Venezuela .... Views and counter-views

The Guardian article below has  views expressed by their readers ...really  worth reading.

The pic at bottom of this post reminded me of what I had personally seen when visiting Cuba a few years ago. You would see similar queues there, even for basic food items. The arrival of a shipment of T-shirts got the people waking up at dawn to stand in a queue outside the "lucky" store whose owner was deemed fit to get the shipment from the government, to take first peek and  if they had the money, to buy. 

We hear from Venezuelans who did not take part in the recent anti-government demonstrations for their take on what’s happening in the country.  
Last week, we published a readers’ panel on the Venezuelan protests, sourced via GuardianWitness and Guardian comments sections. We sought to hear from those who were taking part in the protests, and those who supported them. We received many responses.
At the same time, a social media campaign was taking off, using #SOSVenezuela on Twitter and Facebook in particular, to highlight the situation in the country...........



From LibCom:
...A second novelty,  as suggested in our previous paper, is that Caracas has ceased to be the epicenter of the national mobilization. On Saturday February 22 both those pro-government and the opposition, made called to march in the city of Caracas, both with large attendance . However, in at least 12 cities of province, some dissident demonstrations were proportionally, as massive as those that were performed in the capital. In the case of the city of San Cristobal, capital of Tachira (border with Colombia); the intensity of the protests and conflicts where were including students, middle class people, and others from popular and rural areas; has led to the militarization of the city being controlled remotely from Caracas. The state governor Jose Vielma Mora, of the ruling party PSUV, publicly criticized the crackdown and called for the release of detainees, and so far, this one has been the first public criticism from a member of the government, of one decision of Nicolas Maduro.......

This is Venezuela. would you like live in comunism? @cnn #Venezuela #SanCristobal file at garzon supermarket pic.twitter.com/MVw68oVrJR"
— PePe_Chirere (@0TE0) February 27, 2014