Venezuelans weary but determined after month of protests

Anti government demonstrators clash with police in Caracas on Feb. 28, 2014. / Miguel Gutierrez, European Pressphoto Agency

CARACAS, Venezuela - Living in the hills above the Caracas slum of Antimano, Deisy Guzman says her life has been hell since protests erupted one month ago.

Markets in her neighborhood have run out of food, forcing her to take buses to the city center for hard-to-find provisions. Buses often can't make the trip because of barricades her neighbors have erected in the main street or because of clashes between students and security forces.

At night, her neighbors - many of whom voted for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in April, but have since changed their allegiances - bang their pots and pans in protest whenever the president makes televised addresses.

'My nerves are shot,' says Guzman, 37, who makes a living selling beer and soft drinks from her cinder-block house. 'And I am sure it's only going to get worse. I don't think Maduro can hang on for long, but I'm afraid what might follow.'

Guzman isn't alone.

A month of street fighting and protests by university students has left many Venezuelan cities looking like war zones. In the eastern part of Caracas, an opposition stronghold, stones, trash, concrete blocks and tree trunks litter the streets. In the mornings, protesters use them to build barricades, which are then attacked in the evenings by security forces.

Since the protests began Feb. 2, 18 people have died, and hundreds have been wounded. More than a thousand have been arrested. The demonstrations have been spearheaded by university students, who have attacked what they say is the country's deteriorating economic situation, soaring crime, corruption and the erosion of civil liberties.

The violence is the worst to hit Venezuela since a short-lived coup against Hugo Châvez in 2002, and has again laid bare the divisions in this deeply polarized country.

'My dog is so scared by all the fighting, all she does is cower in fear,' says Alicia Rodriguez, a 70-year-old pensioner who lives in front of one of the many barricades in the upper-middle-class Caracas neighborhood of Altamira, where fighting is a nearly daily occurrence.

'She hears any explosion and she runs for cover. But we have to support the students. The Venezuela they are fighting for is the Venezuela I want.'

Graffiti, including writings of 'no dictatorship,' marks many of the buildings along Rodriguez's leafy street. Protesters have painted 'resistance zone' on the road, itself. Many of the residents carry handkerchiefs, saying they can still smell tear gas used by the National Guard.

Maduro has attempted to defuse the crisis - the worst in his 10-month-old presidency - by ordering the country's National Guard and police forces to restore order while also offering to hold dialogue with the students and their backers.

Miranda Gov. Henrique Capriles Radonski and his allies have so far refused to meet with Maduro, saying his calls for a dialogue are a sham and adding talks are impossible while the government is 'brutally repressing' students.

However, business leaders have entered into talks with Maduro in hopes of gaining concessions to revive the economy, which is suffering from food shortages and soaring prices that could push the country's inflation rate above 60%.

Business leaders bluntly told Maduro during a nationally televised conference that the government's economic policies - including foreign exchange controls, restrictive labor laws and a new decree that limits corporate profits to 30% - were a disaster and had caused the problems that had ignited the student protests.

'Maduro is buying time with the talks,' says Caracas-based political analyst Tarek Yorde. 'But the danger is that if there aren´t concrete results in eight to 10 days, the businessmen and religious leaders will likely withdraw leaving the government even more isolated.'

Yorde says Maduro could help his cause by freeing jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and students arrested during the protests. So far, he has refused to.

'I hope that our president is sincere in his desire for talks because it's only through dialogue that we can solve this crisis,' says Cupertino Hernandez, a 45-year-old banker who describes himself as a strong supporter of the president although he doesn't support the strong-armed tactics of the police. 'The students are protesting but they don't know what they are protesting for. They are protesting just to protest.'

As more student protests and countering government rallies and parades are planned in the coming week, passions could be inflamed after cooling a bit during the Carnaval holidays, which Maduro extended by two days.

'Venezuela is like an aggrieved woman,' says Simeon Gonzalez, a 23-year-old university student who has participated in the protests. 'She accepts that her husband is running around, having lovers, mistreating her. She will accept it for a long time. But when she snaps, when she can´t take it anymore, she explodes and she can´t be controlled. Venezuela is like that woman, and she´s had enough.'

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