There didn’t appear to be a whole of in terms of confrontations today in Venezuela. Certainly not like we’d seen earlier this week. But there is a lot of movement in terms of other news.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Elias Jaua said this today on Secretary of State John Kerry:
Mr. Kerry, we denounce you before the world, you are encouraging the violence in Venezuela (…) we denounce you as a murderer of the Venezuelan people
…
Every time we’re on the cusp of isolating and reducing the violent [protesters], Mr. Kerry comes out and talks and immediately guarimbas are set up in the main violence hotspots
Jaua also said that the only thing that has stopped a civil war from taking place so far is the “political conscience and the dedication to peace of the Venezuelan people”.
At a news conference today, Maduro said that “the barricades were carried out to generate hate and overthrow the democratic revolution in the country. What they seek [by putting up] those barricades is foreign intervention.” He continued, “Every message that the U.S. government sends serves as a call to violence that [we] put out each day”.
Here are a couple of other interesting things he’s said during the conference:
- “The Chavistas have not yet fought. Let sleeping dogs lie [dejen quieto a quien quieto esta]”
- “If the Venezuelan government is destabilized, the worst period of economic and political instability in Latin America would come.”
- “This episode will be remembered in Venezuelan history. All those responsible will be punished.”
- “The United States has assumed a leadership role in [the attempt to] overthrow the Venezuelan government.”
- “The protests in Venezuela tried to be an Arab Spring.”
- “Leopoldo Lopez was detained for crimes he committed. He’s been forgotten even by the United States. They don’t even mention him anymore.”
- “We have carried out 1529 arrest and we calculate between 2000 and 3000 people trained by the right”
- “Of the 1529 arrest, 558 are proven to be students.” He later said, “105 are being kept in custody, less than 7% [of the total arrested]”
- “Every case of murder has been a result of guarimba violence.”
Neighbours from the Bolivar Norte Avenue in Valencia said that at around 6:00 AM this morning, they saw around 50 state security personnel enter an apartment building and drag at least 8 occupants out. This appears to be a continuation of the order that Maduro gave two days ago now to start breaking and entering into homes in several areas of Valencia in pursuit of “bandits”.
The inflation rate for February was 2.4%, which puts the total inflation rate for the first two months of the year at 5.8%. The annualized rate currently sits at 57.3%.
I saw two pictures and a video today that show the scarcity situation. Here they are:
This shows a crowd of people lined up at a supermarket in Charallave, Miranda. From last night:
This one, also from yesterday, shows another line up, this time in Maracay:
This is a video, published on March 11. It shows a fight between two people lined up to shop at a Central Madeirense, a supermarket. The man recording says, “For harina pan [flour], for harina pan, look, look… they’re fighting for harina pan!… That’s what happens with these line ups” The fight ends when, for some reason, people begin swarming into the store:
In Venezuela 