A night of mayhem. Burning Barricades in El Paraiso, in Montalban, in Quinta Crespo. Cacerolazos in Mariperez. A proper riot in La Vega. This is all deep in Caracas’s West Side. These are not the kinds of places where you expect these things to happen.

Further afield too. National Guard Armored Personnel Carriers on the streets of Guarenas following another there. Also Petare. Of course Petare.

Four wounded in midnight protests in Barquisimeto and Cabudare. A PSUV party seat burned down in Merida. Burning barricades in Guacara. In Los Teques. 

And then that video. From San Felix. Like Villa Rosa, just more so.

That guttural “¡Malditooo!” That moment that crystallizes everything.

And then that feeling. Evanescent, but impossible to miss. This isn’t normal. Even for us, this isn’t normal.

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28 COMMENTS

  1. And it’s all happening in Semana Santa! instead of heading to the beach people are protesting. That’s what’s telling me something is different.

  6. These ‘violent protests’ seem to be too soft, given the horrid situation those people are living in. And let’s not forget that when medicine and food are intentionally removed from one family, that’s an act of violence too. Go, Venezuela, you have nothing to lose but your socialist chains!

  8. There is a certain feeling of poetic justice in that video of Maduro being egged in San Felix. I can’t recall anything similar happening before…EVER. If this was a sensible man he would simply know that the best would approach to the situation would be to quit and call elections right away for the sake of the country. Unfortunately, we are speaking about a senseless regime that will not release their power unless forced to. I am curious about how the regime will spin this situation in San Felix…how can they possible explain such raw rejection and emotion?

    • Maduro a puppet, the court Jester for the masses, the people around him are the ones in charge, Even if he deeps down wants to leave and enjoy an exile he cant. he is kinda of a tropical version of Yahya Jammeh.

  10. Refreshing to see a crappy communist government being overthrown. Hope this will spread to Cuba next.
    As Camus wrote “Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic. To govern means to pillage, as everyone knows.”

  11. Rocio San Miguel was on CNN’s Conclusiones last night and explained the situation of the FANB and how it is deformed from a traditional pyramid to an hour glass organization. Venezuela has a world record number of generals (I don’t remember the exact number but it was between 500 to 1500).

    Generals know the fakes they are, but the privileges they are getting are unimaginable and unrepeatable without Maduro hence they owe canine fidelity to him.

    In the middle of the hour glass you have the professional troops which are tested to be apparatchik, any dissent is not tolerated.

    Finally you come to the bottom of the pyramid which are mostly recruits with no more than 2 years of service and poorly trained. Of course such youth and inexperience can exact reckless violence on their own people.

    So indeed the Venezuela military is an occupying force of their own country, a state sponsored gangster force and the true enemy.

    If things continue as they are they will need to use live rounds on the protesters and I think such criminals will just do it.

    • yes, I read that in Venezuela there is one general for every 28 soldiers.

      In the US, for example, there is one general for every 600 soldiers.

      • In the US, it’s closer to one general or admiral per 2000 active service persons…and one per over 4000, including guard, reserve, and civilian employees and they are probably a little “top heavy.”

  12. The use of live rounds will be the end for them, amply justifying armed outside intervention, something the locals and their Cuban masters are trying to avoid at all costs. Even once Venezuela rids itself (hopefully) of the Cuban scourge, it will still remain doing damage throughout the LA Region. Obama appeasement/hoped-for eventual transition is a too-slow and iffy process at best. Once more pressing matters are (hopefully) dealt with successfully (Syria/North Korea), the U. S. should take care of its own back yard….

    • If all this were happening in 2014, under Obama and Hillary pathetic watch, there would be hundreds of dead already. PSUV has shown enormous restraint until now. Imagine how much they want to mass murder and put an end to this in the same way their brothers of arms do in Syria, China and Cuba. But, very fortunately, they have their hands tied. And that will be their fall.

        • “Sin duda, el Comandante no se equivocó cuando te botó por allá por Asia.
          No vengas ahora con tus posturas pseudo-institucionalistas”

          OMG! This is priceless! haha!!!

    • What do you mean by taking care of its own back yard?

      As for pressing matters, Venezuela is so far down the list it’s not even on the first page.

    • Not going to happen. We are busy with other priorities. However, our best and brightest are thinking very hard about BRV. Cocaine seizures at sea are crazy. The tonnage of cocaine being seized in the Caribbean is all time high….These shipments depart from BRV.

      At best, we would add more assets to the Caribbean and Pacific counter narcotics efforts.

      The two triggers for military action are WMD and terrorism.

      The WMD touches Cuba since DPRK has a CW buyer on the island (Kim’s surrogate father) who was recently designated by U.S.

  13. El economista Luis Oliveros cuenta en su tweeter “Antes, a la llegada de la GNB o ante la primera bomba, la gente corría. Hoy la gente quiere avanzar, quiere seguir protestando.” Parece que realmente han cambiado algunas cosas en el país pero se ve muy poca gente en las protestas, no parecen tener mucho apoyo. Veremos quien lleva razón.

  14. People cannot afford Semana Santa and they’re pissed off. It is no longer a refreshing and diverting break.

    If this sustains on a large scale into next week, when people are supposed to be back at work, I think that might be an important indicator that a collapse is imminent.

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