"In Venezuela there's rising a counterrevolution of Nazi-fascist influence that that has infected the emotions and thinking of thousands of compatriots, who believe they have the right to pursue others for the simple crime of being Venezuelan or Chavista or revolutionary," Maduro said in his weekly TV program. "This is terrorism."</s>Protesters have set late president Hugo Chavez's childhood home in western Venezuela on fire, an opposition legislator said, as protests against the nation's socialist government grew increasingly hostile. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/hugo-chavezs-childhood-home-burned-by-antigovernment-protesters-in-venezuela-35744544.html http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article35744543.ece/151a9/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-158c1e19-b1ef-4ad8-9f6f-bd6b3b35dd63_I1.jpg Protesters have set late president Hugo Chavez's childhood home in western Venezuela on fire, an opposition legislator said, as protests against the nation's socialist government grew increasingly hostile.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Belfast Telegraph.</s>Anti-socialist protesters in Venezuela’s Barinas state burned down the childhood home of late dictator Hugo Chávez on Monday, as well as the old home of his grandmother, and attacked a number of government buildings with Molotov cocktails.

The attacks appeared to be a reaction to the news that soldiers had killed yet another young man peacefully protesting in Venezuela, bringing the death toll during this latest round of protests up to 62. Protesters appear increasingly frustrated with the socialist opposition’s tactic of staging an anti-government march per day calling for presidential elections, which would be run by socialist government officials and have little chance of being free and fair.

The Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported that multiple photos began surfacing on social media of the burned down home on Monday evening. Social media users noted that the fire began shortly after the news that the military had killed 19-year-old Yorman Alí Bervecia Cabeza for protesting against socialism. The Associated Press later confirmed that protesters had burned down the Chávez home with opposition legislator Pedro Luis Castillo, who represents Barinas.

The Spanish newspaper ABC, which has been on the forefront of reporting on the corruption of both the Chávez regime and that of successor Nicolás Maduro, reported that protesters also burned down the home of Chávez’s grandmother and attacked the local headquarters of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the National Electoral Council (CNE), the regional headquarters of the Secretariat of Education, and the Institute of Housing. The newspaper adds that protesters looted fifty businesses, including multiple bakeries and areperas, restaurants that specialize in the Venezuelan corn arepas.

While Chávez’s socialist policies had already collapsed the Venezuelan economy, Maduro’s imposition of strict price controls, ration cards, and government requirements on bakeries have left much of the nation without food. An estimated 15 percent of Venezuelans subsist off of industrial garbage, while three out of four Venezuelans lost an average of 19 pounds in 2016 due to food shortages

Protesters also attacked military convoys and set armored vehicles on fire.

ABC adds that protesters also burned down yet another statue of Chávez, noting that at least four statues have been taken down or burned since this latest wave of protests began. The left-wing Spanish newspaper ABC notes that the socialist opposition group Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) appeared to distance itself from these incidents, as it had “only organized for Monday a protest for health, congregating medical and nursing professionals in Caracas and other cities to protest the sanitary crisis plaguing the country.”

The MUD is a coalition of anti-Maduro parties that currently has the majority in the National Assembly. They are calling for the release of political prisoners, free and fair elections, and an end to the use of the military to kill peaceful protesters. The MUD spearheaded an attempt at dialogue with the government throughout 2016 that largely failed and served to diminish the intensity of opposition against Maduro, which has led to growing unpopularity among opponents of the government

Incidents like the destruction of the Chávez statue in Barinas have occurred nationwide, the most recent before this one being in Zulia state, with another statue going down in Carabobo, near Caracas. In westernmost state Táchira, which has been in open revolt for at least three years, protesters beheaded a statue of Chávez in 2014.

The socialists have littered Venezuela with such statues, as well as murals and “street art” meant to applaud Chávez and his work imposing the dysfunctional socialist system on the country. Among the most popular “street art” images is a close-up of Chávez’s eyes, meant to send the message that the late dictator is still spying on all Venezuelans from beyond the grave.

The Chávez family also holds great influence in the country still. The late dictator’s brother Adán runs the Institute of Housing, which the protesters attacked, and his daughter María Gabriela Chávez is believed to be the nation’s wealthiest woman.

The latest string of protests, which began 53 days ago in response to the Supreme Court attempting to annul the National Assembly and install itself as the nation’s legislative body, has left 62 people dead so far. Maduro has allowed the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) to use violence against unarmed protesters to an outrageous degree, including the use of armored tanks to run protesters over, shoot them to death, or asphyxiate them with tear gas.</s>It's beginning to look like people have had enough of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. Protesters burned the childhood home of deceased socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Hot Air.</s>Protesters set fire to late President Hugo Chavez’s childhood home in western Venezuela on Monday, an opposition lawmaker said, as protests against the South American nation’s socialist government grew increasingly hostile.

While demonstrators are decrying current President Nicolas Maduro for the country’s triple-digit inflation, rising crime and shortages of food and medicine, they have also destroyed at least five statues commemorating Chavez, Maduro’s mentor and the founder of Venezuela’s “Bolivarian revolution.”

Demonstrators lit the house in the city of Barinas where Chavez spent his early years aflame Monday afternoon along with several government buildings, including the regional office of the National Electoral Council, said Pedro Luis Castillo, a legislator who represents the area.

The burnings capped a violent day in Barinas — known as the cradle of Chavez’s revolution — during which protesters clashed with national guardsmen, businesses were shuttered and roads were blocked with fire-filled barricades.

