Unrest in Venezuela




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  • 2014-04-14 20:36:26
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The spirit of political turmoil keeps reigning in the transitioning countries with questionable democratic advances. As expected, times of economic difficulties and power succession provide the needed background for tensions to escalate into massive clashes between the incumbent government and the opposition. Venezuela is one of the countries following the already well-known pattern – bring together economic instability and shaky grip on power, add a personal story that would trigger popular reaction, and soon a wave of protests against the overall performance of the political actors in power will follow. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="484" caption="Venezuelan Students Protest, source: mashable.com"][/caption] It all started in February with an attempted rape case becoming a pretext for student protests against the high crime levels. The tension grew, some of the demonstrators were arrested and along with the slogans about their release, concerns about the economic hardships of the country were raised (with over 50 per cent, Venezuela is one of the countries with the highest inflation rates in the world). The situation escalated quickly with the government trying to suppress the protests through media and internet restrictions and the number of victims of the clashes reaching 13 for two weeks, which convinced the moderate sections of the opposition to join the efforts. The protests have been continuing with varying intensity for over two months now, compiling more and more demands from the streets, but the main one is still the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro. At the same time, pro-government groups attempt to counteract the demonstrations, intensifying the conflict and contributing to the rise in the number of casualties. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="460" caption="Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, source: www.theguardian.com"][/caption] The government in turn did not hesitate to blame the opposition for staging a coup with the support of the United States and charge opposition leaders with inciting violence. Portraying the protesters as “fascists” that intend to bring havoc, as President Maduro refers to the participants in the demonstrations, is a well-known method of alienating the opposition from the public. Yet, the violence cannot be attributed solely to the protesting masses as both members of the security forces and the opposition fall victim in the clashes. Prognoses about the outcome of the current situation are unfortunately rather pessimistic. BBC quotes the opposition leader Henrique Capriles’s concern regarding the fragmentation of the society towards the protests. In his opinion, if the middle class remains the only driving force of the upheaval, the chances of a positive change are negligible. Indeed, in such a polarized society, the democratic process becomes a serious challenge to all parties. In the last week, some negotiation efforts have been made; however, they were clouded by the death of the 40th casualty of the conflict.No matter what and how long it takes to reconcile the opposing sides in this situation, the near future of Venezuela will pose a lot of challenges, as the examples of the recent upheavals across the globe showed. Contributing author:  Nataliya Micheva