Weekly Report - 09 October 2014 (WR-14-40)

While the government led by President Nicolás Maduro has sought to accuse Colombian paramilitary elements (and even the former president of Colombia Alvaro Uribe [2002-2010]) of involvement in the murder of Robert Serra, a young deputy from the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), in his Caracas home last week, some local political analysts suspect that incident may in fact relate to - the increasingly public - internal tensions within the Bolivarian Revolution. Such suspicions were further fuelled by a violent clash just days later between police and armed members of a pro-government collective, in which another five people died. Whatever the truth (and it is unlikely to come out any time soon), political violence in Venezuela looks to be a growing risk, adding to the perception that Maduro is not in ‘full operational command’, to borrow a military term.