Nineteen-year-old Yorman Bervecia was shot and killed during a protest, according to the nation’s chief prosecutor. His death brings to at least 49 the number killed in nearly two months of anti-government protests demanding new elections.

“It is pretty symbolic that the citizens are venting their frustrations on the author of the Bolivarian revolution,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas.

The street clashes engulfing Venezuela appear to be turning increasingly violent, with both security forces and youth protesters looking more unruly.

Residents of Caracas awoke to several smoldering barricades made of trash and torn-down street signs. Access to the capital’s downtown was blocked at several points by heavily armed security forces looking to prevent a march to the Health Ministry to demand Maduro open a so-called humanitarian corridor for the delivery of medicine and food aid.

On the outskirts of Caracas, where reports of nighttime protests and looting have become more frequent, the situation was even more tense: Young men with their faces covered or wearing gas masks put down barbed wire at roadblocks every few blocks and menacingly asked bystanders for contributions to their “Resistance” movement.</s>Protesters set fire to late President Hugo Chavez’s childhood home in western Venezuela on Monday, an opposition lawmaker said, as protests against the South American nation’s socialist government grew increasingly hostile.

While demonstrators are decrying current President Nicolas Maduro for the country’s triple-digit inflation, rising crime and shortages of food and medicine, they have also destroyed at least five statues commemorating Chavez, Maduro’s mentor and the founder of Venezuela’s “Bolivarian revolution.”

Demonstrators lit the house in the city of Barinas where Chavez spent his early years aflame Monday afternoon along with several government buildings, including the regional office of the National Electoral Council, said Pedro Luis Castillo, a legislator who represents the area.

The burnings capped a violent day in Barinas — known as the cradle of Chavez’s revolution — during which protesters clashed with national guardsmen, businesses were shuttered and roads were blocked with fire-filled barricades.

Nineteen-year-old Yorman Bervecia was shot and killed during a protest, according to the nation’s chief prosecutor. His death brings to at least 49 the number killed in nearly two months of anti-government protests demanding new elections.

“It is pretty symbolic that the citizens are venting their frustrations on the author of the Bolivarian revolution,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice-president of the Council of the Americas.

The street clashes engulfing Venezuela appear to be turning increasingly violent, with both security forces and youth protesters looking more unruly.

Residents of Caracas awoke to several smouldering barricades made of trash and torn-down street signs. Access to the capital’s downtown was blocked at several points by heavily armed security forces looking to prevent a march to the Health Ministry to demand Maduro open a so-called humanitarian corridor for the delivery of medicine and food aid.

On the outskirts of Caracas, where reports of nighttime protests and looting have become more frequent, the situation was even more tense: Young men with their faces covered or wearing gas masks put down barbed wire at roadblocks every few blocks and menacingly asked bystanders for contributions to their “Resistance” movement.

Opposition leaders are urging restraint from their followers, but say security forces and pro-government militias — not the protesters — are behind the vast number of deadly attacks.

Maduro accused protesters Sunday of setting fire to a government supporter, saying what he calls “Nazi-fascist” elements are taking root inside the opposition’s ranks and contributing to a dangerous spiral of violence in the two-month anti-government protest movement.

Maduro said that 21-year-old Orlando Zaragoza suffered burns to almost all his body when he was doused with gasoline and set on fire at a protest in Caracas a day earlier. Videos circulating on social media show a man covered in flames fleeing a small mob. Maduro said he was being treated.

It’s not clear what triggered the attack, which is under investigation, although some eyewitnesses told local media that Zaragoza was caught robbing demonstrators who had gathered by the tens of thousands to protest Maduro’s rule.

“In Venezuela there’s rising a counterrevolution of Nazi-fascist influence that that has infected the emotions and thinking of thousands of compatriots, who believe they have the right to pursue others for the simple crime of being Venezuelan or Chavista or revolutionary,” Maduro said in his weekly TV program. “This is terrorism.”

Meanwhile, a retired army general opposed to Maduro denounced what he said are plans by the military in the central state of Lara to deploy snipers to control protests that turn violent.

The plans were discussed in a month-old conversation among top generals in the state secretly recorded by one of the participants, according to retired Gen. Cliver Cordones, who on Monday sent a petition to Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega asking her to investigate the matter.

Cordones, who broke with Maduro more than a year ago, said he obtained the recording and written transcript of the conversation in a pen drive left in an unmarked envelope at his residence.

In it, a man identified as Gen. Jose Rafael Torrealba, the top military official in the state, discusses the need to start selecting soldiers with proven psychological and technical strength for use as sharpshooters. The context of the conversation is what the officer says is the increasing use of firearms by protesters to shoot at security forces.

“The time will come in which we’ll have to deploy them, and I want us to be ready for that moment,” the man identified as Torrealba says.

“The president won’t just stay in his green phase gentlemen,” he adds, referring to the first stage of a military plan to control the protests announced last month by Maduro.

While some can be heard voicing support for the idea, at least one expresses concern that such plans, if acted on, could land commanding officers in jail.

The Associated Press also obtained a copy of the recording from a person in contact with one of the participants. The source demanded anonymity for safety. But the AP was unable to verify its authenticity or the identities of those alleged to have taken part in the conversation. There has also been no response from Torrealba or the military since the recording was first reported last week by the Spanish-language affiliate of the Miami Herald.
The birthplace of late President Hugo Chávez is burned by protesters as violence and looting spreads through Barinas, Venezuela following the death of a protester.