VENEZUELA PROTESTS CONTINUE

Posted on April 23, 2017

Dozen killed in Caracas  following two days of mass street protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s beleaguered government. Venezuelan in economic crisis’s deepens.

Six people were also injured in the escalating violence, the public ministry said in a statement on Friday. The latest figures raised the total number of deaths during growing protests to 20 over the past three weeks.

Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami said on Friday the country is facing what he calls an “unconventional war” led by opposition groups working in concert with criminal gangs.

Riot police firing tear gas fought running street battles in the east, west, and south of Caracas with demonstrators demanding the removal of Maduro.

World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) wrote “Venezuela remains mired in a deep economic crisis.” Unemployment has risen from 7.4 percent in 2015 to 25 percent this year and could rise to 28 percent next year.

Inflation may reach 720 percent this year, according to the IMF and could rise to 2,000 percent by 2018.

US car giant General Motors shut down its operations after authorities seized the plant and took its vehicles, the company announced last Thursday.

The factory was “unexpectedly taken,” according to a statement from GM. The company “strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights,” the Detroit-based automaker said in a statement.