AMERICA/VENEZUELA - On Independence Day, assault against Parliament

Thursday, 6 July 2017 politics human rights democracy violence

VENEZUELA

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Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - A day of tension was experienced yesterday in Venezuela: on the one hand the celebration of the 206th anniversary of the signing of the Act of Independence, on the other the violence in parliament, symbol until yesterday of the untouchable democracy of the country. According to agency sources, a group of about one hundred militant chavists entered Parliament with force and about 350 people remained under siege for over nine hours.
Deputies, officials and journalists who were in the parliament suffered aggressive, and about a dozen were wounded. At the end of the assault, Julio Borges, the President of the National Assembly, told the press: "This group of people, paid by the government, came here to kidnap not MPs or journalists, but Venezuelan popular sovereignty, our democracy...".
Through social media, this violent act was condemned both by the rulers of many South American countries and by the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani. Just a few days ago, Cardinal Urosa Savino, Archbishop of Caracas, had defined the position of President Maduro's government as "a government war against the people", and explained: "We Bishops ask the national government to reconsider the situation , to lay down the attitude of setting up a totalitarian militarist-Marxist system in Venezuela and, of course, and to desist from using legal resources to dismantle the state.
All this is reprehensible and intolerable and it is not what most of the Venezuelan people want" (see Fides 1/07/2017).
During the Angelus on Sunday, July 2, the pope recalled that July 5 is the country's independence day: I assure my prayer for this beloved nation. I appeal for an end to violence and call for a peaceful and democratic solution to the crisis". (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 06/07/2017)