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href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12758">https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12758</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Chavismo Marches as Opposition Reels from
Failed Strike</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">By Rachael Boothroyd
Rojas</div>
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<p class="p1">Caracas, October 31st 2016 (<a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com">venezuelanalysis.com</a>)
- The Venezuelan opposition suffered another setback on
Friday, after its call for a national strike went
largely ignored by the majority of the population. </p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile pro-government supporters marched
on the Miraflores presidential palace for the third time
in less than a week, against what they are labelling as
escalating right-wing attempts to depose the national
government. </p>
<p class="p1"><strong>12 Hour Strike </strong></p>
<p class="p1">Riding on the coattails of a huge
anti-government march last Wednesday, opposition leaders
grouped under the MUD coalition called on business
owners and ordinary citizens to “turn the Venezuelan
streets into a desert” on Friday by refusing to leave
their homes or turn up for work. </p>
<p class="p1">The strike was called in response to the
postponement of the opposition’s recall referendum
process by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on
October 20, pending investigations into more than 53,000
fraudulent signatures collected in the first stage of
the process. </p>
<p class="p1">But the MUD strike appears to have been
flouted by all except its hardcore supporters, including
by the country’s largest business federation,
FEDECAMARAS.</p>
<p class="p1">In an official communication, the federation
called on the government to “restore the constitutional
order” in Venezuela, but conceded that it was “the
decision of each business, along with its workers, to
join or not join the 12 hour general strike called by
the MUD”. </p>
<p class="p1">In Caracas, supermarkets, pharmacies and
banks remained open throughout the day, although some
universities closed as a “preventative” measure against
possible violence. Despite reports of transport
disruptions in the morning, buses were circulating
normally by midday. <br>
</p>
<p class="p2">Citizens also generally eschewed calls to
stay in their homes for 12 hours, but some accounts
suggest that there were “fewer pedestrians” than normal
on the streets early on in the day.</p>
<p class="p1">Most notably the opposition-led boycott of
the nation’s streets also failed to gain traction
amongst some its business owning rank and file, who
disagreed with strike action as a way of achieving
political change.</p>
<p class="p1">“I could join in, because I don’t agree with
the economic policies implemented in the country, or the
political situation, but I have always been a man of
work, I don’t share the view of a stoppage, that’s not
an exit-plan out of the crisis,” Maracaibo
business-owner Julio Leal told Venezuelan newspaper
Panorama. </p>
<p class="p1">Despite the overall lukewarm reception to
the strike, MUD leaders touted the day a success on
social media– but were met with hostility from some of
their own supporters. </p>
<p class="p1">“Freddy it’s not like that,” said Mariangela
de Perez in reply to photos of Venezuela’s “empty
streets” published on Facebook by Popular Will
legislator Freddy Guevara. </p>
<p class="p1">“I’d say there are tonnes of people in the
streets,” she added.</p>
<p class="p1">Other supporters from across Venezuela also
took to the legislator’s Facebook page to vent their
frustration at the strike’s lack of support. </p>
<p class="p1">“Let me tell you that I went outside just to
have a look, and in Maturin people are in the streets,
everything is normal. It looks like the strike lasted
all of half an hour here,” read another comment by Lelys
Benitz Ortiz. </p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Chavistas March </strong></p>
<p class="p1">Across the country pro-government supporters
responded to the strike by staging mass demonstrations,
including outside of the National Assembly and the
presidential Miraflores palace in the capital. </p>
<p class="p1">The march was addressed by President Nicolas
Maduro, and attended by Vice-President Aristbulo
Iturriz, as well as by other prominent members of the
Chavista leadership. They labeled the opposition’s
strike action a “total failure”. <br>
</p>
<p class="p1">“Today they called for a strike, and even
business-owners turned their backs on them,” Chavista
legislator Diosdado Cabello told the crowd.</p>
<p class="p1">The Chavista leadership have called for
“constant mobilisation” in defence of the revolution
following an apparent attempt to impeach the president
by congress on October 23. Friday’s march is the third
time that government supporters have taken to the
streets in less than a week. </p>
<p class="published">Published on Oct 31st 2016 at 2.15pm
</p>
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