dagblog - Comments for "8 dead as Venezuela turmoil continues, leader asks for Obama's help"

One more try by Maduro to get

artappraiser — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 17:47:09 +0000

In reply to 8 dead as Venezuela turmoil continues, leader asks for Obama's help

One more try by Maduro to get Obama more on his side, then it's probably back to blaming Obama's CIA or whatever:

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blames ‘Miami Lobby’ for fueling the ongoing crisis in his country
By Jim Wyss, Miami Herald, March 14, 2014

BOGOTA, Colombia -- As more than a month of opposition protests have left at least 25 dead, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused South Florida Republicans of pushing Washington off a cliff of extremism.

During a press conference Friday, Maduro said Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were trying to influence President Barack Obama, the Associated Press reported.

“Obama can’t let himself be taken by the Miami lobby,” Maduro said. “I call on the United States to take it easy. They’re taking President Obama to an abyss and he’s going to crash against Venezuela and be isolated from all of Latin America and the Caribbean.” [....]

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/14/3995864/venezuelan-president-nicol...

John Kerry says Venezuela

artappraiser — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 01:08:28 +0000

In reply to 8 dead as Venezuela turmoil continues, leader asks for Obama's help

John Kerry says Venezuela 'terror campaign' must end
BBC News, 13 March, 2014

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said the government of Venezuela must end its "terror campaign against its own citizens". Mr Kerry said the Organisation of American States (OAS), allies and neighbours should demand accountability of Venezuela over the protests.

Authorities say 28 people have died since they began more than a month ago.

Venezuela accuses the United States of helping "right-wing fascists" to plot a coup with the unrest.

Mr Kerry's remarks are the starkest from Washington since the protests began. "We are trying to find a way to get the [President Nicolas] Maduro government to engage with their citizens, to treat them respectfully, to end this terror campaign against his own people and to begin to, hopefully, respect human rights in an appropriate way", Mr Kerry told a committee in the US Congress [....]

President Maduro said his week that his government had "neutralised" a "right-wing coup". He blamed groups in the United States, Venezuela and other Latin American countries for the alleged plan. The Venezuelan government has already expelled the Panamanian ambassador and three other diplomats [....]

Protests rage in Venezuela,

artappraiser — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 01:00:58 +0000

In reply to 8 dead as Venezuela turmoil continues, leader asks for Obama's help

Protests rage in Venezuela, one month on
By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN, March 13, 2014

It's been a month since violent clashes between opposition demonstrators and government forces in Venezuela first grabbed global attention.

Protests rage on, and demonstrators show no sign of backing down.

Medical sources at a hospital in Venezuela's Carabobo state said a student protester and a 42-year-old man were killed in clashes there Wednesday. State media accused violent right-wing groups of attacking a worker's march there. In a Twitter post, state Gov. Francisco Ameliach said a national guard captain had been killed in fighting, which he described as "terrorism."

A government tally released Tuesday said at least 23 people had been killed nationwide and more than 200 others have been injured since protests started. The tally did not specify whether the casualties occurred among demonstrators or government forces, or both.

Student protesters on both sides packed streets in Caracas Wednesday [....]

Another day, more bodies By

artappraiser — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 00:56:52 +0000

In reply to 8 dead as Venezuela turmoil continues, leader asks for Obama's help

Another day, more bodies
By P.G. in CARACAS, The Economist, Mar 13th 2014

THICK clouds of teargas hung in the air over the north gate of the Central University (UCV) in Caracas on March 12th. A police helicopter clattered overhead; on campus, plain-clothes gunmen on motorcycles, some bearing the initials of the national guard, harassed student demonstrators.

A month after the government crack-down on protesters began, Venezuela’s crisis is deepening. This was the bloodiest single day since three people were killed in Caracas on March 12th. Eighteen injuries were reported at the UCV, after a previously peaceful student march to demand the resignation of the Venezuelan government ombudsman was halted on the orders of President Nicolás Maduro.

But it was the city of Valencia, 125km west of the capital, that bore the brunt of the violence. Three people were shot dead there, including a national-guard officer and two civilians. The government blamed “snipers”; opposition sources insist the only people seen shooting belonged to the pro-government colectivos some are now beginning to call death-squads. The casualties in Valencia brought the month’s death toll to well over 20 [....]

