Tag Archives: Protest

Venezuela’s opposition stages two-day anti-Maduro shutdown

Opposition supporters carry a flag with a cartoon of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro while attending a rally to pay tribute to victims of violence during protests against Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

By Alexandra Ulmer and Mircely Guanipa

CARACAS/PARAGUANA, Venezuela (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro’s adversaries launched a two-day national strike on Wednesday in a final push to pressure him into abandoning a weekend election for a super-congress they say will institutionalize autocracy in Venezuela.

Neighbors gathered from dawn in cities around Venezuela to block roads with rubbish, stones and tape, while many cafes and businesses remained closed in protest against the ruling Socialist Party’s planned Constituent Assembly vote.

“We need to paralyze the whole country,” said Flor Lanz, 68, standing with a group of women blocking the entrance to a freeway in upscale east Caracas with rope and iron sheets.

“I’m staying here for 48 hours. It’s the only way to show we are not with Maduro. They are few, but they have the weapons and the money,” added decorator Cletsi Xavier, 45, beside her.

There was less enthusiasm, however, for the strike in working-class neighborhoods and rural zones where the government has traditionally drawn more support.

Overall, fewer people appeared to be heeding the shutdown than the millions who participated in a 24-hour strike last week.

Many Venezuelans, regardless of their political view, were fretting about the impact of disruptions on their wallets – and stomachs. The OPEC nation is immersed in a brutal economic crisis, with shortages of basic foods and medicines.

“I closed last week, but now I need to open in order to eat,” said Isabel Fernandez, 36, who sells vegetables at a market in the Catia neighborhood of the capital where all the stalls were open albeit with fewer customers than normal.

The opposition, which has majority support after years in the shadow of Maduro’s popular predecessor Hugo Chavez, says Sunday’s election is a farce designed purely to keep the Socialist Party in power. Its No. 1 demand is conventional elections, including for the presidency, to remove Maduro.

MADURO: ‘WAR OR PEACE?’

The 54-year-old president, who calls himself “the son of Chavez” and flag bearer of his “21st century socialism” project, insists Sunday’s vote will go ahead despite intense pressure at home and abroad including a threat of U.S. economic sanctions.

Maduro says the election for the 545-seat assembly, which will have power to rewrite the national constitution and override the current opposition-led legislature, is designed to put power in the hands or ordinary people.

“We are going to decide between war and peace, the future or the past, the sovereign power of the people or the imperialist, oligarchical coup,” he told supporters late on Tuesday of the vote, which the opposition is boycotting.

Despite the no-compromise rhetoric on both sides, mediator and former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was shuttling between the opposition and government. He discussed a proposal to postpone the vote, opposition sources said, but there was no evidence it was getting traction.

State enterprises, including oil company PDVSA that accounts for 95 percent of Venezuela’s export income, were staying open on Wednesday. Public employees – who number 2.8 million in total – had strict orders not to skip work and to vote on Sunday.

“Who can risk their work in moments like this?” said Elio Jimenez, 40, who works at an oil refinery in the Paraguana peninsula.

Five people died during last week’s strike as National Guard troops seeking to dismantle blockades fired tear gas and rubber bullets at masked youths hurling stones and Molotov cocktails.

That took to over 100 the number killed since protests against Maduro began in early April.

Venezuela’s best-known detained political leader, Leopoldo Lopez, issued a video overnight urging people to keep up protests. Lopez taped his 15-minute message from home in Caracas after recently being granted house arrest.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore, Andrew Cawthorne and Fabian Cambero; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and W Simon)

Pro-Kurdish party launches protests against Turkish crackdown

Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers leave from a park after a party meeting in Diyarbakir, Turkey, July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish parliamentary opposition launched three months of protests on Tuesday against a state crackdown which has seen dozens of lawmakers and mayors jailed over suspected links to militant separatists.

Hundreds of police, backed by armored vehicles and water cannon, imposed tight security at a park where 10 lawmakers of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) gathered in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country.

