Protests are happening in Venezuela right now. Their current "president" banned his opponent from running in the election and passed legislation disassembling and nullifying their congress and is currently working on getting all of the supreme court to resign so they can be replaced with loyalists. This happening due to his want for all of Venezuela to be run by one man and one man only, that being him. People are protesting due to their entire say in legal matters and government matters being taken away. They are marching with signs that translate into "No more opression." and "We don't want a dictator." Typically a coup is an outside force taking down a government. This time, the guy in charge is the one running it so he can have more power and control. People are getting attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets and recently have been gassed with canisters that release gas that burns your skin and to escape said gas protestors are jumping into a river, which is contaminated, and are dying from severe infections and high levels of toxic materials entering their systems. On Thursday, in Caracas, Jairo Ortiz was shot by police who weren't using rubber bullets like they were told to. This isn't just a foreign issue this is happening in the U.S too. These protests and people like Jairo Ortiz's death cannot be ignored, this isn't a foreign issue this is a humanitarian issue. These people are being attacked for standing up against a government that not only is rapidly advancing towards a dictatorship, but also shut down almost all news stations and cut the availability of internet, therefore restricting the spread of information because if the truth of what's happening is spread, all of Venezuela will rise against them, so their president is taking away their say in the governments decisions, and restricting media and what information is spread. Sound somewhat familiar? It should because it's happening here too to the people that our president considers lesser than those he supports, so pretty much everyone but rich straight white males. Speak up about these problems, and say their names. #sayhisname #jairoortiz
