Venezuela's 'brutal repression'

Photo: Trevor Rockliffe

People gather in Vancouver Wednesday night to bring awareness to the issues in Venezuela. 

Venezuelan opposition leaders condemned the government Thursday for its heavy-handed attempt to subdue a protest movement with nighttime sweeps that have turned many parts of the country into dangerous free-fire zones.

Police, National Guard troops and members of private militias have swarmed through streets in the capital and elsewhere firing volleys, at times indiscriminately, in repeated spasms of nighttime violence in recent days.

Henrique Capriles, the two-time presidential candidate of an opposition coalition, said the government has engaged in "brutal repression" as it goes after students and other protesters, in some cases breaking into apartment buildings to arrest those it accuses of taking part in a an attempted coup.

"What does the government want, a civil war?" Capriles asked at a news conference.

David Smolansky, an opposition mayor of a district in Caracas, said the country is passing through the harshest wave of political persecution in decades with the response to the protests and the jailing of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. "If this isn't a totalitarian system then I don't know what can explain what is happening in this country," Smolansky said.

A week of protests, beginning with a mass opposition rally on Feb. 12, has resulted in at least six deaths and more than 100 injuries.

While several large demonstrations by thousands of people have been peaceful, smaller groups of protesters have lobbed gas bombs and rocks and blocked streets with flaming barricades of trash. Troops and police have responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and blasts from water cannons — as well as raids by gun-firing men on motorcycle.

Jose Leon, a 20-year-old business student who took part in a demonstration in the Altamira neighbourhood of Caracas on Wednesday night, said authorities who roughly detained students and fired tear gas over-reacted to a peaceful protest.

"We've spent years trying for peaceful dialogue. How can you talk with a government that hunts down its own citizens like criminals?" Leon said as he took part in a small protest on Thursday in the same spot.

The clashes with authorities as well as the pursuit of anti-government activists by troops and militias take place in darkness. During the day, the capital has largely operated as normal, with businesses and schools open and people going about their business, while stocking up on groceries in case of further unrest.

President Nicolas Maduro and his supporters say the escalating protests against his socialist government in the oil-rich but economically struggling country are part of an attempted coup sponsored by right-wing and "fascist" opponents in Venezuela and abroad, particularly the United States.