An anti-government protester stands in front of burning barricade on a highway in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo / AP
An anti-government protester stands in front of burning barricade on a highway in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo / AP
Venezuela's opposition plans to march tomorrow to downtown Caracas as part of its campaign to force fresh elections and restore the powers of the parliamentary branch it controls.
Opposition leader Juan Carlos Caldera, speaking at a news conference in Caracas, said the march would head to the Human Rights Ombudsman'soffice from the same 26 starting points used in an April 20 march that drew over a million supporters.
Opposition supporters occupied roadways around the country for much of yesterday amid only a limited response from security forces. Still, Public Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, who publicly split with ruling socialist party of President Nicolas Maduro after the Supreme Court tried to invalidate the National Assembly, said today that the death toll from clashes over the past month had risen to 26 after three more people were killed overnight.
"Everyone should tone done the rhetoric and try and elevate it," she said, renewing a call for fresh dialogue and adding that 1289 people had been detained over the past weeks of unrest. "No one desires a civil war."
The press office for opposition lawmaker Williams Davila, who represents Merida, alleged on Twitter that pro-government armed paramilitaries had fired shots at protests in that Andean state.
The opposition is expected to announce their protest agenda for the rest of the week after tomorrow's rally. Opposition lawmaker Miguel Pizarro said that the National Assembly would spend today communicating with international groups including the United Nations and the Organisation of American States.
"Protests have yet to reach a level, in terms of persistence and turnout, that would prompt key stakeholders to abandon Maduro," Eurasia Group analysts Risa Grais-Targow and Agata Ciesielska said in a report yesterday. "However, unrest is continuing to spill over into Chavista strongholds, suggesting that the tipping point may be nearing."
