Venezuela protests heat up amid opposition rift

Posted on Thursday, 05.15.14

Venezuela protests heat up amid opposition rift
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan security forces arrested scores of
people during a sweep of a busy Caracas avenue as protests against the
government heated up amid a widening split within the opposition over
whether to back possible U.S. sanctions.

The student-led protest Wednesday came a day after the opposition froze
talks with President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government, saying
dialogue was impossible after the arrest last week of more than 200
student protesters who had been camping for weeks outside the United
Nations offices and three plazas in the capital.

Many political observers believe that by halting the talks, moderate
opposition leaders were caving to pressure from their own radical base,
which is fuming following the mass arrests and confusing statements
about sanctions by the top U.S. diplomat to Latin America.

Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affair, testified last week in the Senate that some members of
Venezuela's opposition are urging the White House to keep on ice a
proposal to ban visas and seize the assets of Venezuelan officials
who've committed human rights abuses during the past three months of
unrest. Legislation to that end last week cleared a House committee with
bipartisan support.

In a fiery exchange with Florida Republican Marco Rubio, Jacobson said
the restraint is needed so as not to endanger the outcome of the talks
and that opposition politicians at the negotiating table had explicitly
asked the State Department for more time before imposing any sanctions.

On Wednesday, Jacobson retracted her comment, telling reporters in
Washington that she misspoke and that nobody participating in the
dialogue had made such a request.

But her comments became a political hot potato for the opposition, with
Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, the mild-spoken head of the Democratic Unity
alliance, denying any such plea was made. Meanwhile, students and
hardliners boycotting the talks seized on Jacobson's comments, and
Aveledo's failure to call for sanctions, as proof of betrayal.

Divisions within the opposition had been apparent for some time, with
moderates objecting to the timing of street protests in February just
two months after the government prevailed in mayoral elections.

Key to the strategy of hard-line groups looking to force Maduro's
resignation is rallying international opinion against his government.
But in contrast to the U.S., condemnation has been slow to materialize
among governments in Latin America. Moderate leaders supported talks
with the government.

"There's a clear division in the opposition about whether you play the
game of politics or seek international intervention," David Smilde, an
analyst for the Washington Office on Latin America, said in an interview
from Caracas.

Some members of the opposition acknowledge that sanctions would be
counterproductive, possibly setting up the Obama administration to be
blamed for Venezuela's economic troubles much as the U.S.'s half-century
embargo against Cuba is used to bolster support for that country's
communist government.

Even before Tuesday's suspension, the crisis talks had seemed to be
faltering.

Progress on a range of issues, from loosening the state's grip on the
economy to filling of positions on the national electoral council, had
been almost non-existent.

Against opposition calls for a nonpartisan truth commission to
investigate the 41 deaths on both sides, the government recently said it
was going ahead with its own probe headed by National Assembly President
Diosdado Cabello, a Maduro ally. Another government negotiator on Monday
dismissed an opposition proposal of an amnesty for jailed activists as
as a "fantasy."

Meanwhile the crackdown continued.

On Wednesday, National Guardsmen fired tear gas and rubber bullets to
break up a protest of a few dozen students. Office workers scrambled for
cover and high school students were among those slapped with plastic
handcuffs and hauled away. There were no reports of major injuries.

Such aggressive tactics are likely to further enrage Maduro's opponents.

Amid the tensions, foreign ministers of Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador
were traveling to Caracas on Thursday in attempt to restart the talks.

AP writers Luis Alonso Lugo contributed to this report from Washington
and Jorge Rueda from Caracas.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/15/4117925/venezuela-protests-heat-up-amid.html#storylink=misearch