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Venezuela- crime and price

By: Rentse Khiba

The recent protests in Venezuela have gone from ‘irrelevant’ to receiving world-wide attention.

 

The protests, which have left the country in civil unrest, started in early February 2014. Citizens were peacefully protesting against the high levels of crime and violence within the country, including the increasing prices of food and basic household necessities. The protests have left more than 1000 arrested and 29 dead.

 

 

Protests were initiated after former beauty queen Miss Venezuela Monica Spear and her husband were killed during a roadside robbery gone wrong on the 6th January 2014.

 

Even though the country makes a lot of money from providing different countries with oil, it seems that the money

being made is not being used to improve the country’s economic environment.

 

The Venezuelan government’s strict price-controls have also contributed to country’s having one of the highest

inflation rates in the world… and this has also enraged civilians and left them barely able to buy decent

household supplies.

"I spend five or six hours in a queue just to buy two packets of flour or two bottles of cooking oil," says pensioner

Pedro Perez, 64, who took part in the opposition rally. "Also, I'm protesting over insecurity and the lies this

government tells Venezuelans, bringing Cuban soldiers here… this is an ungovernable country, we can't carry on like this."

The protests, which were kept hidden from the international media by the Venezuelan government by means of blocking all the news channels, surfaced after a Venezuelan native leaked a video of himself documenting what was taking place within the country. Soon after, elements of the international media shifted their focus onto the country and its civil unrest.

 

President Nicolas Maduro blamed the increases on an ‘Economic War’ thatis being waged against him and his government. But Venezuelans refuse to believe that is the case and the country has plunged into full protest mode.

 

On the 3rd of March, a meeting between United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua resulted in a statement saying that General Ki-moon ‘reiterated his hope to see reduced tensions and the necessary conditions to engage in meaningful dialogue’… but the statement was not welcomed.

The latest news involving Venezuela is that Air Canada has stopped all flights to Venezuela until the civil unrest is solved… which doesn’t look likely anytime soon.

‘Venezuelan Spring’ is what these series of protests have been dubbed as they bears similarity to the on-going ‘Arab Spring’ - a series of anti-government protests that took place in the Middle East in 2011.

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