The HDP said police had initially allowed the protest, but later blocked off shaded areas of the park, leaving access only to an exposed paved area under a hot sun. It said in a statement only a few of its members were able to make their way inside.

“The blockade at this park is a sign of the real situation in Turkey… A political party that got 70 percent of votes (in Diyarbakir) cannot carry out its group meeting in the park,” HDP spokesman Osman Baydemir told reporters.

Ankara says the HDP is linked to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decades-old insurgency and is deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The HDP denies the allegation.

Eleven HDP deputies have been jailed pending trial, more than 70 elected mayors from the HDP’s southeastern affiliate have been remanded in custody in terrorism-related investigations, and their municipalities taken over by state officials. Thousands of party members have also been arrested.

The HDP plans to hold round-the-clock, week-long protests led by its own lawmakers in Istanbul, the southeastern city of Van and the western port city of Izmir as part of the campaign.

“NO VIOLENCE, NO ANIMOSITY”

“Fascism can only be stopped through a democratic battle. This is what we’re saying. We will be here for seven days, 24 hours a day,” said Baydemir. “No violence, no animosity, we are just shouting that we have not given in to fascism.”

Baydmemir has said the HDP will hold protests until Nov. 4, the anniversary of the arrest of its co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. Their arrests drew international condemnation and Yuksekdag has since been stripped of her parliamentary status and replaced as co-chairwoman.

The HDP protest call came two weeks after Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, the secularist CHP, completed a 25-day protest march from the capital Ankara to Istanbul over a state crackdown on suspected supporters of last year’s abortive military coup.

Turkish authorities have jailed, pending trial, more than 50,000 people and suspended or dismissed some 150,000 from their jobs since imposing emergency rule soon after the failed putsch.

(Writing by Daren Butler and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Venezuela’s shield-bearing protesters inspired by Ukraine

A demonstrator holding a rudimentary shield poses for a picture before a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, May 27, 2017. He said: "I protest, because I want a better future for me and my family, because it hurts to get up every day and have my mother crying because there is nothing to eat at home. Because I know that if I've got to die here, I would die fighting for my country and not because I was shot by someone who wanted to steal my cell phone." REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Victoria Ramirez and Andreina Aponte

CARACAS (Reuters) – Drawing inspiration from Ukraine’s 2013-14 revolt, Venezuela’s young protesters are donning Viking-like shields in battles with security forces and eagerly watching a film on the Kiev uprising.

Foes of Venezuelan socialist President Nicolas Maduro are holding public showings of Netflix’s “Winter on Fire” documentary about the three-month standoff in Ukraine that led to 100 deaths and the exit of then-president Viktor Yanukovich.

In Venezuela’s anti-government unrest, where 80 people have died since April, youths bear colorfully decorated homemade shields akin to those used in Kiev’s Maidan Square.

The young Venezuelans make their shields from satellite TV dishes, drain covers, barrels or any other scraps of wood and metal they can find. Some supporters also make and donate shields.

The protesters use the shields to form walls, or even beat on them in unison, as Roman soldiers and Norsemen used to do going into battle. Fellow demonstrators cheer as the self-styled “Resistance” members link arms to walk to the front lines and face off with National Guard troops and police.

“The shields don’t stop bullets, but they do protect us from tear gas, rubber bullets and stones,” said 20-year-old law student Brian Suarez, wearing a gas mask and carrying a shield depicting Maduro in the sights of a rifle target.

Other shields carry quotes and images of Venezuela’s constitution, paintings and religious symbols, depictions of the faces of slain protesters, or slogans saying “SOS!”, “No More Dictatorship!” or “Murderer, Maduro!”

While the protesters say they are fighting against tyranny in the South American oil producer, Maduro accuses them of seeking a violent coup with U.S. support.

Manuel Melo said he was on the front line of protests, hurling stones and protecting other marchers with his blue plastic shield, until one day he was caught by a water cannon. The 20-year-old graphic design student lost his kidney from the impact.

Nevertheless, he wants to go back.

“It’s an important role being a shield-bearer because you know that everything they throw goes straight at you,” he said while recovering from his home in Caracas. “I’m not out there because I like it, but for the common good.”

