Critical Observer

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DQkec2dlX-5kn-g7Dv33xxEcKtqNNLlnbf4ZeTIUiF3JxobZJzzSSme3QZiynwhbBD_nMD0xrJuxPGl74Pe1XyT1f84NrUu_fbOCs96rcr9E2oCAxZZlsky-vuudlXQAGycD2dBOSRQ/s1600/22Israel-web-superJumbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DQkec2dlX-5kn-g7Dv33xxEcKtqNNLlnbf4ZeTIUiF3JxobZJzzSSme3QZiynwhbBD_nMD0xrJuxPGl74Pe1XyT1f84NrUu_fbOCs96rcr9E2oCAxZZlsky-vuudlXQAGycD2dBOSRQ/s640/22Israel-web-superJumbo.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<h5 class="story-body__introduction" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 1.375;">One national guard member has been killed and over 100 injured in violent protests outside Ukraine's parliament, the interior ministry said. </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 1.375;">Clashes between nationalists and riot police erupted after MPs gave initial backing to reforms for more autonomy in the rebel-held east.</span></span></h5>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some in the crowd lobbed what police said were live grenades at office</span>rs protecting parliament.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The reforms are part of a peace plan to end fighting in eastern Ukraine.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, said the violence was "a stab in the back".</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Protesters led by the populist Radical Party and the ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party - who oppose any concession to the Russian-backed separatists - gathered outside parliament early on Monday.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After a rowdy debate, 265 MPs out of 450 backed the first reading of the decentralisation bill, granting more powers to areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Initially, there were only minor clashes but a BBC correspondent then heard small explosions followed by a much larger one - apparently from a grenade.</span></div>
<figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Smoke outside Ukraine parliament (31 August)" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/11524/production/_85284907_ukraine.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/11524/production/_85284907_ukraine.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A missile was hurled at the ranks of riot police standing between the protesters and parliament</span></span></figcaption></figure><hr class="story-body__line" style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 16px;" />
<h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">'Pools of blood': Svyatoslav Khomenko, BBC News, Kiev</span></h2>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The demonstrators numbered barely more than a few dozen - mainly young men, most of them masked. They started the fights with police, but others supported them.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The protesters tried to pull the policemen away from their lines. They beat them and took their shields and helmets. Soon about a dozen young men were almost as well-equipped as the police.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Several times the atmosphere near the building seemed to calm down for a while, with clashes starting up again. And then the explosions began.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I saw some people - policemen and firemen - falling to the ground, and some running away from the site, limping. I saw pools of blood just near the wall of parliament.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="story-body__link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34107489" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.298039); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Violent clashes outside Kiev's parliament</span></a></div>
<hr class="story-body__line" style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 16px;" />
<figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="National guardsman in Kiev" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/3A0A/production/_85285841_img_0162.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/3A0A/production/_85285841_img_0162.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The number of wounded quickly climbed as security forces tried to hold the protesters back</span></span></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ukrainian Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, said some 30 people have been detained, including a Svoboda member who confessed to throwing a grenade.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the 122 people hospitalised, more than 11 were in a critical condition, the minister added.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He bitterly criticised Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok, <a class="story-body__link-external" href="https://www.facebook.com/arsen.avakov.1?fref=ts" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.298039); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">writing on Facebook </a>that several explosive devices had been thrown by people wearing Svoboda T-shirts.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A policeman's leg was torn off below the knee in the blast, Interfax Ukraine reported, while journalists at the scene were also reported injured.</span></div>
<h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Shaky peace</span></h2>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Almost 7,000 people have died since the conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in March 2014, after Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pushing through greater autonomy for the rebel-held areas is a key part of the Minsk peace deal, originally signed in February.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">During the summer, fighting between Ukrainian army forces and the rebels has escalated. But the two sides agreed last week to halt the violence on 1 September, the day children in the region return to school.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the number of ceasefire violations appears to have fallen in recent days, OSCE monitors have warned that neither side was respecting the truce.</span></div>
<figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Smoke bomb hurled at national guard (31 August)" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/882A/production/_85285843_028795863-1.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/882A/production/_85285843_028795863-1.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Firecrackers and petrol bombs were hurled at the lines of national guardsmen</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="National guardsman being moved to safety" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/14792/production/_85285838_img_0165.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/14792/production/_85285838_img_0165.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Colleagues helped take wounded national guardsmen to safety</span></span></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Under the draft constitutional changes going through parliament, there will be a special law covering local government in rebel-held areas.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, parliament speaker Volodymyr Hroysman was adamant that would not mean special status for Donetsk and Luhansk, which rebel leaders have declared republics.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In a national address late on Monday, President Poroshenko said if the proposals had been voted down, Ukraine would have been left "one-to-one against the aggressor".</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The reforms must still pass a second reading, which correspondents say will be a tall order for the Ukrainian leader.</span></div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption full-width" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="map" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/5D8C/production/_85284932_ukraine_rebel_held_areas_25_08_2015_624map.png" height="446" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/5D8C/production/_85284932_ukraine_rebel_held_areas_25_08_2015_624map.png" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="624" /></span><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Article Source: BBC News</span></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>

