University students were yesterday to lead a fresh round of marches against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, one day after police fired tear gas and protesters hurled Molotov cocktails in rallies against his plan to rewrite the constitution.
Violence erupted in the latest of more than a month of clashes that prosecutors say have now killed 32 people in the oil-rich nation stricken by shortages of food, medicine and other basics.
Government forces used tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators marching along a highway in east Caracas, the Venezuelan Prosecutor General’s office said.
Protesters fought back with rocks and Molotov cocktails.
More than 300 people were injured in Wednesday’s unrest, officials said.
The latest fatality was that of an 18-year-old man struck by a projectile.
Looting broke out for a second straight night in the northern city of Valencia.
In Caracas, at least one protester caught fire when other demonstrators set ablaze a military motorcycle. Another was struck by an armored car.
The clashes broke out after riot police blocked demonstrators from advancing toward government buildings in central Caracas, where Maduro addressed a rally of thousands of his supporters.
The opposition accuses the elected leftist president of maneuvering to strengthen his grip on power. He has for months been resisting calls for a vote on removing him from office as the country staggers under food shortages, a near-crippled state-run economy and one of the world’s highest inflation rates.
Simon Bolivar University student leader Daniel Ascanio told reporters that students would march from campuses around the country to demand “democracy and freedom.”
“We will be joined by unions, homemakers and lawmakers. All sectors of society will mobilize to send a message to Maduro,” Ascanio said.
Clouds of gray smoke from tear gas canisters filled the air on Wednesday as police with riot shields and trucks advanced along the highway in eastern Caracas.
Protesters were most recently enraged by the socialist president’s launching of procedures by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council to elect a body to draw up a new constitution.
Private polls indicated that more than 70 percent of those interviewed do not support Maduro, chosen in 2013 to succeed former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Maduro said the constitutional reform body would not include political parties with seats in the opposition-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly, but representatives of social groups traditionally loyal to him.
As the unrest played out in the streets, powerful pro-Maduro Venezuelan Legislator Diosdado Cabello went on TV to show footage of a jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, to show he was alive and to counter rumors he had died in prison.
Maduro’s center-right opponents and some international powers said that the move on the constitution is an attempt to dodge local elections this year and a presidential poll set for late next year.
“It is a fraud by Maduro’s side,” said Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles, the president’s most prominent opponent.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique