Protests in Venezuela
Protests in Venezuela are rapidly increasing since the death of Hugo Chavez over a year ago.
The protests in Venezuela that are now sweeping the country, are really an outrage over the problems that have been crippling the country for many many years.
President Nicolas Maduro is using military force to stop the protests in Venezuela as well as sending fighter jets to fly very low over the city of Caracas.
Nicolas Maduro’s style of leadership is very different from that of the late Hugo Chavez, who governed the country with tremendous charisma and who quite successfully, managed to woo the working class people, and sweep the economic problems under the rug.
Now after the death of Chavez, Maduro is left to carry on, and it seems that the middle class is very fed up with the chronic shortages of daily basic goods such as milk and toliet paper.
Maduro claims that the protesters are fascists conducting a coup against the government, and he seems unwilling to acknowledge what in reality are very legitimate complaints. These shortages are acute, and reflect a very deeply troubled economy, as well as a gradual eroding of the country’s infastructure. Even during Chavez’s reign, there was a tremendous shortage of electricity, and Chavez did nothing to invest in the infrastructure of the country’s oil production.
Maduro still seems to be supported by Chavez’s group, but it also seems that the people want some changes. Bringing in the military to squelch the protests and flying fighter jets over Caracas certainly shows the presence and the force of the military, but apparently this
show of force is not deterring the protesters.