“AM I IN UKRAINE?”

“Winter on Fire,” by Russian director Evgeny Afineevsky, shows tens of thousands of Ukrainian protesters braving snow and baton attacks from riot police to barricade themselves in Maidan Square.

It has been discreetly shown around Venezuela, including at bookshops, a university, a public square and an arts cinema.

Forums and discussions are held afterward.

“Hearing a Ukrainian and seeing the tears in their eyes, you ask yourself: ‘Hold on, am I in Ukraine or in Cafetal?'” said university professor Carlos Delgado, referring to an upper-class part of Caracas that has vigorously supported the protests.

Delgado, 48, recently participated in a screening and forum about “Winter on Fire” at Venezuela’s Catholic University, where opposition to Maduro is also strong.

Many have also spread the word on social media.

“This documentary is unmissable,” Venezuelan actress and author Ana Maria Simon exhorted on her Instagram account. “All Venezuelans should see it, especially those who are tired, especially those close to losing faith.”

In both countries, protesters have opposed presidents they consider repressive, and the clashes turned increasingly violent. But differences abound, too.

While Ukraine’s protesters endured freezing conditions day and night, Venezuela’s thin out quickly when rain starts, and they go home in the evening and enjoy balmy Caribbean weather.

The Venezuelans point out that criminal gangs make the streets dangerous at night. And with their economy in meltdown, they are often short of medicine, food and other needs, whereas the Ukrainians had a good supply line.

Hans Wuerich, who became famous for stripping in front of an armored car with a Bible in Caracas, said “Winter on Fire” made him think Venezuela’s Resistance needed to escalate tactics.

“It’s time to take the protests to another level,” the 27-year-old reporter said in Caracas’ Altamira Square, a focus of the demonstrations. “But we need to be organized if we’re going to take the streets day and night, if it’s really about a point of no return.”

(Click on http://reut.rs/2sdUXmI to see a related photo essay)

(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas, Matthias Williams and Alessandra Prentice in Kiev; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Lisa Von Ahn)

Venezuelan soldier shoots protester dead in airbase attack, minister says

Riot security forces members congregate next to a government truck that was set on fire during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Veron

By Andreina Aponte

CARACAS (Reuters) – A Venezuelan military police sergeant shot dead a protester who was attacking the perimeter of an airbase on Thursday, the interior minister said, bringing renewed scrutiny of the force used to control riots that have killed at least 76 people.

At least two soldiers shot long firearms through the fence from a distance of just a few feet at protesters who were throwing rocks, television footage showed.

One man collapsed to the ground and was carried off by other protesters. Paramedics took at least two other injured people to a hospital, a Reuters witness said.

“The sergeant used an unauthorized weapon to repel the attack, causing the death of one of assailants,” Interior minister Nestor Reverol said on Twitter. He said the air force police sergeant faced legal proceedings.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets in recent months to protest against a clampdown on the opposition, shortages of food and medicine, and President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to overhaul the constitution.

The reaction of the security forces to provocation at marches has been in the spotlight since images showed a national guard member pointing a pistol at demonstrators on Monday, prompting the opposition to intensify its street campaign.

The protesters who attacked the fence outside La Carlota airbase in the wealthy east of Caracas had earlier burned a truck and a motorbike when security forces firing rubber bullets broke up a march destined for the attorney general’s office.

David Jose Vallenilla, 22, died after arriving at a hospital in the Chacao municipality where the protest happened.

Opposition supporters march during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Opposition supporters march during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas, Venezuela June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

SHOTS, PETROL BOMBS

A small group of protesters throwing petrol bombs from behind flimsy homemade shields cheered when powerful fireworks used as weapons landed near troops in the airbase. They managed to rip down a section of the fence surrounding the base, despite volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets.

At least one soldier aimed a shotgun through the fence, Reuters pictures showed. The national guard uses shotgun cartridges filled with small rubber pellets against protests.

Reverol said two soldiers were seriously injured by “explosives” the protesters launched, and said shots and petrol bombs hit a primary school on the base during the attack.