UKRAINE CRISIS: NEW DEADLY PROTESTS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT

One national guard member has been killed and over 100 injured in violent protests outside Ukraine's parliament, the interior ministr...

Read Article »

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXmdeQDepNB9ghsUTWnENcK_voEy886Gu5TySl9mQ3UW5KSbCIZukKxTsQlm5EyhqOp1SZIuJslx4Q4C5HPgBwwwHddZCTKETZQ2LKgsVqKZPQa4DMDVfKApML_2kV826qzK1egr6MlPY/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXmdeQDepNB9ghsUTWnENcK_voEy886Gu5TySl9mQ3UW5KSbCIZukKxTsQlm5EyhqOp1SZIuJslx4Q4C5HPgBwwwHddZCTKETZQ2LKgsVqKZPQa4DMDVfKApML_2kV826qzK1egr6MlPY/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
LA SIBUCARA, Venezuela—Hours after they looted and set fire to a National Guard command post in this sun-baked corner of Venezuela earlier this month, a mob infuriated by worsening food shortages rammed trucks into the smoldering edifice, reducing it mostly to rubble.<br />
<br />
The incident was just one of numerous violent clashes that have flared in pockets around the country in recent weeks as Venezuelans wait for hours in long supermarket lines for basics like milk and rice. Shortages have made hunger a palpable concern for many Wayuu Indians who live here at the northern tip of Venezuela’s 1,300-mile border with Colombia.<br />
<br />
The soldiers had been deployed to stem rampant food smuggling and price speculation, which President Nicolás Maduro blames for triple-digit inflation and scarcity. But after they seize contraband goods, the troops themselves often become targets of increasingly desperate people.<br />
<br />
“What’s certain is that we are going very hungry here and the children are suffering a lot,” said María Palma, a 55-year-old grandmother who on a recent blistering hot day had been standing in line at the grocery store since 3 a.m. before walking away empty-handed at midday.<br />
<br />
In a national survey, the pollster Consultores 21 found 30% of Venezuelans eating two or fewer meals a day during the second quarter of this year, up from 20% in the first quarter. Around 70% of people in the study also said they had stopped buying some basic food item because it had become<br />
<br />
Food-supply problems in Venezuela underscore the increasingly precarious situation for Mr. Maduro’s socialist government, which according to the latest poll by Datanálisis is preferred by less than 20% of voters ahead of Dec. 6 parliamentary elections. The critical situation threatens to plunge South America’s largest oil exporter into a wave of civil unrest reminiscent of last year’s nationwide demonstrations seeking Mr. Maduro’s ouster.<br />
<br />
“It’s a national crisis,” said Marco Ponce, head of the Venezuela Observatory of Social Conflict, noting that unlike the political protests of last year, residents are now taking to the streets demanding social rights.<br />
<br />
The nonprofit group recorded 500 protests over food shortages during the first half of 2015, 56 looting incidents and dozens of attempted lootings at grocery stores, pharmacies and warehouses. Even delivery trucks are frequently targeted. “If people aren’t outside protesting, they’re outside standing in line for goods,” Mr. Ponce said.<br />
<br />
The unrest is a response to dramatically worsening living conditions for Venezuelans as the economy reels from oil’s slump following more than a decade of populist spending that left the government broke.<br />
<br />
In past years, when oil prices were high, Venezuela’s leftist government flooded markets with subsidized goods ranging from cooking oil to diapers. It gave citizens in border towns like La Sibucara not only access to cheap supplies, but also a source of income as many people trafficked products—including nearly free gasoline—to neighboring Colombia, drawing handsome profits.<br />
<br />
With the government now struggling to pay for imports, there is less inventory to go around. In recent days, Mr. Maduro upped the ante by ordering troops along the border to seize contraband, deporting hundreds of Colombians whom the government blames for smuggling and shortages.<br />
