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Published on 12 May 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Around 100 people were allegedly trapped in Venezuela’s embassy in Madrid Thursday by far right protesters.
The protesters have been accused of chanting “Franco, Franco!” while protesting outside an embassy event on violence in Venezuela. A close supporter of Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco ruled Spain as a military dictator for over three decades until his death in 1975. The protesters also carried signs demanding freedom for Venezuela’s jailed right-wing opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez.
However, the protesters themselves have denied the allegations, claiming they were shouting "narco". The protest was in response to an event hosted by the embassy to discuss right-wing violence in Venezuela. The event included representatives from the NGO Victims of Guarimba, a group that provides support to Venezuelans injured by guarimbas. “Guarimba” is a term used in Venezuela to refer to violent right-wing protests and roadblocks. More than 40 people died in 2014, when the guarimbas took over the streets of Venezuela as part of a campaign to force President Nicolas Maduro from office. The guarimbas struck again last month, when they began another campaign of political violence, which has so far left 44 people dead.
According to forum attendee and coordinator of the left-wing party Izquierda Unida, Daniel Moreno, the protesters were aggressive and threatening.
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Published 3 May 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Caracas, May 3, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Four people were killed and over a dozen wounded Tuesday as a result of the Venezuelan opposition’s “National Barricade” that saw anti-government demonstrators block roads throughout the country.
Organized by the right-wing opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), the national day of action was a response to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s announcement Monday convening a constituent assembly to redraft the country’s constitution.
The move has been denounced as a “fraud” and a “coup” by MUD spokespeople despite the proposal being previously endorsed by top opposition leaders, including Freddy Guevara, Leopoldo Lopez, and Maria Corina Machado.
In spite of the MUD’s calls for “civil disobedience”, Tuesday’s mobilizations once again gave way to deadly violence.
Two people were killed and 10 wounded in a bus accident in Carabobo state Tuesday evening when the vehicle flipped over “trying to avoid barricades,” confirmedNational Civil Protection Director Jorge Galindo.
One of the victims has been identified as Ana Rodriguez (42), though the other person killed remains unidentified.
The accident occurred when the bus swerved to avoid an anti-government barricade. (@AndrewsAbreu and @CristopherB)
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Published 28 April 2017 by revolutionarycommunist.org
Opposition violence wreaks death and destruction in renewed coup attempt
Venezuela’s bourgeois opposition has once again taken to the streets in violent scenes of chaos and destruction with the aim of toppling President Maduro and the United Socialist Party (PSUV) government. Since 4 April several of its marches have ended with gangs of right-wing thugs setting up burning barricades and attacking public housing projects, hospitals, schools, health centres, transport systems and government offices. To date at least 31 people have been killed. The imperialist media and privately-owned Venezuelan press dishonestly portray these masked groups as ‘pro-democracy’ protesters facing down repression from the government; inevitably, they completely censor the mass mobilisations by working class supporters of the Bolivarian government. These lies, disseminated across the globe, are designed to provide the ideological framework for what is in reality a coordinated attempt at a right-wing coup.
The protests began after Venezuela’s Supreme Court temporarily assumed the functions of the country’s legislative body, the National Assembly, which is controlled by opposition forces. It had found the National Assembly in contempt of court for allowing three opposition politicians who have been suspended while they are investigated on charges of electoral fraud, to take their seats (see ‘The Venezuelan Supreme Court and the MUD Coalition’s persistent rejection of legality’). The move by the Supreme Court, although completely constitutional, was controversial and was rescinded within days at the request of President Maduro. However, the right-wing ‘Democratic Unity Movement’ (MUD) coalition seized its chance, accusing the court and the government of an attack on democracy. Just days before the Supreme Court decision, opposition leader Henrique Capriles, a viciously reactionary two-time presidential candidate and current governor of Miranda state, was banned from holding political office for 15 years for breaking contracting laws and improperly managing fundraising donations. This was the ammunition needed for the opposition to instigate violent street protests, demanding foreign intervention to force a change of government.
A history of opposition sabotage, coups and violence
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Published on 25 April 2017 venezuelanalysis
Caracas, April 25, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Four people were killed across Venezuela Monday in the latest round of violent anti-government protests convened by the opposition.
Protesters took to the streets to block roads and highways throughout the South American country in a “great national sit-in” organized by the right-wing opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
According to National Assembly Vice-President and hard-right Popular Will party leader Freddy Guevara, the goals of the mobilization were to “unmask the true face of the dictatorship” and “create ungovernability”. The opposition coalition called on its supporters to take to the streets indefinitely at the beginning of April in a bid to force early presidential elections among other demands.
While turnout was significantly smaller than previous mobilizations last week, the day was punctuated by deadly violence.
Two dead, three wounded by sniper fire in Merida
According to National Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, two Merida state government workers were killed and three more wounded when a pro-government rally reportedly came under sniper fire from a nearby apartment complex in the southwestern Andean state.
Jesus Leonardo Sulbaran, 42, was shot in the head and died Monday afternoon, while Luis Alberto Marquez died of a gunshot wound to the occipital lobe at 1:30am Tuesday morning. Merida public transit worker and University of Los Andes student Daniel Infante was also shot in the head during the rally and is currently in critical condition.
