Tag Archives: Vigil

Venezuela protests rage, jailed Lopez supporters stage vigil

Opposition supporters stand in front of a fire during clashes with riot police at a rally against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Alexandra Ulmer and Diego Oré

CARACAS (Reuters) – Supporters of jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez held a vigil outside his prison demanding to see him on Thursday after rumors about his health rattled the protest-hit country where the death toll from anti-government unrest rose to 36.

Lopez’s wife and mother rushed to a military hospital in Caracas and then the hilltop Ramo Verde jail overnight, after a journalist tweeted Lopez had been taken to a medical center without vital signs.

President Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government, facing a wave of major opposition protests since last month, later issued a short “proof of life” video in which Lopez said he was fine.

Officials accused Lopez’s family of stirring up a media frenzy to get attention and further stoke the protests.

“Today is May 3, it’s 9 p.m. … I’m sending a message to my family and my children that I am well,” said Lopez, 46, standing cross-armed in front of cell bars and looking healthy in a sleeveless white T-shirt.

But Lopez’s wife Lilian Tintori, who says she has not been allowed to see him in over a month, rejected the video as “false” and spent the night outside the jail.

“The only proof of life that we will accept is to see Leopoldo,” she tweeted, as she and Lopez’s mother faced a line of green-clad National Guard soldiers at the prison. They later rotated out with some supporters to get sleep.

Lopez is Venezuela’s most prominent imprisoned politician, and U.S. President Donald Trump in February called for his release after a White House meeting with Tintori.

Venezuelans, already on tenterhooks after the unrest that has killed protesters, government supporters, bystanders and security officials, were shaken by the rumors over Lopez, who was jailed in 2014 during the last major round of protests.

The U.S.-educated economist and leader of the hard-line Popular Will party is accused of inciting violence, and in 2015 was sentenced to almost 14 years behind bars.

The government says he is a dangerous agitator, pointing to his involvement in a brief 2002 coup against the late Hugo Chavez, when Lopez even helped arrest a Cabinet minister.

“They’re inventing that something or other has been done to Leopoldo to put together a big, pretty show, so that we forget the 43 deaths he caused,” said Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello, in reference to those killed during unrest in 2014.

Lopez’s supporters say he was tried in a kangaroo court because he had been viewed as a future presidential hopeful and a threat to Maduro. Others in the opposition deem him a divisive hothead who took to the streets too early and say his supporters exaggerate incidents to get support.

HUNDREDS JAILED

Over 1,700 people have been arrested, with 597 of them still jailed, since the unrest began in early April, according to rights group Penal Forum. Hundreds have been injured, often in confusing street melees between stone-throwing youths and security forces firing tear gas and water cannons.

Maduro’s call on Monday to rewrite the constitution has energized the protest movement, and images of a military vehicle running over a demonstrator on Wednesday caused further outrage.

The opposition is so far maintaining momentum despite fatigue, injuries, disruptions to daily life, and fears that protests will end up flopping like so many times in the past.

Still, none of their demands have been met so far and Maduro has said he will not bend to them.

Demonstrators are seeking early elections to remove Maduro and bring an end to a devastating recession that has food and medicine running short. The government says the opposition wants a coup and many demonstrators are simply vandals.

Various groups of students took to the streets on Thursday.

One group of several hundred from Venezuela’s Central University tried to reach a highway but were blocked by National Guard soldiers firing tear gas.

“We’re going to stay here until this corrupt and lying government falls,” said Ines Delgado, 22, with anti-acid indigestion medicine smeared on her face to neutralize the effects of tear gas.

The death toll in violent Venezuela’s month of unrest has been creeping up, reaching at least 36 after two latest cases.

A 38-year-old policeman in Carabobo state, Gerardo Barrera, died overnight after being shot during a protest, the public prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.

And Juan Lopez, a 33-year old president of a student federation at a university in the western Anzoategui state, was gunned down during a student assembly on Thursday, the public prosecutor’s office added. A member of the public approached him, shot him several times, and then fled on a motorcycle.

With international pressure piling on Maduro, famed Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who directs the Los Angeles Philharmonic, came out against him in a letter decrying repression.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Andreina Aponte, Corina Pons, Eyanir Chinea, Brian Ellsworth; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by W Simon, Andrew Cawthorne and Andrew Hay)

U.S. leaders seek unity at vigil for slain Louisiana officers

police saluting the caskets of fallen police officers

By Sam Karlin

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Loretta Lynch called for unity to honor three slain Louisiana police officers, speaking at a memorial service on Thursday in Baton Rouge where they were gunned down this month by a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

Several hundred people and dozens of law enforcement officers attended the vigil, where Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also implored the community to seek peace and healing after the July 17 attack that also wounded three other officers.

The shootings came amid a series of deadly encounters igniting debate over policing and minorities in the United States. The killings rattled a city already grappling with protests after the fatal police shooting on July 5 of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man confronted by officers while selling CDs outside a convenience store.

Biden said he heard that Sterling’s aunt, who raised him, had prayed with a slain officer’s father.

“Loss is loss is loss,” he said, speaking at a church in Baton Rouge, the state capital. “Now the city has to reach out, the country has to reach out to law enforcement, and let you know how much we care.”

On the stage behind him, three chairs sat empty, decorated with sashes and uniform caps representing the officers.

Choking back tears, two of the officers’ wives recalled phone calls and door knocks on an initially normal Sunday morning that changed their lives forever.

Slain Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, 41, and Montrell Jackson, 32, and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, were killed in what Louisiana officials described as a calculated attack. Shooter Gavin Long, 29, a black former Marine with ties to an African-American anti-government group, was also killed in an exchange of gunfire.

“No family should ever have to be without their loved ones, especially when these three heroes could be home had a person not been filled with so much hatred,” said Tonja Garafola.

Jackson’s wife, Trenisha, recalled his wish to see healing in the city and directed the crowd to repeat sentiments that he had posted on Facebook in the tense days before his death.

“I will not let hate infect my heart,” the crowd repeated.

The assault followed the deaths of five officers in Dallas, Texas on July 7, who were shot by another black former U.S. serviceman. President Barack Obama traveled to Dallas in the wake of those shootings.

One of the wounded Louisiana officers, Nicholas Tullier, 41, remains hospitalized in critical condition, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday. At the vigil, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said he is “fighting for his life.”

(Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and James Dalgleish)

White House Vigil Held For Murdered Pakistani Kids

A vigil was held outside the White House for the 132 children and nine staff members murdered by the Taliban in an Pakistan school.

Visitors to the vigil included the deputy chief of Mission at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington who said he wanted to show his country’s leadership was supportive of those standing for the memory of those children.

“I am to be with those who are here to express solidarity and support for the victims and the families of those who were killed in Peshawar,” Asad Majeed Khan told the Christian Post.

“You can see people from all colors and creeds and people with the different religions have come together in support and solidarity,” Khan asserted. “This is a message that I take also from here this evening that this is not a fight for any country in particular, this is not a particular ethnic group or a particular religion’s fight, this is a fight in which we are all together.”

Those participating held candles and a moment of silence to honor the victims.  Many also held signs and banners calling for the destruction of the Taliban.