Venezuelan protestors strip National Guardsmen naked and beat them in revenge for deadly street violence ahead of crucial weekend vote to rewrite constitution
Furious protestors have been filmed stripping Venezuelan National Guardsmen naked and beating them in revenge for deadly street violence.
Grainy footage that has circulated on social networks shows protestors attacking the two Guardsmen with their fists and sticks.
https://youtu.be/u6u6qjqUl90
They then force their two prisoners onto the road, parading them nude and saying that this was revenge for their ‘fallen comrades’.
One of the protestors shouts: ‘This is going to happen with all the f*****s who take part in this.
The video was believed to have originated from the town of El Cardenalito in the state of Lara, in the west of the country, where protests have claimed the lives of several young people.
The footage emerges as President Nicolas Maduro continues to push forward with a controversial weekend vote, despite growing domestic political opposition, international condemnation and deadly street protests.
The Venezuelan leader has called an election on Sunday to choose a new body to rewrite the constitution.
Maduro on Thursday warned that anyone taking part in protests against his ‘Constituent Assembly’ risked up to 10 years in prison.
The threat appeared to dampen public anti-government demonstrations of the sort that, in the past four months, have led to 113 deaths – eight of them during a two-day general strike that ended Thursday.
The most recent reported fatality occurred Friday when an 18-year old protester was killed in San Cristobal.
Human rights organizers said another activist, a 23-year-old violinist famous for playing at anti-government protests, had been arrested in Caracas. An opposition mayor, Alfredo Ramos, was also arrested for not lifting barricades under a court order.
Meanwhile, international censure of Maduro remained fierce.
US Vice President Mike Pence spoke by telephone to a detained prominent Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, who early this month was moved from prison to house arrest.
President Maduro says that the opposition is trying to overthrow is democratically elected government, and says a new constitution will bring peace in Venezuela.
However opposition leaders say the re-drawing of the National Assembly would remove the last presences of democracy from Venezuela.
Explosion on main road in Venezuela injures police officers
Police on motorbikes are hit by huge explosion as they clash with anti-government protesters in Venezuela over a weekend of violence that has seen nine people, including an election candidate, shot dead
Police officers on motorbikes were hit by an explosion at a protest in Venezuela during a weekend of violence that has seen nine people, including two minors, shot dead.
Officers have been reported injured after the dramatic incident, which was caught on camera as opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the capital city of Caracas.
https://youtu.be/jO-hqzSoVKs
It is believed the explosion was the result of an improvised device detonated by anti-government activists.
It comes amid fury over a controversial election called by the country’s beleaguered president Nicolas Maduro, who is attempting to bolster his power by creating a new assembly which will tear up the constitution and effectively create a one-party state.
Four months of protests against the leader have left more than 100 people dead amid fierce international criticism with soldiers firing on protesters.
Election candidate who died from several gunshot wounds after assailants broke into his house in the southeastern city of Ciudad Bolivar.
At least nine people were killed overnight and into Sunday, according to prosecutors.
Among those killed was 39-year-old lawyer Jose Felix Pineda, who was a candidate to sit on the new assembly. He was shot by assailants in his home in the southeastern town of Ciudad Bolivar late on Saturday. Prosecutors said the motive of the slaying was unknown.
Shootings at protests on Sunday killed a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old in the western state of Tachira. A soldier was also shot dead there.
The death toll also included a 30-year-old regional leader of a youth opposition party in the northeast town of Cumana, two male protesters aged 28 and 39 in the western state of Merida, and a 43-year-old man in the western city of Barquisimeto.
A 38-year-old man was killed in Merida on Saturday in another demonstration.
Pineda was the second candidate to be murdered after the July 10 death of another, Jose Luis Rivas, as he was campaigning in the northern city of Maracay.
In the west of Caracas, national guard troops fanning out to put down any disruption to the election used armoured vehicles and fired shots to disperse protesters blocking roads.
Video posted on Twitter showed troops smashing down a metal gate and entering to the sounds of gunfire, and what appeared to be a flaming armoured vehicle.
The opposition has called for a boycott and mass demonstrations against the election, which it calls a bid by Maduro to install a dictatorship with the backing of the military.
Maduro kicked off voting by casting his ballot in a west Caracas polling station.
‘I’m the first voter in the country. I ask God for his blessings so the people can freely exercise their democratic right to vote,’ the president said. He was accompanied by his wife, Cilia Flores, who is a candidate to sit on the new assembly.
https://youtu.be/kTHyp6995Nw
Turnout will be key to determining the legitimacy of the election. But that will be difficult to ascertain as most voters will be able to vote twice, as candidates are drawn from social and industry sectors as well as geographically.
Surveys by Datanalisis, a pro-opposition polling firm, show more than 70 percent of Venezuelans opposed the idea of the new assembly – and 80 percent reject Maduro’s leadership.
Maduro decreed a ban on protests during and after the vote, threatening prison terms of up to 10 years for anyone violating the order.
Fear of the violence worsening has rippled across the region and beyond.
The US, the EU and Latin American powers, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, have come out against the election, saying it would destroy Venezuelan democracy.
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