Venezuela protests: Large anti-Maduro march held in Caracas, 9/1/16, BBC
Hundreds of thousands of people have
marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to protest against President
Nicolas Maduro. The Caracas rally was
peaceful but ended with minor clashes. Opposition supporters, staging their
largest rally for two years, called for Mr. Maduro's removal. They blame him
for Venezuela's economic crisis and accuse the electoral commission of delaying
a referendum that could shorten his stay in power.
Mr. Maduro's supporters also rallied in large numbers. He accuses the opposition of trying to stage a coup.
The opposition said close to a million people turned out for
their march that authorities dubbed the "Takeover of Caracas", but
the government disputed the figures.
"We have shown to the world the importance of Venezuela and
how much it wants change," said opposition politician Jesus Torrealba. Dressed
predominantly in white, they chanted "we are going to bring down
Maduro".
Protesters said they had enough of the policies of the governing
United Socialist Party of Venezuela. "We are going to defeat hunger,
crime, inflation and corruption. They've done nothing in 17 years. Their time
is finished," Naty Gutierrez told Reuters news agency.
A small group of protesters clashed with riot police as the
peaceful rally ended "The nation has triumphed. They wanted to intimidate
the people but the people are here," said Mr. Maduro at a rally in central
Caracas he said was attended by 30,000 people. "We have defeated an
attempted coup that tried to fill Venezuela and Caracas with violence,
death," he said. In the run-up to the march, a number of opposition
politicians were detained.
Last week, Daniel Ceballos of the opposition Popular Will party
was returned to prison after having spent a year under house arrest awaiting
trial on charges of rebellion. The Interior Ministry said he was planning on escaping from house arrest to carry out acts of violence during
Thursday's rally.
Mr Ceballos was one of the politicians arrested in 2014 over
violent anti-government protests that swept through Venezuela at the time. Forty-three
people on both sides of the political divide where killed during those
protests.
Popular Will party activists Carlos Melo and Yon Goicoechea have
also been arrested over the past few days, the first suspected of carrying a
"detonator cord" and the latter of carrying explosives.
Voters must collect 1% of the voters in 24 provinces to secure
200,000 voter signatures on a petition. Voters are given 3 days to collect a
second petition of 20% of voters and secure 4 million signatures. The government then holds a referendum to
remove the President and this requires about 7.6 million votes to remove.
The opposition hopes the march will pressure the electoral
authorities into allowing them to launch the second petition needed to trigger
the recall referendum as soon as possible. Timing is key as the date when the referendum is held will determine
what happens next.
If a referendum should go against the president before 10
January, new elections will be held, which the opposition hopes to win. But if
it is held after that date and Mr Maduro is recalled, his loyal vice-president
will serve out the end of his term until 2019.
Related
Venezuela opposition leader Daniel
Ceballos sent to prison again
28 August 2016
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37243191
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