Opposition lawmaker Jose Manuel Olivares said Vallenilla had been killed by the national guard firing rubber bullets at point blank range. Olivares, whose arm was wounded in the protest, called for sit-ins on highways on Friday and protests at military bases on Saturday.

Vallenilla suffered wounds to the lungs and heart, a doctor who attended him told Reuters. The attorney general’s office said he was shot three times.

Maduro says the violence is part of a foreign-led plot to overthrow his government and criticizes the opposition for fanning it, however authorities have taken action against three national guard sergeants accused of killing a boy on Monday.

Venezuela’s national guard is a wing of the military charged with internal public order. It mainly uses tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to control protests that frequently escalate into riots.

On Monday, a teenager died during another protest in the same area after footage showed a national guard soldier pointing a pistol at protesters.

Maduro moved the head of the national guard to a new position looking after security in the capital after that incident, part of a reshuffle that brought several more military figures into his cabinet.

“I have ordered an investigation to see if there was a conspiracy behind this,” Maduro said earlier on Thursday. He said the men involved in Monday’s shooting had been detained.

The office of the attorney general, a former Maduro loyalist who has turned against him over his push to rewrite the constitution, named three national guard sergeants on Thursday, saying they were charged with homicide for that shooting and that a court had put them in custody.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Richard Pullin and Paul Tait)

Democrats protest Senate Republican healthcare secrecy

FILE PHOTO - U.S. President Donald Trump (C) turns to House Speaker Paul Ryan (3rdL) as he gathers with Congressional Republicans in the Rose Garden of the White House after the House of Representatives approved the American Healthcare Act, to repeal major parts of Obamacare and replace it with the Republican healthcare plan, in Washington, U.S., May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democrats took to the Senate floor on Monday to throw a spotlight on behind-the-scenes efforts by the Republican majority to repeal former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, known as Obamacare.

In a series of floor motions, inquiries and lengthy speeches, Democrats criticized the closed-door meetings that Republicans have been holding to craft a replacement for Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act. They called for open committee hearings and more time to consider the bill before a Senate vote, which Republicans say could come in the next two weeks, although a draft bill has yet to emerge publicly.

Lacking the votes to derail or change the Republican process, the maneuvers by the Democratic minority seemed more aimed at highlighting Republican efforts on a controversial issue. Polls have said that a majority of Americans disapprove of the Obamacare replacement that has passed the House of Representatives and that Senate Republicans are now considering.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that the closed-door Republican meetings on healthcare amounted to “the most glaring departure from normal legislative procedure that I have ever seen.”

“Republicans are writing their healthcare bill under the cover of darkness because they are ashamed of it,” Schumer charged. The resulting legislation would likely throw millions out of health insurance, he said, while granting “a big fat tax break for the wealthiest among us.”

Senators are not obligated to hold meetings in the open, but Democrats pointed out that there were lengthy committee meetings and many days of floor debate on Obamacare before it passed in 2010.

Several Democrats moved for the healthcare legislation to be referred to Senate committees for hearings, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused.

McConnell said all Republican senators have been involved to some degree in healthcare meetings and that Democrats would have a chance to amend the legislation they produce, once it is brought to the Senate floor.

“We’re going to have a meeting on the Senate floor, all hundred of us, with an unlimited amendment process,” McConnell said. “So there will be no failure of opportunity.”

Senate Republican leaders would like a vote on healthcare legislation in July, before the July 4 recess if possible. But Republicans have struggled to coalesce around a bill, with moderates and conservatives pushing in different directions.

Senate Republicans also face pressure from the right. In the House, conservatives have written to McConnell to express concern about reports that say the Senate may water down the House bill.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)

Turkish PM urges opposition head to call off 20-day protest march

Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) join party's leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu during the second day of a protest, dubbed a "justice march", against the detention of the CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, in the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

By Daren Butler and Tuvan Gumrukcu

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s prime minister urged the head of the main opposition party on Friday to end a 425 kilometer (265 mile) march from Ankara to Istanbul in protest over the jailing of one of his lawmakers, saying justice “cannot be sought on the streets”.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 68, head of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), set out on the march on Thursday after Enis Berberoglu was jailed for 25 years on spying charges. He was seen off by thousands of supporters and has garnered much attention in a country where government dominates the media.

