CARACAS: Venezuelans erected barricades with garbage and even bathtubs on Monday and snarled traffic with mass “sit-ins” along major thoroughfares to press their demand for early elections as anti-government protests entered a fourth week.
Ten people have been killed during near daily clashes this month between security forces armed with rubber bullets and tear gas and protesters sometimes throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.
At least 10 people have also died during night-time looting.
President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government accuses foes of seeking a violent coup with US connivance, while the opposition says he is a dictator repressing peaceful protest.
The opposition’s main demands are for elections, the release of jailed activists and autonomy for the opposition-led congress. But protests are also fueled by the crippling economic crisis in the oil-rich South American nation of 30 million people. “I have an empty stomach because I can’t find food,” said Jeannette Canozo, a 66-year-old homemaker, who said police used rubber bullets against protesters blocking a Caracas avenue with trash and bathtubs in the early morning.
Demonstrators wore the yellow, blue and red colors of Venezuela’s flag, held signs denouncing shortages, inflation and violent crime, and chanted: “This government has fallen!”
In the capital, they were seeking to converge from several points to a major highway, where by late morning several hundred people sat, carrying bags of supplies, playing card games, and shielding themselves from the sun with hats and umbrellas.
In western Tachira, at another of the “sit-ins” planned for all of Venezuela’s 23 states, some played the board-game Ludo in the street, while others stood around them holding flags. — Reuters
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