Caracas – Several protests took place on Tuesday night in different cities of Venezuela against the measures taken by the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro, which is causing the country to experience daily blackouts aimed to survive the energy crisis.
Residents nationwide took the street and showed their discontent over the government and all their attempts to solve the problems, some of which experts said were insufficient to actually reduce electricity consumption. Protesters set up flaming barricades and assaulted some stores for food and basic supplies, as reported by the Washington Post.
Police made an appearance in the second most important city of Venezuela, Maracaibo, after the night of riots. About 1,000 thousand military officials were on Wednesday morning trying to keep the streets under control.
But after the dark protests, more than 100 people were arrested just in Maracaibo according to local governor Francisco Arias, who is known to be on Maduro’s side. As Venezuela holds the title of the most dangerous country in the world, makes sense to believe crimes could rise as discontent and blackouts continue.
One of the measures taken by Maduro were the 5-day-weekend for public employees that was excused as a solution for diminishing electricity consumption in the country and was announced in less than a month of giving the employees the Fridays off.
In addition of the daily 4-hour-blackouts nationwide, the government as well decided to give public schools the Fridays off due to the same reason. Children had about 200 mandatory school days that were reduced to 150 this week. These measures are temporary, the government said, but with the uncertainty that the country is living none of the Venezuelans are sure for how long is “temporary”.
Some cities often experience more than the 4-hour-announced blackouts and they have complained that while all the nation is experiencing the dark, Caracas and some of its nearest towns do not face it.
“The crazy right wing does not understand that in hard times, a family has to band together,” commented venezuelan president while addressing the night of protests. “They are trying to create a violent situation,” he added.
A light of hope
As the protests were rising in others states, in Caracas took place the beginning of a possible way out for Maduro administration. The electoral center delivered the papers to start gathering signs from Venezuelans to ask for a presidential election.
This time, thousands of people made lines across the country for more than buying food. The lines in different parts of the country were to support the petition for beginning the process of recalling the three-year president.
Source: The Washington Post