Kilicdaroglu trudged along a highway outside Ankara on Friday dressed in dark slacks and blue shirt. Sunburned and wearing a cap, he carried a sign that said “Justice”.

Rights groups and government critics, including members of Kilicdaroglu’s CHP, say Turkey is sliding toward authoritarianism, citing a crackdown that followed last year’s failed coup that has seen more than 50,000 people jailed and 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs.

“I advise Kilicdaroglu to desist from this act,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters. “Justice cannot be sought on the streets, Turkey is a state of law… Even if we don’t like a court’s ruling, we have to respect it.”

Berberoglu was accused of giving the Cumhuriyet newspaper a video it used as the basis of a May 2015 report that alleged trucks owned by the state intelligence service (MIT)were stopped and found to contain arms and ammunition headed for Syria.

Berberoglu is the first CHP lawmaker to be jailed in the government crackdown, which has seen eleven members of parliament from the pro-Kurdish opposition party jailed.

Kilicdaroglu has called the arrest “lawless” and motivated by the presidential palace, a reference to President Tayyip Erdogan. His march, planned to end at the Istanbul prison where Berberoglu is being held, is expected to take more than 20 days.

‘DEMOCRACY’

“We have been, and will be, calling and defending justice, justice, justice, and democracy, democracy, democracy,” he told reporters during his march. “No matter what they say.”

Turkey’s justice minister said Kilicdaroglu was trying to foment opposition to the judicial system.

“It is not possible to break the balance of the scales of justice by walking on roads,” Bekir Bozdag said.

Erdogan acknowledged the trucks belonged to the MIT but said they carried aid to ethnic Turkmens battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State, and not weapons for rebels.

Erdogan accused Cumhuriyet’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul of undermining Turkey’s reputation and vowed Dundar would “pay a heavy price”.

Last year, Dundar and Gul were sentenced to at least five years jail in a related case. The prosecutor is now seeking another 10 years for the two over the report on the trucks. Dundar is being tried in absentia after leaving Turkey. Gul remains in the country and free while his case is in process.

(Writing by David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Hundreds protest over minimum wage at McDonald’s stockholder meeting

Cooks, cashiers and other minimum wage earners join anti-Trump activists on a march for an increase in the minimum wage to $15/hour during a “March on McDonald’s” in Oak Brook, Illinois, U.S., May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Frank Polich

By Bob Chiarito

OAK BROOK, Ill. (Reuters) – Hundreds of fast-food workers demanded wage increases as they marched outside McDonald’s Corp <MCD.N> headquarters during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

The demonstrators were part of a nationwide protest organized by “Fight for 15,” a labor group that has regularly targeted McDonald’s in calls for higher pay and union rights for workers.

More than two dozen protesters were arrested outside the United Continental Holdings Inc <UAL.N> shareholder meeting in downtown Chicago.

“I saw my mother, who worked 30 years for Hardee’s, struggle on food stamps to raise her family and now I’m doing the same thing,” said Terrance Wise, a 42-year-old from Kansas City, protesting outside the McDonald’s meeting in a Chicago suburb.

Wise, who has worked at McDonald’s for three years, said he earns $7.65 an hour working full time. He said he also relies on food stamps to support his three daughters.

“Instead of paying their CEO $15 million, they should give him $10 million and pay their workers what’s right,” he said. The main demand of “The Fight for 15” is a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook earned $15.3 million in total compensation last year, according to company data.

Shareholders inside the McDonald’s meeting did not ask about the protests during a question-and-answer session.

Easterbrook focused on the fast-food giant’s plans for delivering food with UberEats and the rollout of new products.

The company says it invests in its workers by helping them to earn college degrees and acquire on-the-job skills. In 2015, the company raised the average hourly pay to around $10 for workers in the restaurants it owns.

