Venezuela Demonstrations: Internet Cut In San Cristóbal, Crucial Spot For Protests

Internet service is still out across the Venezuelan city of San Cristóbal, where the demonstrations which have racked cities across the country and left at least five dead originally began on Feb. 2^nd. Beatriz Font, a TV reporter with a local channel, told the Associated Press on Thursday evening that Internet service had not come back on since being cut on Wednesday, and that many people were without water and electricity as well. Reports from Venezuela have described a crackdown on independent, foreign and opposition media in Venezuela, including the blocking of Twitter’s photo services, a push-to-talk “walkie-talkie” app on smart phones, and opposition websites.

The Associated Press wrote on Friday that the government of Nicolás Maduro has ordered 3,000 paratroopers to the environs of San Cristóbal, a city of about 600,000 in Táchira state, along the border with Colombia. The paratroopers will join police and National Guard units which have reportedly broken into apartment buildings to remove members of what the government considers an opposition of “fascists” and coup-plotters. El Universal notes that the city’s mayor Daniel Ceballos registered his opposition to the arrival of the paratroopers, calling on Twitter for protestors to convene for a march on Saturday morning against what he called the “military occupation, repression and criminalization of students”.

The blog Caracas Chronicles wrote on Friday that defiance of the Venezuelan federal government crackdown on protests has been especially fierce in San Cristóbal, which is home to three large universities. According to the blog, protests against widespread crime in the country began there on Feb. 2 after the attempted rape of a student; when five students were arrested and sent to a jail in the northwestern city of Coro, hundreds of miles away, students in other universities staged demonstrations against the authorities’ response that eventually escalated into the current crisis.