Today was a really eventful day. At least three killed, and I’m hearing rumours of a fourth, but that might not have been related to the protests.
Students had planned to march in Caracas to demand the resignation of the Fiscal General (Attorney General) Luisa Ortega Diaz, and the Defensora del Pueblo (People’s Defender) Gabriela Ramirez. They cite the “detentions and arbitrary measures” taken by the Public Ministry as the reason for demanding Diaz’s resignation, and Ramirez’s comments on torture for demanding her resignation. Here’s a bunch of pictures from the demonstration as it was about to set out.
In what the opposition are calling an attempt to disrupt people making their way to the demonstration, nine subway stations were closed in Caracas today. The nine stations closed are located along the route the demonstrators said they were going to take.
The protest was supposed to set out from Bello Campo and move west in a fairly straight line until they reached the Defensoria del Pueblo. However, the National Guard was blocking streets on the path of the demonstrators, and warned the protesters several times that they would not be allowed to enter the area of Caracas where the Defensoria del Pueblo is located.
At some point, the demonstration turned south from the planned route, and the students attempted to enter the campus of the Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Starting at around 2:30 PM, National Guard stationed at the entrances to the university started using tear gas to disperse the students. I’m not entirely sure if they were attempting to stop the students from getting in or out of the campus, but either way, the National Guard was present in force.
Here are some pictures, all from the Universidad Central de Venezuela today:
This picture is more recent, from this evening, and shows a large detachment of National Guard units near Altamira, Caracas:
This picture shows two men allegedly on their way to the university, and was taken around 2:55 PM. Note that: 1) One of them appears to be wielding a pistol, 2) Neither man is uniformed, and 3) the motorcyle they are riding bears a logo that reads “GNB” (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana):
Voluntad Popular (a huge opposition party) said that one of its representatives in Caracas was hit in the face with a tear gas canister today. They also called for the peaceful protests to continue.
Two protesters (Jesus Enrique Acosta, 23, and Guillermo Sanchez, 42), and National Guard captain (Ernesto Bravo Bracho) were killed today in protests in Valencia. Jesus Enrique was an engineering student and was killed by a bullet to the head in La Isabelica. Guillermo Sanchez was taking part in a demonstration in El Mañongo when he was shot and killed. Captain Ernesto Bravo Bracho was also killed by gunfire, possibly at the same demonstration in El Mañongo.
Maduro called for a special meeting of the Security Cabinet today. Maduro said:
I am going to take drastic measures against all of these areas where they are attacking and killing Venezuelan people, all done within constitutional limits, but this cannot be [or, “this cannot continue”]. We are going to look for the murderers, we have already captured most of the murderers who killed sergeants, who murdered bikers with [barbed wire strung across roads].”
Maduro also said that Captain Bravo, who was killed in Valencia, was shot by “fascist snipers”.
Defensora del Pueblo Gabriela “It’s Only Torture if You’re Doing It To Get a Confession” Ramirez did the right thing today and filed a complaint at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva… to denounce “a hate campaign launched against the Defensoria del Pueblo by a false newspaper article published by El Nacional.” Ramirez claimed that the newspaper published an article on her statements last week that made her seem like she was justifying the use of torture, when in fact she was just defining it the wrong way. She also said that the hate campaign “has generated violence through social media, particularly, against my person and my family.”
Here are a couple of videos from the disturbances in El Mañongo, Valencia today:
This one shows a National Guard truck chasing protesters and getting two molotov cocktails thrown at it:
This one appears to have been taken by security forces, and shows a National Guard truck under attack by fireworks and what looks like molotov cocktails:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et1qhdP3RtY
And here is a political cartoon that nicely encapsulates one of the grievances the protesters have against the government response to the protests:
Last night, I didn’t know that to expect for today. I thought that maybe the protest wouldn’t be as big as previous ones – and indeed, it wasn’t – and that it would be a sign that this whole thing was starting to calm down. It looks like the government is doubling down on its repression of the demonstrations, and with more deaths recorded today in violent confrontations, I’m not so sure that things are ready to start calming down just yet.
In Venezuela 