However, most McDonald’s workers in the United States are employed by franchisees who set their own wages.

Hopes for an increase in the $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage were dashed last year when Republicans retained control of Congress in the U.S. elections last November. Opponents of an increase say higher costs would force restaurants to cut hiring, and some businesses would not survive.

Still, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington have approved minimum wage increases in their states, encouraging advocates to continue pressing their case at the local level. Workers on Wednesday also gathered outside of a McDonald’s store near downtown Los Angeles.

In Chicago, 30 protesters outside the United Continental meeting were arrested and cited for blocking a road, Chicago police said.

More than 100 protesters were arrested during nationwide demonstrations several weeks after Donald Trump won the White House in November. At various times on the campaign trail, Trump suggested U.S. workers were overpaid, but also that the minimum wage should be raised.

(Additional reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru and Lucy Nicholson in Los Angeles; Writing by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Anti-Maduro protests persist in Venezuela, teenager dies in unrest

Opposition supporters sit next to a placard that reads: "No more deaths", as they block a highway, during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Veron

By Andrew Cawthorne and Anggy Polanco

CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL (Reuters) – Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro staged sit-ins and roadblocks across Venezuela on Monday to press for elections, sparking new unrest and a death in the border state of Tachira.

Luis Alviarez, 18, was killed during protests in the volatile western state, according to the state ombudsman’s office, which did not give more details.

That brought the death toll in six weeks of protest to at least 39.

Demonstrators have been on the streets daily since early April to demand elections, freedom for jailed activists, foreign humanitarian aid to offset an economic crisis, and autonomy for the opposition-controlled legislature.

Maduro accuses them of seeking a violent coup.

Trying to vary tactics and keep momentum, protesters have gone from throwing excrement at security forces to handing them letters and flowers for Mother’s Day on Sunday.

On Monday, thousands massed from 7 a.m. (1100 GMT) on highways in Caracas and elsewhere, chanting slogans, waving banners, playing cards in deck chairs, enjoying impromptu sports games and sharing food.

“I’m here for the full 12 hours. And I’ll be back every day there’s a protest, for as long as is necessary,” said Anelin Rojas, a 30-year-old human resources worker, sitting cross-legged with a novel and earphones in the middle of Caracas’ main highway.

“Unfortunately, we are up against a dictatorship. Nothing is going to change unless we force them,” Rojas added, surrounded by placards saying “Resistance!” and “Maduro, Your Time Is Up!”

Using branches, rocks and garbage, demonstrators blocked the main Francisco Fajardo thoroughfare in Caracas.

In Tachira, some farmers were striking in solidarity with the protesters. They gave away milk and cheese so it would not go to waste, witnesses said.

On Margarita island, opposition lawmaker Yanet Fermin was detained while mediating between security forces and protesters, her party said.

In Valencia, three policemen were injured, authorities said, with one mistakenly reported by the local Socialist Party governor as having been shot dead earlier in the day.

The opposition, which commands majority support after years in the shadow of the ruling socialists, is more united than during the last wave of anti-Maduro protests in 2014.

But it has been unable to stop violence in its ranks, with youths vandalizing property and starting fires when security forces block marches with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons.

CLAIMS OF MEDIA BIAS

The deaths have included protesters, government sympathizers, bystanders and security forces, during six weeks of protests. Hundreds have been hurt and arrested.

The current wave of protests, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on some days, has drawn greater support from the poor, who backed late leader Hugo Chavez massively but have soured on Maduro, his successor, and suffered the most from four years of recession.

But the main protests have still been in middle-class areas. Maduro, 54, who narrowly won election in 2013 after Chavez’s death, says he is the victim of an international right-wing conspiracy that has already brought down leftist governments in Brazil, Argentina and Peru in recent years.

Government supporters say international media coverage of Venezuela has been biased, emphasizing government repression and minimizing opposition violence.

“Another crime CNN will unfairly attribute to Nicolas Maduro,” Information Minister Ernesto Villegas tweeted of the original report of the death of the policeman – which turned out to be false.

