CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela’s government responded with light armored vehicles and tear gas on Saturday as opponents of President Nicolas Maduro poured into the streets of Caracas in a weeklong protest movement that shows little sign of losing steam.
The demonstration came a day after Maduro’s government barred top opposition leader Henrique Capriles from running for office for 15 years. The ban was the latest in a series of steps that critics and foreign governments warn are bringing Venezuela closer to dictatorship.
Authorities on Friday banned Capriles from seeking office for 15 years for alleged administrative irregularities as governor of Miranda state. The move, decried by his supporters and foreign governments, followed last week’s short-lived Supreme Court decision to gut the opposition-controlled legislature of its last vestiges of power.
“Nobody can disqualify the Venezuelan people,” Capriles said from a stage in brief remarks before Saturday’s demonstration began. When he called on protesters to march to the government’s ombudsman’s office, the crowd broke into a rendition of Venezuela’s national anthem and stepped off toward downtown.
The government used the armored vehicles and tear gas in an attempt to break up the crowd as it approached the headquarters of the state-run PDVSA oil company, which sits between wealthier eastern Caracas and downtown.
As is now customary, authorities had shut down the city’s subway in what’s widely seen as an attempt to discourage people from joining the protests, many of which have ended in scores of arrests, tear gas and rubber bullets. In another intimidation tactic, police also posted on social media mugshots of protesters taken undercover at recent demonstrations with a request for information about the whereabouts of the unidentified “generators of violence.”
As the most dominant figure in the opposition over the past decade, Capriles has been at the forefront of the protests, the most combative since a wave of anti-government unrest in 2014 that was blamed for dozens of deaths. The two-time presidential candidate said Friday the order stripping him of his ability to run in future elections only strengthens his resolve to resist on the streets.
“When the dictatorship squeals, it’s a sign we’re advancing,” he said in a rousing speech surrounded by other leading opposition figures, many of whom themselves have been targeted. “The only one who is disqualified here is you, Nicolas Maduro.”.
Opposition demonstrations in Venezuela in the past were sometimes planned weeks in advance to guarantee high turnout. But now the almost-daily churn of events in what’s being called the “ongoing coup” - the government’s alleged moves to accumulate more power - has energized and united the normally fractious opposition.
Just as Saturday’s march began, protesters snatched a camera from crew members working for pro-government state broadcaster VTV, chasing them away from the crowd with shoves and insults.
Leaders in the ruling socialist party have accused the opposition of trying to provoke a bloodbath and coup of its own. Maduro didn’t comment on the comptroller general’s order in an appearance late Friday on state TV, but urged his supporters not to be distracted by tough language coming from “Capriloca,” a play on the Spanish word for “crazy.”
“The right wing’s treason of our national interests is cause for indignation,” said Maduro.
The protesters Saturday included 26-year-old Victoria Paez, who sported a baseball cap from Capriles’ last run for the presidency, when he lost to Maduro by less than 250,000 votes.
“Every day, the government gives us more reasons to leave our homes and protest,” said Paez, who earns less than $20 a month as a chemical engineer. She said she’s thinking about joining a sister and scores of college friends who have left the South American country seeking a better future.
While she said she was hopeful the world is beginning to see there are injustices in Venezuela, her father, Carlos Paez, was more pessimistic. “Unfortunately, if there has to be bloodshed for the government to change, it won’t be the first time in history,” he said.
The protest movement’s immediate goal appears to be forcing Maduro to call elections. Authorities last year cancelled an opposition campaign to force a recall referendum on Maduro and no date has yet been set for gubernatorial elections that were supposed to take place last year.
Together with jailed hardliner Leopoldo Lopez, Capriles is the most-popular opposition leader. With both seemingly out of the running, the government may be trying to manipulate the electoral playing field to leave the opposition with less viable options should the government bow to pressure and call presidential elections before they’re scheduled in 2018, analysts said.
“However, it is a risky strategy that will probably backfire,” Eurasia Group said in a report Friday. “The opposition is clearly fired up and this will further their cause.”
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Joshua Goodman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APjoshgoodman
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More Associated Press reporting on Venezuela’s problems can be found at https://www.ap.org/explore/venezuela-undone .
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