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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, July 6, 2017
Venezuela: pro-government militiamen injure politicians in attack on Congress
Men
wielded sticks and bars in attack, which comes amid three months of
often violent confrontations between security forces and protesters
An
injured government supporter is taken away by security forces in
Caracas, Venezuela. Photograph: Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters
Four
Venezuelan politicians have been wounded after pro-government militias
wielding wooden sticks and metal bars stormed the opposition-controlled
Congress during a special session to mark the country’s independence
day.
Blood was left splattered on the neoclassical legislature’s white walls.
One of the wounded politicians, Americo de Grazia, had to be taken in a
stretcher to an ambulance suffering from convulsions, said a fellow
congressman.
“This doesn’t hurt as much as watching how every day how we lose a
little bit more of our country,” Armando Arias said from inside an
ambulance as he was being treated for head wounds that spilled blood
across his clothes.
The attack, in plain view of national guardsmen assigned to protect the legislature, comes amid three months of often-violent confrontations between security forces and protesters who
accuse the government of trying to establish a dictatorship by jailing
foes, pushing aside the opposition-controlled legislature and rewriting
the constitution to avoid fair elections.
Tensions were already high after vice-president Tareck El Aissami made
an unannounced morning visit to the neoclassical legislature,
accompanied by top government and military officials, for an event
celebrating independence day.
Standing next to a display case holding Venezuela’s declaration of independence from Spain, he said global powers are once again trying to subjugate Venezuela.
“We still haven’t finished definitively breaking the chains of the
empire,” El Aissami said, adding that Nicolas Maduro’s plans to rewrite
the constitution – a move the opposition sees as a power-grab – offers Venezuela the best chance to be truly independent.
After he left, dozens of government supporters set up a picket outside
the building, heckling lawmakers with menacing chants and eventually
invading the legislature themselves.
Despite the violence, lawmakers approved a plan by the opposition to
hold a symbolic referendum on 16 July that would give voters the chance
to reject Maduro’s plans to draft a new political charter.
Later Maduro condemned the violence, calling for a full investigation during a speech while attending a military parade.
The clash followed Tuesday’s appearance of a five-minute video posted by a former police inspector who allegedly stole a helicopter and fired on two government buildings last week.
Oscar Perez, repeating a call for rebellion among the security forces,
said that he was in Caracas after abandoning the helicopter along the
Caribbean coast and was ready for the “second phase” of his campaign to
free his homeland from what he called the corrupt rule of Maduro and his
“assassin” allies.
Perez gave no other details but pledged to join youth who have been
protesting on the streets the past three months against Maduro.
“Stop talking. Get on the streets. Take action. Fight,” he said in the
video, sitting before a Venezuelan flag and with what looks like an
assault rifle by his side. He also denounced Maduro’s plan to rewrite
the constitution.
“If this constitutional assembly goes through, Venezuela will cease to
exist because we’ll have given away the country to the Cubans,” he said.
The bold, though largely harmless 27 June attack shocked Venezuelans who
had grown accustomed to almost-daily clashes since April between
often-violent youth protesters and security forces that have left more
than 90 people dead and hundreds injured.
Perez apparently piloted the stolen police helicopter that sprayed 15
bullets toward the interior ministry and dropped at least two grenades
over the supreme court building.
While Maduro claimed Perez had stolen the helicopter on a US-backed
mission to oust him from power, many in the opposition questioned
whether the incident was a staged by the government to distract
attention from the president’s increasingly authoritarian rule.Adding to
the intrigue is Perez’s colorful past.