International pressure on Maduro has been growing. Representatives from 18 members of the Organization of American States approved a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss Venezuela’s crisis for May 31 in Washington. The OAS floated the idea of the meeting last month, prompting Venezuela to announce plans to withdraw from the group.

The European Union on Monday called for elections in its most outspoken statement yet on the Venezuela crisis.

Authorities thwarted an opposition push for a referendum last year and have also delayed state gubernatorial elections. But Maduro vowed at the weekend that the next presidential election, due in late 2018, would go ahead.

“We will thrash them!” he predicted, though pollsters widely foresee defeat for the ruling Socialist Party at any open vote.

The government is also setting up a controversial body called a constituent assembly, with authority to rewrite the constitution and shake up public powers.

Maduro says that is needed to bring peace to Venezuela, but foes view it as a cynical tactic to buy time and create a biased body that could perpetuate the socialists’ rule.

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta in Caracas, Maria Ramirez in Ciudad Bolivar and Robin Emmott in Brussels; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)

Protesting pensioners throw punches in latest Venezuela unrest

Elderly opposition supporters rally against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Andreina Aponte and Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) – Elderly Venezuelan protesters on Friday threw punches and yelled curses at riot police blocking the latest in six weeks of demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government.

Riot police with helmets and shields used pepper gas several times to control the crowd as hundreds of pensioners jostled against security lines to attempt a march from a Caracas square.

“Respect the elderly you sons of bitches!” shouted one bearded man, throwing a punch at an officer on the front line.

Since launching protests against Maduro in early April, Venezuela’s opposition has sought to vary tactics by staging silent and candle-lit marches, for instance, and rallies for women, musicians and medics.

Each time, the ruling Socialist Party has tried to match them. On Friday, it organized its own rival old people’s march next to the Miraflores presidential palace.

At least 39 people have died in the unrest since April, including protesters, government sympathizers, bystanders, and security forces. Hundreds have also been hurt and arrested.

Decrying Maduro as a dictator who has wrecked the OPEC nation’s economy, opponents are seeking elections, foreign humanitarian aid, freedom for hundreds of jailed activists, and autonomy for the opposition-controlled legislature.

Maduro, a 54-year-old former bus driver and successor of Hugo Chavez, says his foes are seeking a coup with the support of the United States and encouragement of international media.

Chanting “Freedom!” and “Down with Maduro!”, the elderly protesters made it onto a highway but were blocked from their intended destination, the state ombudsman’s office, by police with armored vehicles. A representative of the office listened briefly to their grievances on the street instead.

The crowd, including plenty of octogenarians plus a nun and one white-haired man dressed as Santa, sang Venezuela’s national anthem in front of the security cordon. Opposition leaders joined them, hugging and linking arms with the pensioners.

‘MORE TEAR GAS THAN FOOD’

Venezuela’s elderly have been hard hit by four years of brutal recession, leading to shortages of food and medicines, long lines at shops and runaway prices.

“Each tear gas cannister costs more than the minimum (monthly) salary, the government spends more on tear gas than providing food,” complained university professor Francisco Viveros, 67.

“I’m here for the youth, the students, those who are going onto the streets. We’ve lived our lives so we should be at the front.”

There were also old people’s protests in western Tachira and southern Bolivar states, with those demonstrations able to reach the local headquarters of the ombudsman.

Scores of government supporters also gathered in Caracas near Miraflores palace, wearing red, punching their fists in the air and chanting pro-Maduro slogans. “The opposition are killers,” said Nelia De Lopez, 65, with a tattoo of Chavez on her arm.

Long viewed by many poor Venezuelans as an out-of-touch elite, the opposition now enjoys majority support.

It thrashed the government in 2015 parliamentary elections, but was blocked from holding a referendum on Maduro last year and suffered another blow when 2016 state elections postponed.

Opposition leaders want the 2018 presidential vote brought forward, but there is no sign of that happening and Maduro is creating a controversial “constituent assembly” with authority to rewrite the constitution and shake up public powers.

