Venezuela’s protests: Inside the barrios

The heartland of chavismo

THE queue outside the Mikro supermarket stretches in both directions along the Avenida Sucre in western Caracas. Some 200 people, of all ages, shade themselves as best they can from the midday sun in the hope of reaching the door before the sugar or the flour runs out. “I’ve been here over an hour and a half,” says an elderly woman with a downcast expression near the front of the queue. “And they say the flour’s already finished.” This is Catia, a poor district just a stone’s throw from the presidential palace and a longtime bastion of government support. But the fervour of that backing has dissipated since the death a year ago of President Hugo Chávez, whose tomb lies nearby.For the past six weeks Venezuela has been gripped by unrest that has left around 30 people dead. Every big city has seen severe street clashes, posing questions forboth the regime and Venezuela’s neighbours (see Bello). Opposition leaders have been arrested: the mayor of San Cristóbal, where the...



via The Economist: The Americas http://ift.tt/1oA1D2N