Venezuela said it was sending 2,000
soldiers on Wednesday to a border state that is a hotspot of
anti-government radicalism after looting that killed a 15-year-old in
the latest unrest roiling the nation.
Most
shops and businesses in San Cristobal, capital of Tachira state on the
Colombian border, were closed and guarded by soldiers on Wednesday,
though looting continued in some poorer sectors, residents said.
People made off with items including
coffee, diapers, and cooking oil in the OPEC nation where a brutal
economic crisis has made basic foods and medicine disappear from
shelves.
Barricades of trash, car
tires, and sand littered the streets, as daily life broke down in the
city that was also a hotspot during the 2014 wave of unrest against
leftist President Nicolas Maduro.
Hundreds
of thousands of people have come onto the streets across Venezuela
since early April to demand elections, freedom for jailed activists,
foreign aid and autonomy for the opposition-led legislature.
Maduro’s
government accuses them of seeking a violent coup and says many of the
protesters are no more than “terrorists.” State oil company PDVSA also
blamed roadblocks for pockets of gasoline shortages in the country on
Wednesday.
In Tachira, teenager Jose Francisco Guerrero was shot dead during the spate of looting, his relatives said.
“My
mom sent my brother yesterday to buy flour for dinner and a little
while later, we received a call saying he’d been injured by a bullet,”
said his sister Maria Contreras, waiting for his body to be brought to a
San Cristobal morgue.
The state
prosecutor’s office confirmed his death, which pushed the death toll in
six weeks of unrest to at least 43, equal to that of the 2014 protests.
’21ST CENTURY JEWS’
With
international pressure against Venezuela’s government mounting, the
United Nations Security Council turned its attention to the country’s
crisis for the first time on Wednesday.
“The
intent of this briefing was to make sure everyone is aware of the
situation ... we’re not looking for Security Council action,” U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters after the
session.
“The international community
needs to say, ‘Respect the human rights of your people or this is going
to go in the direction we’ve seen so many others go’ ... We have been
down this road with Syria, with North Korea, with South Sudan, with
Burundi, with Burma.”
Venezuela’s UN envoy Rafael Ramirez in turn accused the United States of seeking to topple the Maduro government.
“The
U.S. meddling stimulates the action of violent groups in Venezuela,” he
said, showing photos of vandalism and violence he said was caused by
opposition supporters.
Venezuelans
living abroad, many of whom fled the country’s economic chaos, have in
recent weeks accosted visiting state officials and their family members.
Maduro on Tuesday likened that harassment to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust under the Nazis.
“We
are the new Jews of the 21st century that Hitler pursued,” Maduro said
during the cabinet meeting. “We don’t carry the yellow star of David ...
we carry red hearts that are filled with desire to fight for human
dignity. And we are going to defeat them, these 21st century Nazis.”
Venezuela’s
main Jewish group, the Confederation of Israeli Associations in
Venezuela, responded with a statement expressing its “absolute
rejection” of “banal” comparisons with the Holocaust that killed six
million Jews.
Social media has for
weeks buzzed with videos of Venezuelan emigres in countries from
Australia to the United States shouting insults at public officials and
in some cases family members in public places.
Maduro’s
critics say it is outrageous for officials to spend money on foreign
travel when people are struggling to obtain food and children are dying
for lack of basic medicines.
But some opposition sympathizers say such mob-like harassment is the wrong way to confront the government.
As
night fell on Wednesday, thousands of opposition supporters poured onto
the streets of different cities for rallies and vigils in honor of the
fatalities during protests.
Many carried flags and candles.
“We’ve
been in the street for more than 40 days because this government has
broken every law, every human right, and we cannot bear it anymore,”
said one demonstrator, Eugenia, who asked that her last name not be
used.
“This rally is important because
we have to retake the streets, we have been scared for too long,” she
added, referring to the rampant violent crime that normally stops people
from going out after dark.
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