Local Venezuelans demonstrate against Maduro

About a dozen people from the Las Vegas Valley and its local Venezuelan community lined the corner of Las Vegas and Oakey boulevards on Sunday as part of a worldwide demonstration against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Dressed in white to symbolize peace, demonstrators stood in front of Viva Las Arepas restaurant, donning Venezuelan flags and holding signs in protest of what they called government corruption and a lack of civil rights in their home country. The demonstration was one of 17 protests taking place Sunday in major United States’ cities and 24 across the world.

“It’s so bad right now with Maduro,” said Dalia Suarez, president of the Venezuela Cultural Foundation of Las Vegas. “Our country is under a complete dictatorship.”

Since the Venezuelan leader took office in 2013, inflation in the country has risen an estimated 56 percent, according to data from the CIA. Venezuela also ranks 176th of 178 countries in the Heritage Foundation’s 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, ahead of only North Korea and Cuba.

Suarez, who moved to the United States 20 years ago from the Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto, said she also hopes to raise awareness of the fear faced by her family and many others still living in her home country.

In 2014, dozens of protesters in Venezuela were killed in demonstrations against Maduro’s regime, and more than 4,000 people were imprisoned, beaten and tortured, according to reports.

On March 9, the United States declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven government officials. The White House also asked the South American country to release its political prisoners, including “dozens of students,” according to Reuters.

“We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said March 9.

Sunday’s demonstration was the third at Viva Las Arepas since February 2014. Although Sunday’s turnout was lower than the previous two, Suarez hopes awareness of Venezuela’s problems will continue to spread across the English-speaking world.

“Most people in the Latin American world are aware of what’s going on,” Suarez said. “Now it’s about telling the English-speaking world.

A YouTube video for the demonstration, posted by Nopodemos Callarnos, lists electoral fraud, shortage of medicine, impunity and public health among issues that were protested. The group used the Twitter hashtags #FreeVenezuela and #NoPodemosCallarnos (“We cannot be silent” in Spanish).

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.