Tens of thousands of chanting protesters marched Thursday in a major demonstration in the Venezuelan capital aimed at forcing a vote on recalling socialist President Nicolás Maduro.
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Despite the tense situation, protesters were adamant to participate.
The opposition hopes the march will pressure the electoral authorities into allowing them to launch the second petition needed to trigger the recall referendum as soon as possible.
Maduro claimed that turnout was about 30,000, but the crowd appeared far larger.
Caracas political analyst Dimitris Pantoulas said the “warlike” language may have actually energized opponents who otherwise might be on vacation or, at a time of economic crisis, standing in long lines for food.
Had the government minimized the protest’s importance it would have likely failed to garner much support, he said.
The Venezuelan opposition is running out of time to dismiss the Maduro administration.
Among the marchers, The Associated Press reports, were about 100 indigenous people – from the Piaroa and Jiwi tribes – who traveled from the Amazon to protest.
“Squeal, cry or scream, jail is where they’ll go”, he said.
But delivering on its big promises won’t be easy for Maduro’s opponents.
The opposition had staged a half-dozen or so marches this year, some of which ended in clouds of tear gas as hard-core activists clashed with riot police, but they posed no major risk to Maduro’s grip on power. Even the anti-government protests in 2014 that were blamed for more than 40 deaths failed to rally the huge numbers seen Thursday.
If it takes place before January 10 and Maduro loses, new elections must be held.
“Should that happen, and Maduro loses, his vice president would take over – keeping the ruling socialists in power until at least 2019”. While the council has verified that enough signatures were collected earlier this year to initiate the process, it has not set a firm time line for the next phase, which opponents claim is a delaying tactic created to make the opposition is certain deadlines.
Supporters of Venezuela’s right-wing opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), began gathering early in the day for what the movement had called “The Taking of Caracas”. “The fact that the poor barrios won’t be supporting Chavismo is enough to damage the government”.
Bernal also sounded optimistic about a strong showing by government supporters, despite the country’s prolonged economic woes.
Authorities over the weekend moved a prominent opposition leader, former San Cristobal Mayor Daniel Ceballos, from house arrest back to prison while he awaits trial on civil rebellion charges stemming from the 2014 protests.
“I’m protesting today because we’re hungry”, said Luis González, a 63-year-old welder from Petare, one of the biggest slums in Venezuela.
Popular Will party activists Carlos Melo and Yon Goicoechea have also been arrested over the past few days, the first suspected of carrying a “detonator cord” and the latter of carrying explosives.
There have been more subtle threats as well.
Víctor Guilarte, 45, a mechanic from a Caracas suburb, said his work had vanished because his neighbors had became so poor they could not afford vehicle repairs.
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The U.S. State Department accused Maduro of trying to bully Venezuelans from taking part in the march.
