Lighting the fuse on Venezuelan powder keg
Henrique Capriles Radonski, the governor of the Venezuelan state of Miranda and figurehead of the moderate opposition, called for street protests this week against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. While Capriles stressed that he was not calling violent political demonstra- tions, it risks comparison with the protests organised last February by Leopoldo López, which landed him in jail. At the time Capriles distanced himself from López saying that the timing of his protests was wrong and would not win the hearts and minds of Venezuelans. He now appears to have calculated that they could be won through their stomachs. Acute shortages of food and other basic products have led to vast queues forming outside supermarkets in Caracas and cities in other states.
Capriles, the twice presidential candidate of the opposition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD), warned President Maduro on 11 January that the people were getting “desperate” and that “patience is running out”. Capriles said that the scarcity of food and other essential products for everyday use since the start of the year had been so severe that he could not in all conscience ignore the plight of ordinary Venezuelans. After meeting other MUD opposition figureheads, such as María Corina Machado, and leaders of López’s Voluntad Popular (VP), Capriles announced the following day that he had agreed with the MUD to call street protests.