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Venezuelan Pre. Maduro counters by ‘ordering arrest of entrepreneurs’

Venezuelan Pre. Maduro counters by ‘ordering arrest of entrepreneurs’

Posted May. 16, 2016 07:34,   

Updated May. 16, 2016 07:38

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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is under heavy pressure to resign due to severe economic slump, on Saturday ordered his government to arrest entrepreneurs of companies whose operation was suspended, and forfeit their facilities. As a specific action to implement following a 60-day national emergency that he declared on Friday, Maduro is directly targeting rightist forces who are resisting his leftist government.

In his speech at the Ibarra Square in Caracas on the day, Madura said, “People who stopped production to destroy the national economy should be handcuffed and put in jail,” adding, “All means should be mobilized to revive production capacity that has been paralyzed by bourgeois (capitalists).” President Maduro also said that the current economy was caused by invasions by external forces and ordered military drills to prepare for aggression by foreign forces, AFP and other media organizations reported.

Amid this situation, looting incidents by people to secure living necessities have occurred in many parts of the country, as chaos is further aggravating. The Guardian reported on Friday that looting for living necessities such as flour, chicken meat and underwear has occurred. When a truck carrying living necessities including salt and shampoo rolled over after being rear-ended and dumped cargoes on the road in an accident on Thursday in Táchira State, people plundered goods en masse and ran away. On the same day, masked assailants riding motor bikes attempted to steal 650 sacks of flour in Merida State, before being deterred by soldiers.

The human rights organization, Venezuelan social conflict monitoring center, tallied the number of looting incidents that happened from January to March at 107 in total.

Earlier, the opposition group submitted documents containing signatures by 1.8 million people to the national election commission last week in an attempt to oust the president through a recall election. Citing a ranking official from a U.S. intelligence agency, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that a coup, overthrowing of the administration or massive violence could happen in Venezuela, and the U.S. government is also concerned about such a situation.



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