CARACAS.- Venezuelans continued to protest in the streets throughout 2023, especially over low wages, the collapse of public services, the lack of public policies, and corruption. This is clear from the most recent report from the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS), which documented the occurrence of 6,956 protests last year in the South American country, a figure equivalent to about 19 protests daily throughout the country.
According to the report, 80% of the protests were related to the demand for Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (Desca). In this line, workers led demonstrations by staging 4,100 protests, about 11 a day, in which they denounced the systematic violation of their rights and the monthly minimum wage currently less than $4 per month in a country where the basic food basket for a family of five is around $500.
In the last three years, Venezuelan workers, retirees and pensioners have led peaceful demonstrations. “Low salaries, inefficient public policies, collapsed basic service infrastructure and cases of great corruption impact the quality of life and dignity of Venezuelans,” the OVCS noted in its report.
He chaos in public services, such as water, electricity, public infrastructure, also occupy a prominent place in citizen protests, which demand that the State guarantee the right to decent housing with basic services such as drinking water, domestic gas, electricity, telephone, among others. . In addition, the demands include that population centers have paved roads and that vehicles can have fuel. In the last four years, Venezuela has gone through several gasoline shortage crises, which have even caused crops from the countryside not to reach the cities due to the inability of producers to transport them.
Venezuelans have had to live the drama of having to wait in lines that take up to three or four days to fill their vehicle tanks with fuel.
Political rights
Protests over civil and political issues occupied the remaining 20% of the demonstrations in 2023. The protagonists of these protests were supporters and opposition political leaders. The claims covered demand for the activation of the Electoral Registry (RE), as well as the guarantee of transparency in the elections. This process was marked by political disqualifications and interventions against opposition parties.
Starting in the second quarter, protests for political rights increased, rejecting disqualifications and demanding free, fair and transparent elections.
Furthermore, the OVCS recorded that During 2023, 118 protests were repressed throughout the countrywith a balance of 15 people arrested.
The Human Rights Movement reaffirmed its demands for a civic and democratic space with guarantees to exercise its right to defend rights without fear of being victims of criminalization, stigmatization and persecution. Likewise, there was an increase in the number of protests to demand justicereject impunity and abuse of power by the authorities.
Source: EDITORIAL / Press Release / Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict
