Suffocating Venezuela: Maduro’s Fragile State

Cans of tear gas bounce off of riot shields, from which they came. Soldiers are reinforced by armored vehicles and fire trucks, but the rabble continues on in unmitigated protest. Armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails because – even though they outnumber the soldiers of the Bolivarian Revolution – an edge does not guarantee victory against an unbending militia. A militia under orders to quell the upheaval in the streets of Caracas, led by a despairing populous. The people have been chanting their salvo “no rest” for most of the days following last Sunday’s election, in which President Nicolas Maduro declared a victory for his constitutional assembly. A victory opposition leaders are powerless to oppose and foreign governments, from Washington DC to Vatican City, refuse to recognize.

“We are protesting, because we are in disagreement with the government of Nicolas Maduro. We are experiencing a serious crisis that is suffocating us,” journalist Leonardo Bruzual told Al Jazeera.

For more than a year now, Venezuelans have struggled to find basic human needs. There has been a dearth of biblical proportions, which, according to some reports, has made scavengers of many. Reports of people eating trash and resorting to diseased carrying vermin (pigeons and rats) for food have been widely spread about on social media, but has not been independently verified by the Inquisitr.

After the inauguration of Maduro’s 545 seat “super-assembly,” in which deposing all traces of opposition was the theme, the government’s first order of business was to remove chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega and replace her with a government loyalist.

“Don’t think we’re going to wait weeks, months or years,” said Delcy Rodriguez former foreign minister turned president of the contentious assembly.

“Tomorrow we start to act. The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war, justice is coming for you.”

With the rate of inflation the highest in the world, and a currency better suited for making paper airplanes, Venezuela is already being reprimanded by its neighbors. The South American trading bloc Mercosur has acted to suspend Venezuela from the group, citing its failure to uphold its obligations and a breakdown in the democratic process.

The Venezuelan economy is at its nadir. Its manifold citizenry, much like the petroleum deposits beneath Lake Maracaibo, are feeling just as low, if not completely miserable. Compounded by deprivation and the crackdown on dissent, which has made refugees of many of its citizens. Once the fourth richest country in the world, with a standard of living unmatched by any other on the continent, it has since been relegated to a fragile state. A condition President Maduro blames on capitalist sympathizers, the United States, and internal fascist.

Still, his promise of restoration led by the new constitutional assembly, with plans to rewrite the constitution leaves little at ease, and many fearing life under his dictatorship. Stay with Inquisitr for continuing updates on the turmoil in Venezuela.

Update-

President Maduro is pointing the finger at dissidents in Miami and Colombia, after an attack on a Venezuelan military base in Valencia left two dead, and eight others injured early Sunday morning. According to Al Jazeera, Maduro in an address on state television claimed that 20 men entered the Paramacay base, before dawn and made their way to the base’s weapons supply. Overnight sentries were caught off guard but were able to neutralize the attack, after a four-hour gun battle he said, was “paid for” by foreign based anti-government forces.

This is a developing story. Stay with Inquistr for more.

[Featured Image by John Moore/ Getty Images]