It’s now been five weeks since
the protest in San Cristóbal
that set off Venezuela’s latest revolt. Time to take stock.
Outside the Andean states, protests remain largely confined to the better-off areas of the larger cities. Are exceptions here and there? Certainly. But they’re just that: exceptions. The sites of ongoing unrest remain solidly concentrated in the middle class enclaves of the bigger cities, i.e., precisely where the government wants them.
Large, peaceful daytime demonstrations are followed every night by running battles around makeshift barricades, or guarimbas. This night-time ritual of improvised road-blocks, burning garbage, plastic pellets, tear gas and armed bikers in plain clothes involves many fewer people than the daytime protests. And yet, inevitably, the guarimba has come to define the current protest movement, giving it its flavor, its distinctiveness, its identity.
The peaceful daytime marches have broad public support, but only when they’re seen as demanding…
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Irish Cinephile 