Venezuelan protestors chase President Maduro through Margarita Island streets

Knoxville Times Sunday 4th September, 2016

• Protestors reportedly banged pots and pans and yelled at the leader

• 30 people have been detained by the authorities

• Protestors have called the president’s resignation from office

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was caught amid angry protestors at Margarita Island on Saturday.

Banging on pots and yelling at the leader, the protesters chased the president at a political event, local media reported.

Many Venezuelans blame the country’s unpopular leader for the nation’s food crisis.

Grainy and unclear mobile phone videos emerged on social media where the president is seen running through the protests, dodging irked protesters.

“Right now, there are more than 30 people detained… as a result of the incident in Villa Rosa,” Alfredo Romero of Penal Forum right groups said on Twitter.

Reports pointed out that all except Braulio Jatar - a local pro-opposition lawyer - were detained. Jatar was released the following afternoon.

Maduro had travelled to the country’s northern coast to inaugurate a number of new public housing units.

Although the president’s office has remained silent about the incident, Henrique Capriles, an opposition governor, said, “The people of Vila Rosa in Margarita have no fear. Through banging pots, Maduro was run out of town.”

Information Minister Luis Marcano, on the other hand, published a video on Twitter showing the president being cheered in Margarita Island.

He wrote, “What you didn’t see in the videos manipulated by the right wing.”

The protest came after a march in Caracas on Thursday where more than one million people took to the streets to demand his removal from the office.

The anti-government protestors are calling for a referendum to recall the president amid the economic crisis faced by the country that has led to a severe food shortage in Venezuela.

However, the government said that it prevented a coup plot following the demonstration.

Addressing reporters, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez, said, “The national government's action prevented a massacre. Snipers looked to assassinate citizens to sell to the world a not so nice image of our country. And we have been perpetually denouncing this. The top and elite of the Venezuelan opposition is spraying this to the world, discrediting Venezuela.”

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