers, attempted mediation with the chief of the mutineers. But the inmates attacked them violently, injuring the prison warden “on the shoulder with a sharp object.”…”The conflict is underway,” said Carolina Giron of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, an NGO that defends the rights of detainees, to AFP. According to her, the detainees rose up because they were victims of violence and “because they are not allowed any visit and they have no bread or water”. According to her, 2,500 prisoners are crowded in an establishment with a capacity of 750 places. Due to the coronavirus pandemic which is also raging in Venezuela, visits to detainees of families and relatives have been interrupted. However, prisoners often receive food and medicine through these visits. According to the Observatory, some 97 detainees died behind bars last year, 70% of them from illnesses such as tuberculosis, due to lack of medicines and medical care. Another detainee advocacy organization, Una Ventana a la libertad (A Window to Liberty), said that some 192 people died last year in police station cells due to lack of space in prisons. Venezuelan authorities say there have been no cases of coronavirus in prisons in the country.”

26/4/20:

Venezuela, Margarita: hotel looted

“a group of vandals looted the tourist Hotel Portofino located in the Manzanillo sector, Nueva Esparta. Photos and videos published on the Twitter platform demonstrate the theft of mattresses, furniture, chairs and even washing machines … at least 35 people who participated in the robbery were captured by REDI officials, including women, men and minors. Mattresses, furniture, beds, air conditioners, kitchen implements, plastic chairs, televisions, among others, was part of what the security forces were able to recover.“