Venezuela Death Toll Rises, Chaos Is The New Normal

Venezuela’s socialist slide into a failed state continued as a 20-year-old protester was shot in the head and killed by state forces as opposition forces gear up for ever-increasing demonstrations.

Hecder Lugo was killed during fighting between demonstrators and state security forces in the city of Valencia. The confrontation also resulted in four other injuries.

The death toll continues to rise. Almost three dozen have been murdered by Nicolas Maduro’s forces, more than 700 have been injured and 152 locked up in jail in response to widespread riots around the country of 30 million people.

The numbers, however, might be dramatically undercounted, as they are “official” figures from the Venezuelan government.

In the same city, protesters destroyed a statue of the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

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READ MORE:
Reuters: Venezuela unrest death toll rises, Chavez statue destroyed
The Guardian: Hugo Chávez statue toppled during Venezuela riots
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The footage shows the statue, depicting Chavez saluting and wearing a sash, being torn down to cheers from the crowd. It is repeatedly smashed on the ground as rioters swore and cursed the leftist dictator.

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Venezuela protesters tear down statue of Hugo Chavez

Retweet = remind people what socialism leads topic.twitter.com/6UStaUES8n

— NIRP Umbrella (@NIRPUmbrella) May 7, 2017

“Students destroyed this statue of Chavez. They accuse him, correctly, of destroying their future,” opposition lawmaker Carlos Valero said about the incident, which was also reported in local media. Reuters was unable to independently confirm it.

Maduro has insisted that the demonstrations – the food shortages, the rampant inflation – are all part of an imperialist coup attempt by foreign forces, led by the US Government.

The opposition now has support from a majority of the Venezuelan people. The oil-rich nation used to be the wealthiest on the South American continent, enjoying a standard of living that rivaled most other Western nations.

But years of leftist price controls, takeovers and private property seizures have left the nation a crippled shell of its former self.

Now people are dying of starvation in numbers that one equates with countries in Africa.

On Saturday, the country’s women took to the streets across the country, protesting the Maduro regume. Wearing the white shirts of the opposition, the women sang the national anthem and chanted, “Who are we? Venezuela! What do we want? Freedom!”

The protest movement has drawn masses of people into the street nearly every day since March, and shows no sign of slowing. On Saturday, some of the women marchers approached soldiers in riot gear to offer them white roses and invite them to join the cause.

“What will you tell your kids later on?” one woman asked