By Diego Ore
CARACAS, May 8 (Reuters) – Residents of La Limonera
neighborhood in Venezuela’s capital Caracas are still on edge
and in mourning after a wave of post-election violence that
killed two people in their community.
Neighbors of the low-income settlement say opposition
protesters threw Molotov cocktails and fired shots amid
nationwide demonstrations after President Nicolas Maduro won a
narrow victory against challenger Henrique Capriles.
Nine people died around Venezuela, authorities say.
The opposition questions the government’s version of the
events, dismissing accusations that various state-run clinics
were burned down across Venezuela and suggesting some of the
deaths were from the country’s notoriously high murder rate.
Establishing the truth is not just a matter of historic
record, but a crucial factor going forward in Venezuela’s
explosive transition to the post-Hugo Chavez era.
Government investigations into the post-vote unrest could
lead to criminal charges against Henrique Capriles, the
opposition leader who won 49 percent of the votes and is
refusing to accept Maduro’s win.
While Capriles insists Maduro “stole” the presidential vote,
the president counters that the trouble afterwards demonstrated
that he was planning a coup d’etat. South American neighbors
have urged dialogue, but so far there is no sign of that.
The violence has not been just on the street: A brawl in
parliament last week between pro- and anti-government fractions
left 11 legislators from both sides injured. Two opposition
parliamentarians were particularly badly hurt, one with a
bloodied and bruised face, another with a fractured nose.
Each side has its own version of the events after the April
14 vote – a pattern typical of the polarization of the South
American OPEC nation under Chavez’s 14-year socialist rule.
DISCORD AND DEATH
In La Limonera, a “socialist city” Chavez created last year
to house some 430 poor families in new tower-blocks, there is
outrage at the violence and fear of more. Residents on
motorcycles and soldiers now patrol the area, surrounded by
middle-class homes.
“You may not agree with me, but you have no right to shoot
me, set off rockets, or bang pots and pans every night while my
kids are trying to sleep,” said Oscar Canizales, 21, a resident
who patrols on motorcycle.
When official results showed him narrowly losing, Capriles
on the night of Sunday, April 14 called on supporters to demand
a full recount by marching in the streets.
A day later, opposition protesters near La Limonera went to
a state-run clinic staffed by doctors from Cuba who were hired
through a Chavez-era oil-for-services deal.
Witnesses interviewed by Reuters said about 100 protesters
surrounded the clinic for around two hours shouting slogans such
as “Get out Cubans, we don’t want you here,” banging pots and
pans in a rowdy “cacerolazo” protest.
Maduro sympathizers including hairdresser Rosiris Reyes and
carpenter Jose Luis Ponce arrived to protect the clinic from
harm, witnesses and relatives said. As the protest died down
they began returning home, but never made it.
“From a Toyota, someone starting shooting and shouting
opposition slogans. One of the bullets hit my mother in the
back,” said 15-year-old Yonylexis Reyes, who lives with two
brothers in a small apartment decorated with the posters with
the faces of Maduro and Chavez.
“She fell off the motorcycle and we took her to the
hospital.” Her mother died two days later.
Ponce was also shot while returning from the clinic,
according to witnesses. A family member said one person was
later wounded at his funeral by a shot fired from a neighborhood
near La Limonera.
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas several days later
said Johny Pacheco, whom he identified as another “defender of
the clinic,” was shot in the head “without being robbed.”
Local media quoted Pacheco’s family saying he was in fact
killed during an attempt to steal his car, a version also given
by residents.
INVESTIGATION
At the entrance to the community, the words “Capriles
murderer” are written in red paint. A special legislative
commission is investigating allegations he spurred the violence,
and one minister has vowed to put him behind bars.
The opposition says the violence has been exaggerated in
state media to distract from irregularities on the day of the
vote. Capriles is challenging it in the country’s highest court.
In La Limonera, witnesses confirmed that the clinic where
the opposition protests took place had not in fact been set on
fire, as asserted by government leaders.
Reuters visits to that and another of the Caracas-based
clinics known as CDIs indicated that they had suffered no
evident damage and that they were functioning normally.
“If they had attacked us we would not be open, because we
would be too scared,” said the director of one the centers who
asked not to be identified.
Venezuelan human rights group Provea later released a report
saying it had found no evidence that any of the CDIs had been
attacked – drawing furious criticism from government leaders
including Villegas.
Two provincial headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party
were set on fire, state media said, but nobody has been detained
in connection with those incidents.
Security forces have detained close to 250 demonstrators
around the country. The opposition has accused soldiers of
beating some of them until they chanted pro-government slogans.
Opposition activist Delsa Solorzano said their only crime
had been to bang pots and pans in protest. “We didn’t know that
having a pan and a metal spoon was terrorism,” said Solorzano.
The instability has unsettled markets, with Venezuelan debt
prices falling since the post-election violence.
“It is hard to ignore the recent headlines of
growing political tension and open outbreaks of violence between
the opposition and Chavista politicians. The realization is that
the political risk is much higher in the post-Chavez era,” said
Jefferies’ Latin American expert Siobhan Morden.
(Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and
Cynthia Osterman)
