Violence Ebbs in Venezuela, but Crisis Burns On,

Mark A. Uhlig, New York Times, March 3, 1989

 

 

 

Three days after the riots ended, life went back to normal in Venezuela. During the curfew time, the author reports that one can still hear firing. New military units have been brought to the capital.

The author comes back on the causes of the riots. He points out that the protests were the result of a program of economic adjustment but that the causes might also lie deeper. It raises the issues of economic and political crisis. The riots are the results of the earlier debt and energy crisis that Venezuela had to face from the producer side point of view. The results of those crises are rising poverty, inflation and unemployment, which created growing despair within the population and finally was heard throw the nation wide protests and riots.