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Published on 27 April 2017 on Granma
We have once again witnessed another infamous and immoral decision by the discredited OAS, against the Bolivarian Revolution; a repetition of the shameful pages written against the Cuban Revolution in the 1960s.
The calling of a Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, to continue harassing the Venezuelan government, constitutes another action consistent with the OAS’ traditional role as an instrument of imperialist domination in the hemisphere; in order to undermine the sovereignty, independence and dignity of Our America.
The OAS has always remained with its back to the peoples of America, over an almost 70 year history of subordination to oligarchic and imperialist interests. It has been absent when our region has been the victim of political, economic and military intervention and aggression, or serious democracy and human rights violations.
It is now time to recognize that the OAS is incompatible with the most pressing needs of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is incapable of representing their values and interests. It imposed a doctrine of false democracy, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans and Caribbeans and the impoverishment and exclusion of millions. The OAS chooses to attack and impose, rather than reconcile or dialogue; and disregards the right of states to equality and self-determination. It conspires and subverts genuine and legitimately constituted governments with proven popular support, and deserves the most profound repudiation.
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Published 23 April 2017 venezuelanalysis.com
Venezuela is in flames. Or at least parts of it is. Since April 4th, opposition militants have been carrying out targeted acts of violence, vandalism and arson, as well as deliberately clashing with security forces in an attempt to plunge the country into total chaos and forcefully remove the elected socialist government. It is the continuation of an 18 year effort to topple the Bolivarian revolution by any means necessary — although you may have seen it miraculously recast in the mainstream media as “promoting a return to democracy” in the country.
A catalogue of the violence over the last 18 days is shocking – schools have been ransacked, a Supreme Court building has been torched, an air force base attacked, while public transport, health and veterinary facilities have been destroyed. At least 23 people have been left dead, with many more injured. In one of the most shocking cases of right-wing violence, at around 10pm on April 20th, women, children and over 50 newborn babies had to be evacuated by the government from a public maternity hospital which came under attack from opposition gangs.
Anywhere else in the western world, this would have given way to horrified international and national calls for an end to the violence, and for the swift prosecution of those responsible – making it all the more scandalous that these incidents have at best been ignored, and at worst totally misrepresented by the international press. Instead, those tasked with providing the public with unbiased reporting on international affairs have opted to uncritically parrot the Venezuelan opposition’s claims that the elected government is violently repressing peaceful protests, and holding it responsible for all deaths in connection with the demonstrations so far.
This narrative cannot be described as even a remotely accurate interpretation of the facts, and so it is important to set the record straight.
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Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez announced on her Twitter account that "armed gangs hired by the opposition attacked a maternal and children's hospital with 54 children (inside)."
She also said that President Nicolas Maduro ordered the evacuation of the hospital, adding, "We will defeat the coup attempt."
The Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias Maternal and Children's Hospital is located in the El Valle neighborhood ofCaracas. Rodriguez also blamed right-wing governments for helping incite the violence.
"The small group of governments that have expressed their public support for the Venezuelan opposition has encouraged this vandalism and extreme violence," she said.
Those working in the hospital said that the attack started at around 9. p.m. Thursday and lasted for close to three hours.
"We were attacked by violent groups that showered us with stones and sharp objects (and) then burned a large amount of garbage from the hospital – the smoke penetrated inside the premises," said hospital manager Dr. Rosalinda Prieto, adding that there were newborn babies in the emergency area.
Patients were seen being evacuated in ambulanceswhere, according to the local fire department, 28 newborn babies were transferred to another hospital in the capital. Six babies had to be stabilized before they were transferred.
Jorge Rodriguez, mayor of Caracas, said in a Twitter post, "As a human being and as a doctor I denounce the terrorist attack on the maternal and child hospital of El Valle. Fifty-four children had to be evacuated."
Several violent incidents occurred in the El Valle neighborhood today as right-wing opposition protests continued, according to RT.
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As deadly weather continues to plague Peru, the latest reported death toll in the country puts the number killed by deadly floods at 113
According to a report released Tuesday by the National Emergency Operations Center, 178,701 people have been affected, and at least 237,906 homes have been damaged.
Rainfall has also destroyed 2,542 kilometers of roads and thousands of hectares of crops. Farmers are asking for government assistance to help recover from the devastation.
President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski estimated last week that Peru would need up to US$9 billion to rebuild and modernize areas that have been affected by natural disasters.
leading in the way of international solidarity efforts is Cuba, who has sent its Henry Reeve Medical Brigade, which specializes in disasters and epidemics. The group includes 11 doctors, 10 health care professionals, an administrator, and a lead doctor, who in just a few short weeks have seen more than 6,000 affected people.
According to experts, the warming of the waters of the Pacific Ocean in northern Peru has led to a phenomenon called "El Niño Costero," with has led to the heavy rains, landslides and floods.
Those hardest hit have been the poor, most notably Peruvians who built their homes on cheap land near the river, which runs from Peru's central Andes to the Pacific coast.