Socialists Enjoying Exercise: Venezuelan President Chased by Angry Protesters 

The confrontation occurred at a routine political event just days after thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to call for Nicolás Maduro’s ouster.

President Nicolás Maduro was chased at a routine political event by angry protesters banging on pots and yelling that they were hungry.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Nicholas Casey reports: President Nicolás Maduro was chased at a routine political event by a crowd of angry protesters banging on pots and yelling that they were hungry, just days after thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to call for his ouster, local news media reported on Saturday.

[Read the full story here, at The New York Times]

Scenes from the confrontation late Friday, which also appeared in videos uploaded to social media, captured the attention of Venezuelans, many of whom blame the unpopular president for the country’s food shortages.

In one video, Mr. Maduro tries to calm the pot-bangers by walking among them, only to be surrounded as the furious crowd yells obscenities.

“What is this?” an astounded voice behind the camera asks in one of the video clips.

Mr. Maduro had traveled from the capital, Caracas, to Margarita Island off Venezuela’s northern coast to inaugurate a number of new public housing units and give a televised address.

During the speech, he denounced his opponents’ calls for his removal from office, calling them “vampires” and saying they were preparing for violence.

Foro Penal, a Venezuelan human rights group, said 20 people had been arrested after the protest in the island town of Villa Rosa. Mr. Maduro’s office made no statement about the episode.

Venezuelan politicians wasted little time on Saturday in using the confrontation to advance their agendas.

“The people of Villa Rosa in Margarita have no fear,” wrote Henrique Capriles, an opposition governor who lost to Mr. Maduro in the presidential election in 2013. “Through banging pots, Maduro was run out of town.”

Pedro Carvajalino, a pro-government television anchorman, said the protesters had been sent by Mr. Capriles and other members of the opposition.

“It was a lack of respect to presidential dignity,” Mr. Carvajalino said…(read more)

Source: The New York Times

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