Barquisimeto has been the site of some confrontations between demonstrators and the National Guard in the last 48 hours or so. Here is a picture of a National Guard truck partially on fire in the city tonight:
Last night, the neighbourhood of Rio Lama in Barquisimeto came under attack, allegedly by a colectivo armado. The attack is reminiscent of several others that have taken place since the start of the protests, most recently in Palaima, Maracaibo.
The attack started sometime shortly past midnight. Here are some pictures from this morning:
Details on the event are scarce at this time.
The most concrete thing to come out of the talks last night between the government and the opposition last night appear to be an agreement to give Ivan Simonovis (a political prisoner) a medical exam. Elenis Rodriguez, a Venezuelan lawyer specializing in human rights, called the decision “a joke”, and said:
Why accept new tests for the commissioner [Simonovis]? The parties forgot that on July 2013, Simonovis almost died of acute peritonitis (…) Enough with all these jokes! The government is responsible for the deteriorating health of the commissioner.
The government also rejected the opposition’s proposed amnesty law. Ramon Aveledo, the secretary of the opposition, said:
The amnesty law has not been accepted so far. We are going to look for other ways to approach these themes, which are for us and for the entire country, very important.
This graffiti, allegedly written on the wall of a market in Barquisimeto, reads, “Chavista brother! Maduro wants us to be poor!”:
Finally, a political cartoon I saw today. The text reads: “Almost nothing is worse than a president who feels that half the country is his enemy”:
Commentary
I normally tend to be careful with my words, but I think that calling the agreement to give Ivan Simonovis a medical exam “a joke” is pretty accurate. Simonovis is an inmate at a correctional facility. He is under the custody of the state. As such, the government is responsible for providing the necessities of life for as long as he is their prisoner. Agreeing to do something you’re already supposed to be doing is ridiculous. This situation is as strange as if, for example, the government agreed to feed Simonovis three times a day, or to make sure he has access to a bathroom. These are things that are already supposed to be happening.
In Venezuela 