<br />
Armed soldiers monitor supermarkets as part of an effort the president calls “Operation People’s Liberation.” More than 6,000 alleged smugglers have been arrested this year, according to the attorney general’s office. Images of soldiers posing with handcuffed suspects and stacks of decommissioned goods are splashed on state media.<br />
<br />
“We’re going to get to the root of the problem,” Mr. Maduro said in a national address last week after a shootout with smugglers in the frontier state of Táchira left three National Guard troops injured and pushed Venezuela to shut key border crossings.<br />
<br />
The smugglers targeted by the government crackdown are called bachaqueros, named after a leaf-cutter ant that can carry many times its weight. The word, first used here in the northwestern state of Zulia, has become part of daily national parlance as a label for Venezuelans who buy price-controlled goods and resell them for profit on the black market.<br />
<br />
While the government blames the shortages on bachaqueros, economists say they are the consequence of price controls and a broken economic model that has left average Venezuelans with diminishing employment options.<br />
<br />
“The people that used to give us work—the private companies, the rich—have all gone,” said Ms. Palma in La Sibucara, adding that she also occasionally traffics goods to get by. “It’s not the greatest business but we don’t have work and we have to find a way to eat.”<br />
<br />
Earlier this month, Venezuela’s military raided homes and warehouse around the town, seizing tons of allegedly hoarded goods that were destined to leave Venezuela or be resold on the black market for well above the state-set price.<br />
<br />
Lisandro Uriana, who had a black eye and a bandaged leg, said he and two friends were badly beaten up when a neighbor’s house was raided. “They didn’t say or ask us anything,” recalled the 46-year-old Wayuu father of four, who lives in a tin-roofed house of two rooms. “They just beat us and we couldn’t defend ourselves because they were armed and were many. I don’t even smuggle…and now I can’t even get up to work.”<br />
<br />
The day of the raids, neighbors said residents pleaded with troops at the National Guard command post to distribute seized food to non-smugglers but were turned away. An angry mob soon formed, sending soldiers fleeing before they attacked the office and even stripped it of scrap metal.<br />
<br />
“These are just some isolated cases,” Manuel Graterol, a National Guard general overseeing operations in La Sibucara on a recent day, said, blaming the unrest and the bachaquero phenomenon on opponents of Mr. Maduro’s government.<br />
<br />
“Many of them are being shameless,” said Gen. Graterol. “They’re committing treason against our country, taking food and crossing the border.”<br />
<br />
But such food fights have broken out in numerous small municipalities around the state of Zulia. In the nearby town of Sinamaica, the ground floor of the mayor’s office was set on fire in early August following a wave of unrest that included gangs looting delivery trucks. The unrest, locals said, began after police detained a truck loaded with rice.<br />
<br />
Street vendor Robert Guzmán, wearing a red pro-government T-shirt, said the sacking was justified. “We are very peaceful people,” Mr. Guzmán said of his Wayuu community, “but what happened was an act of desperation. I think this is going to get worse.”<br />
<br />
Resident Yusleidy Márquez said she too fears the worst. The basket of subsidized food the government gives her mother every 15 days only feeds her family for two days. Lately, she only eats a cornmeal patty for lunch because she can’t afford more.<br />
<br />
“I think we’re going to die of hunger,” she said.<br />
<br />
by By MAOLIS CASTRO And  KEJAL VYAS of The Wall Street Journal

Food Shortages in Venezuela: Long Lines, Hunger and Looting

LA SIBUCARA, Venezuela—Hours after they looted and set fire to a National Guard command post in this sun-baked corner of Venezuela earlie...

Read Article »