{"id":181,"date":"2016-10-27T03:05:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T03:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=181"},"modified":"2016-10-27T03:05:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T03:05:43","slug":"injuries-at-venezuela-protests-against-president-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2016\/10\/27\/injuries-at-venezuela-protests-against-president-maduro\/","title":{"rendered":"Injuries at Venezuela protests against President Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"

BBC:<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 20 people have been injured and 39 detained during anti-government protests in Venezuela, a local rights group has said.<\/p>\n

Images circulated on social media of injured people on the ground. There are reports at least three were shot.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against President Nicolas Maduro’s government.<\/p>\n

It came after a recall referendum process – an attempt to remove Mr Maduro from power- was suspended.<\/p>\n

Opposition activists had gathered about 200,000 signatures petitioning for a recall referendum.<\/p>\n

But the process was halted last week. Officials said the signature collection process has been marred by fraud.<\/p>\n

The country’s opposition-led parliament voted on Tuesday to open a trial against Mr Maduro<\/a>, whom MPs accuse of violating the constitution.<\/p>\n

What’s behind Venezuela’s turmoil?<\/a><\/p>\n

Protesters clashed with security forces across the country, particularly in the western cities of San Cristobal and Maracaibo.<\/p>\n

“The referendum was our constitutional right, and they have denied it. What are they scared of?” said Grimaldi Lopez at the rally in the capital, Caracas.<\/p>\n

Using the hashtag #TomadeVenezuela or “Venezuela takeover”, people shared images of injured and bloodied protesters.<\/p>\n

Alfredo Romero, leader of a human rights NGO, tweeted a picture of an injured 79-year-old woman, and said more than 20 people had been injured in the city of Merida<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n

Mr Maduro addressed a rival rally of supporters in Caracas, saying: “Let the people decide.”<\/p>\n

Opposition leaders have called for a mass walk-out on Friday. After the general strike, if the government continues to block the recall referendum process, the opposition threatened to march on the presidential palace – something it has not been allowed to do since a march there in 2002 started a short-lived coup against the former president, Hugo Chavez.<\/p>\n

Mr Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, is blamed by the opposition for Venezuela’s dire economic situation. The oil-rich country is facing widespread food shortages and spiralling inflation.<\/p>\n

In turn, he has accused the opposition of having links to foreign states, the US in particular, and of seeking to overthrow him to “lay their hands on Venezuela’s oil riches”.<\/p>\n

Under Venezuela’s constitution, a recall referendum can be held once a president has served half of his term in office and the requisite steps are met.<\/p>\n

So far, the opposition has completed the first step of the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC: More than 20 people have been injured and 39 detained during anti-government protests in Venezuela, a local rights group has said. Images circulated on social media of injured people on the ground. There are reports at least three were shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}