Today's marches in Venezuela

Today a series of  marches are planned in Venezuela. On one side, most of the students and oppositions will take part. On the other, it's Officialdom. Several students have been detained during the last few days for protesting against the government's policies on crime, the economy and the press. Critical newspapers are running out of paper and print paper is imported in Venezuela. 

The state media is already saying opposition leader López is organising violent marches.

The Tupamaros, a group of "left" extremists who are actually armed paramilitary units, will support officialdom in its attacks against the students' marches. 

These marches will take place all over Venezuela.

The government has already ordered the media in different cities not to inform about the opposition's events.

You can read in Spanish here the statement produced by CONATEL, the state authority controlling the media. It says basically that those media outlets informing about "acts that promote violence" would be in real trouble. There is a big banner in front of CONATEL stating "Socializando Las Comunicaciones". In reality that's not really making media more social. It is making them "socialist" in the sense the Castro brothers want.

We will have a tense day today.

I for one think the opposition should focus on creating education networks to inform Venezuelans about what life is really outside the country, about what debates and pluralism mean and how the real economy works.

The economic situation in Venezuela is quickly deteriorating. That's why I consider we should be extremely careful now and avoid getting involved in direct confrontation with the regime. Time will come. We firstly need to fight the brain washing taking place in Venezuela. That should be the absolute focus.