“The opposition doesn’t understand the constituent assembly, but it does know about death, assassination and terrorism,” Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello told a rally in east Monagas state, condemning violence by opposition supporters.

While the opposition believes it has more momentum than at any other time during Maduro’s four-year presidency, officials appear to be banking on protesters tiring in the streets and are also hoping for rise in oil prices to ease the economic crisis.

(Additional reporting by Marco Bello and Carlos Rawlins in Caracas; Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal, Maria Ramirez in Ciudad Bolivar; editing by Girish Gupta and Tom Brown)

Weakened but defiant, Turkish hunger strikers protest purge

Nuriye Gulmen, a literature professor, and Semih Ozakca, a primary school teacher, who have been on hunger strike after they both lost their jobs in a crackdown following a failed July coup against President Tayyip Erdogan, take part in a protest against a government purge in Ankara, Turkey, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alp Eren Kaya

By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) – Painfully thin and walking with care after two months on hunger strike, Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca arrive in a central Ankara square to protest a government purge which has cost them and tens of thousands of other Turks their jobs and livelihoods.

Arriving to applause at their daily demonstration, they don surgical masks to reduce the risk of infection in their weakened state, before raising their left fists in the air and chanting: “Victory belongs to those who resist!”

Gulmen, a literature professor, and Ozakca, a primary school teacher, have been on hunger strike for 64 days after they both lost their jobs in a crackdown following a failed July coup against President Tayyip Erdogan.

Surviving on a liquid diet of lemon and saltwater and sugar solutions, Gulmen and Ozakca have protested the purge with a simple campaign slogan: “I want my job back!”

But their defiance it taking its toll, and doctors say their health is seriously deteriorating.

“Both of them are experiencing issues regarding perception, mood disorders, mental and motor activities,” said Vedat Bulut, board chairman of Ankara Chamber of Medical Doctors.

He said those symptoms were early signs of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a condition which leads to death in 10-15 percent of patients. “Seventy-seven percent lose their lives due to infections in the long run,” Bulut added.

Gulmen, who has lost 8 kg (18 pounds) and Ozakca, who lost 17 kg (37 pounds), have refused treatment, saying they were aware of the consequences of their resistance.

“We have lost weight, our pulse and blood pressure has dropped, we have problems walking and we are exhausted,” Gulmen told Reuters at the square where she first started protesting six months ago, several months before she stopped eating.

“We were always aware of the risks. We don’t want to stay hungry for another minute. We are calling on everyone concerned to solve the problem with those responsible.”

“DOORS CLOSED”

So far, 145,000 state employees including civil servants, academics and security personnel have been fired since the coup attempt, which Erdogan blamed on followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denies any involvement.

Critics accuse the government of using the coup as a pretext to purge dissident voices from public institutions.

Victims of the purge complain that the stigma which comes with losing their jobs makes it almost impossible to find work that matches their qualifications.

Job seekers say that potential employers are notified on the social security network that the applicant has been purged – making them reluctant to take him or her on.

Some try to find their own work to make ends meet – selling food on the streets or going from door to door in major cities selling goods brought from rural provinces.

“The doors are closed on you when you are purged by a decree. You can’t be employed. They are trying to discipline people by hunger, by isolation, by shame,” said Ozakca’s wife Esra, who also lost her teaching job teacher.

Gulmen was an academic at Eskisehir Osmangazi University, one of more than 7,880 academics who have been sacked by executive decree without chance to appeal.

Since they started their protest, she and Ozakca have been detained and released more than 30 times. She goes to Ankara’s Yuksel Street and, banner in hand, demands her job back from the foot of a sculpture that features a woman reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

While their protest remains isolated for now, they were joined this week by four parliament members from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who staged a symbolic 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with them.

“We are not only trying to get our jobs back, we are also in a struggle for our honor,” Semih Ozakca told Reuters.

“If we act together, we will definitely win. Our victory will mean the break up of the fear atmosphere the government is trying to create in Turkey.”

(Editing by Dominic Evans and Pritha Sarkar)