That's a switch.

Peter Schwartz — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 21:00:33 +0000

In reply to Earlier news thread on this

That's a switch.

"...the world's highest oil

Peter Schwartz — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 20:56:34 +0000

In reply to A start to the answer to my

"...the world's highest oil reserves"?

A start to the answer to my

artappraiser — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 19:53:52 +0000

In reply to I've been wondering along

A start to the answer to my questions above; it's not the same-old, same-old:

In Venezuela, Protest Ranks Grow Broader
By William Neuman, New York Times, Feb. 24/25, 2014

[....] These were not your ordinary urban guerrillas. They included a manicurist, a medical supplies saleswoman, a schoolteacher, a businessman and a hardware store worker. [....]

“We’re normal people, but we’re all affected by what’s happening,” said Carlos Alviarez, 39, who seemed vaguely bewildered to find himself in the middle of the street where the whiff of tear gas lingered. “Look. I’ve got a rock in my hand and I’m the distributor for Adidas eyewear in Venezuela.”

The biggest protests since the death of the longtime leader Hugo Chávez nearly a year ago are sweeping Venezuela, rapidly expanding from the student protests that began this month on a campus in this western city into a much broader array of people across the country. On Monday, residents in Caracas, the capital, and other Venezuelan cities piled furniture, tree limbs, chain-link fence, sewer grates and washing machines to block roads in a coordinated action against the government.

Behind the outpouring is more than the litany of problems that have long bedeviled Venezuela, a country with the world’s largest oil reserves but also one of the highest inflation rates. Adding to the perennial frustrations over violent crime and chronic shortages of basic goods like milk and toilet paper, the outrage is being fueled by President Nicolás Maduro’s aggressive response to public dissent, including deploying hundreds of soldiers here and sending fighter jets to make low, threatening passes over the city.

On Monday, the state governor, who belongs to Mr. Maduro’s party, broke ranks and challenged the president’s tactics [....]

Rash Repression in

artappraiser — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 04:59:39 +0000

In reply to 8 dead as Venezuela turmoil continues, leader asks for Obama's help

Rash Repression in Venezuela

By Francisco Toro, founder of the political website Caracas Chronicles, New York Times guest op-ed, Feb. 24/25, 2014

PROTESTS have rocked Venezuela in recent weeks, but no one seems to agree on why huge numbers of people have suddenly taken to the streets. Some observers see the demonstrations as a verdict on food and medicine shortages, inflation and economic stagnation. Others see them as the tantrum of a retrograde former elite bent on nullifying the results of the last election. The government, for its part, is sticking to the old script: Venezuela is falling victim to a fascist conspiracy cooked up by American officials who are terrified of its revolutionary aspirations.

Yet none of these competing explanations capture what’s unique about this latest outpouring of anger. Venezuela’s protests are, in a way, self-referential: Faced with a government that systematically equates protest with treason, people have been protesting in defense of the very right to protest [....]

I've been wondering along

artappraiser — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 04:39:06 +0000

In reply to It's especially sad, because

I've been wondering along different lines, Aaron. Whether the divide between pro-Chavista and anti-Chavista may still be the same as when he was still alive, but with Maduro not being as skillful the anti-Chavista's feel emboldened to challenge? The clue for me to suspect that is that it started with university students, and my understanding is that pro vs. anti-Chavista was not always a simple division along class lines, of the poor & working class vs. upper class. But also the poor and working class vs. the intelligentsia and those who aspire to high culture and those with cosmopolitan ambitions. I do think Chavez played heavily to that, too, while not exactly going whole hog cultural revolution along the lines of everyone with glasses has to work in the fields. (He would, for example, deride people with long speeches who did things like celebrate Halloween, as a non-native effete foreign cultural affectation.)

It's especially sad, because

Aaron Carine — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 02:46:20 +0000

In reply to 8 dead as Venezuela turmoil continues, leader asks for Obama's help

It's especially sad, because there were some good things going on in Venezuela under Chavez(alongside things that weren't good). Maduro seems to be a lot more violent and authoritarian than Chavez was. I wonder what take Western radicals will have on this.