Pres. Nicolas Maduro seems content to allow his supporters fight fire with firepower in Venezuela, where two protesters where shot and killed by pro-government vigilantes this past Saturday:
[M]asked gunmen emerged from a group of several dozen motorcycle-mounted government loyalists who were attempting to dismantle a barricade in La Isabelica, a working-class district of Valencia that has been a center of unrest since nationwide protests broke out last month. The barricades’ defenders had been hurling rocks, sticks and other objects at the attackers, who included perhaps a dozen armed men, witnesses told The Associated Press. … President Nicolas Maduro has done nothing to publicly discourage the violence by armed pro-government militants, loosely known as ‘colectivos,’ which are also blamed for scores more cases of beatings and intimidation in multiple cities. That includes a March 19 incursion into the architecture academy at the Central University of Venezuela in the capital in which some 40 masked men and women identifying themselves as government defenders bloodied at least a dozen students.
People across the globe have been calling for dialogue between protesters and the government to begin the trek back to peace. A simple ceasefire would be suffice.