Venezuela: Chavismo strengthened repression and Guaidó announced a general strike

The military, police and paramilitaries have cracked down on Wednesday with harshness unseen for several months anti-Chavez demonstrations throughout Venezuela, in the aftermath of the frustrated civil military uprising against President Nicolás Maduro, to the point of condemning the government. UN and the group. contact person led by the European Union (EU).

Meanwhile, the parliament appointed acting president, Juan Guaidó, warned that Maduro's displacement goals "did not deflate" after the failed uprising and called again for a strike by state employees "heading towards the general strike".

Members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB, military police) and the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) fired tear gas and rubber bullets at most anti-Chavez sympathizers to avoid scheduled marches, informed the Venezuelan and foreign press.

The marches, however, took place, and in their course there were many clashes, in which we also saw hooded stones and Molotov badtails in uniforms.

The EFE news agency reported 15 injured, while until that day, no reports had been published by NGOs who routinely calculate victims and detainees during protests in the streets.

The press was relieved, even with videos and photographs, of riots at the La Carlota military airbase – where protesters crossed the perimeter barrier with a vehicle – and at least four other areas of Caracas, as well as the In Barquisimeto and Guayana, in the states of Lara and Bolívar, respectively, among others.

The anti-Chavez demonstration had been convened by Guaidó before the outbreak of the uprising against Maduro yesterday, with the aim of continuing to press for what the anti-Chavis called "the cessation of the usurpation".

The officer in charge was presented in the capital, where he repeated in front of the protesters that he would not stop "fighting", he badured that the statements that he embodied " did not deflate "after the frustrated uprising and called again a strike of state employees" at the general strike. "

"If the regime believed that we had reached the maximum pressure, they were wrong, we will continue on the streets until Venezuela gets freedom," Guaidó warned, and again asked members of the armed forces to "go out and demonstrate together".

Response to the repression

The repression of the anti-Chavez demonstrations, of hardness never seen this year, provoked the reaction of several international organizations.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he was "extremely concerned by reports of excessive use of force by security forces against protesters in Venezuela. ", in a statement signed by her spokeswoman, María Hurtado, and disclosed in Geneva.

At the same time, the contact group chaired by the EU and composed of eight European countries and four Latin American countries called in his statements to a "maximum confinement of the security forces so that the people Venezuelan no longer suffer any damage ".

Meanwhile, the United States and Russia have come face to face with the situation of Venezuela, in their respective versions of a telephone conversation held today by their foreign ministers, Mike Pompeo and Sergey Lavrov.

Pompeo "stressed that the intervention of Russia and Cuba destabilized Venezuela and the bilateral relations between the United States and Russia," said State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus.

At the same time, Lavrov warned that "the continuation of aggressive measures would have the most serious consequences" and stressed that "only the Venezuelan people have the right to decide their fate, for which a dialogue between all the political forces of the country is necessary, "said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.