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LatinNews Daily - 09 April 2018

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Protests continue in Venezuela as election approaches

Development: On 7 April, dozens of people demonstrated outside a military base in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, in protest at the shortage of childhood vaccinations.

Significance: The protest came after the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) government led by President Nicolás Maduro announced the launch of a new national child vaccination drive in response to the chronic shortage of these vaccinations as result of Venezuela’s deep economic crisis. It points to persistent social discontent with the Maduro government as it prepares to hold a presidential election on 20 May, in which Maduro is seeking re-election. The election is being boycotted by Venezuela’s Mesa de la Unidad Democática (MUD) main opposition coalition. But the high level of discontent could still lead to Maduro and the PSUV receiving a political blow in the polls.

  • The protest was sparked after the authorities at a military barracks in western Caracas announced that the free vaccination doses distributed by the government as part of its vaccination drive had been finished. Angry parents, who had been queueing since early in the morning with their children to receive vaccinations, accused the government of lying to them by promising that all children would be vaccinated.
  • A day earlier, President Maduro announced the launch of a new national children vaccination drive that would benefit 9m children. Maduro said that the government would distribute 11m doses of vaccinations against 14 diseases that usually affect children such as tuberculosis, measles, polio, diphtheria, and hepatitis B around the country. 
  • But the protesters in western Caracas complained that none of these vaccines are available in public hospitals in the area and that they fear that their children will not be inoculated against some potentially life-threatening diseases. The protesters staged sporadic roadblocks demanding that more vaccination doses be made available in the area.
  • That the persistent social discontent could pose a problem for Maduro’s electoral campaign has been suggested by a poll released by local pollster Datanálisis on 8 April. The poll found that 66% of respondents consider the Maduro administration to be ‘bad or very bad’ compared with only 10.9% who consider it to be ‘good or very good’. More significantly, the Datanálisis poll found that 41.4% of respondents said they would vote for opposition candidate, Henri Falcón, in the 20 May election compared with 34.3% who said they would vote for Maduro.

Looking Ahead: The Datanálisis poll suggests that discontent with the Maduro administration remains widespread; and while it is not clear that this will lead to him being defeated in the polls, it could lead to Maduro obtaining an underwhelming victory that could undermine his political leadership.

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