Internal Splits, immolations, and burning houses: Venezuela gets worse

Internal Splits, immolations, and burning houses: Venezuela gets worse
By Emily Tamkin
7:33 AM Wednesday May 24, 2017

The crisis in Venezuela, which was already awful, is somehow getting
worse, with protests against the Government of President Nicolás Maduro
now entering their eighth week and a death toll of at least 49.

A man on the street - some witnesses identified him as a thief; the
government said he was a Maduro supporter - was set on fire.

Protesters apparently tired of demolishing statutes of former Venezuelan
strongman Hugo Chávez torched his mother's home.

And while most of the pushback has come from the unrelenting public
protests that were triggered by the government's efforts in March to
usurp the National Assembly, they're not the only ones questioning the
Government.

The state prosecutor broke ranks with her fellow Bolivarian socialist
over his plans to establish a hand-picked assembly to rewrite the
constitution, a last-ditch bid to stay in power even as the political
and economic crisis spirals out of control.

Luisa Ortega first shocked the country in March by criticising the
Supreme Court's decision to assume the functions of the National
Assembly, widely seen as the last stronghold of the opposition. The
decision was mostly reversed shortly thereafter - but that did not put
the genie back in the bottle, and thousands of Venezuelans have been
protesting Maduro's government since.

In many ways, Venezuela resembles a war zone.

Heavy vehicles from the National Guard owned the streets of Caracas over
the weekend. News outlets and some social media report that the Maduro
Government is using snipers to attack protesters.

And as if the combustible mix weren't enough, there is reason to fear
what could happen if the whole shaky edifice collapses: Reuters reported
that Venezuela has "5000 Russian-made MANPADS surface-to-air weapons".

The Government has used threat of "imperialist" US invasion to justify
the stockpile, the largest in Latin America. The Stinger-like weapons
could pose a huge threat if they are "liberated" from government
arsenals in the current unrest.

Ortega herself may not have taken to the streets, but she did write a
letter to decry the "constituent assembly" Maduro is cobbling together
in order to rewrite the constitution, delaying elections called for by
the Venezuelan opposition and broader international community in the
process.

Elias Jaua, a Socialist Party official, confirmed Ortega had indeed
written to him. Her letter, which was previously leaked on social media,
read, "Instead of bringing stability or generating a climate of peace, I
think this will accelerate the crisis". It is a sign that even the core
of Maduro's acolytes are having second thoughts about his dismantling of
what was once Latin America's most vibrant democracy.

Yesterday, doctors took to the streets of Caracas, marching on the
Health Ministry. The health minister was fired last week after reports
that maternal mortality rates increased 66 per cent in 2016 were
released. They carried signs reading, "Don't get sick, there's no
medicine". Like food, medical supplies are in such short supply in the
oil-rich nation that patients are meant to scrounge up their own pills
and bandages.

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