March 17: “The protests are not the problem”

It looks like Maduro made good on his promise to “liberate” Altamira. I posted a couple of pictures of heavy National Guard presence in that area starting yesterday evening, and this morning it was reported by the mayor of the Chacao municipality – in which Altamira is located – that more than 1000 security forces members are currently in that municipality.

The mayor of Chacao, Ramon Muchacho, said that “The operation involves members of the National Guard, National Bolivarian Police, the People’s Guard and the CICPC, and it is an [operation to] safeguard the citizenry”, but stressed that, “The protests are not the problem, they are a consequence. Militarization does not solve the crisis nor the discontent.”

Here is a video of an arrested demonstrator getting beaten with helmets by two National Guard soldiers during the course of his arrest. The video is allegedly from Altamira, and was taken yesterday:

The militarization of Chacao comes as Maduro warned as early as yesterday that he would take drastic actions to “liberate” the spaces occupied by demonstrators. Aside from doing so by placing more security forces on the ground, the Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (the Supreme Court) today ordered the mayors of Chacao, Maracaibo, San Cristobal and Lecheria to take “all actions and apply all resources at their disposal to prevent public roads from being blocked by objects placed to impede, harm of alter free transit.”  This two-pronged attack on the guarimbas is the most decisive action the government has taken to curb their use by demonstrators since the protests began more than a month ago.

However, a peaceful demonstration still took place in Altamira this afternoon, and as of the writing of this update, no major confrontations have taken place between demonstrators and security forces. It will be interesting to see if, in the coming days, the government accepts peaceful protests – that is, protests that do not employ barricades at all – or if it will decide to crack down on such demonstrations as well.

Here are some pictures from Altamira and Chacao from this evening:

Air Canada suspended all flights to Caracas today “due to the civil disturbances that continue to trouble Venezuela”, and that as a result, “Air Canada can no longer guarantee the safety of its operations.” This might spell troubling news for Air Canada later down the road when it decides to resume its service to Caracas, since Maduro said earlier this week that “… airlines that [reduce] service I will take severe measures [against], airline that leaves the country will not be allowed to return while we are [in power].”