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July 21st, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Millions of Venezuelans participate in the 24-hour national strike organized by the Roundtable of Democratic Unity, the Workers’ Confederation, the private sector industry and civil society organizations. Senior Venezuelan UN diplomat Isaias Medina broke with President Maduro and announced that he leaves Venezuela’s UN mission to fight impunity.
Millions of citizens in Venezuela participate in the first national strike since 2002 and a civil disobedience campaign, despite fears of violence. The strike was organized by the Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition, the Worker’s Confederation as well as private sector businesses, and a cohort of other political and grassroots organizations. Protesters hope to stop the Maduro administration’s and the socialist PSUV’s attempt to change the 1999 Constitution adopted under the late Hugo Chavez, to reinstate the suspended legislative branch of government and to hold elections as soon as possible.
Several streets across the country were barricaded and deserted after the strike. Millions stayed at home, closed their businesses to participate in the 24-hour shutdown, with people manning roadblocks in Caracas holding signs that read, “Get rid of this tyrant,” and “No To Dictatorship!” Many private transportation groups too heeded the strike call, as students, neighbors and activists hauled rubbish and furniture into streets to erect makeshift barriers.
President Nicolas Maduro, in a speech, vowed some of the strike leaders would be jailed and insisted the action was minimal, with the 700 leading food businesses, for example, still working. It should be noted that the administration had warned that personnel in State-run businesses who participate in the strike “would be punished”.
Road block and call “against” violence.
However, Maduro claimed that the opposition supporters attacked the headquarters of state TV and burned a kiosk of the government postal service, but were repelled by workers and soldiers.
It should also be noted that the “opposition” hold an absolute majority in the suspended parliament – the functions of the National Assembly have been usurped by the Supreme Court, claiming the legislative branch is “in contempt of court”. Blaming a Caracas district mayor, Carlos Ocariz, Maduro said, “I’ve ordered the capture of all the fascist terrorists.”
Some clashes broke out and security forces fired tear gas at protesters manning barricades, youths shot fireworks at them from homemade mortars. For four months now, anti-government unrest has claimed about 100 lives, injuring thousands, and leaving hundreds in jail. The unrest has further damaged an economy in its fourth year of a debilitating decline.
Senior UN diplomat breaks with Maduro
The Maduro administration and the PSUV suffered an additional setback when Isaias Medina appeared in a video circulating on Thursday, saying he was leaving the U.N. mission to “fight impunity” in Venezuela, which is heaving from a brutal economic crisis and nearly four months of street protests. Medina, who appeared to be speaking in the video from the U.N.’s New York headquarters said:
“I would like to call on this government to stop the killings, to stop the violation of human rights, to reconsider and reflect on their position and think about the importance of the country as a whole. … They (the government) can do whatever they want, but know this: What I am doing is the correct thing to do, and I assume full responsibility for it.”
He is not the first high-profile person to break with the Maduro regime. Another “dissident” is Attorney General Luisa Ortega, who was slammed with a travel ban and an asset freeze for her dissent while the PSUV dominated Supreme Court limited her prosecutorial powers.
However, Venezuela’s Ambassador to the United Nations Rafael Ramirez claimed Medina had acted in a “dishonest” way and had been fired. Ra, a former official in Venezuela’s State oil company, said: “I strongly and categorically reject the declarations and position taken up by the ex-official at our mission. … He does not represent us. He has behaved in a dishonest manner.”
CH/L – nsnbc 21.07.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/07/21/millions-of-venezuelans-participate-in-strike-senior-un-diplomat-breaks-with-maduro/
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