Updates on Venezuela and Ukraine

The main thing I want to blog about today is HUGE international news. The first bit is about the protests still happening in Venezuela.



Last we talked, of course, Venezuelans were protesting president Nicolas Maduro's government for over a week – seemingly over the problems of shortages, inflation, insecurity, the lack of opportunities.





Allegedly, Maduro's government has now blocked social media.





International news outlets have been attacked, and as of typing this, at least 5 people have been killed; one of the most recent was opposition supporter (and beauty queen), Genesis Carmona, who was shot by people riding by on motorcycles.



Thousands of Venezuelans are still in the streets protesting.



The footage and pictures coming from this, are very very intense.



And it's going to be interesting to see what does happen; and as things keep developing I will, of course, keep you up to date.

The other international news I want to blog about – I've been blogging about it all week – is Ukraine. The situation continues to get worse and worse, and worse (especially if you've been keeping up with the news, or the live stream link that I've been including). There are many more deaths. As of typing this, 70 people have been killed. That number coming from medic with the opposition; and the AP notes it has not been verified right now.



Protesters have been capturing policemen.



There is now video footage of what looks to be policemen sniping at protesters.



And this is followed by footage of the actual protesters being hit, so you know that it's live ammo and not something else.

The protesters were fighting back with bricks, Molotov cocktails.



There have been reports of small arm fire.



A lot of what I know is happening on the ground, are coming from the people actually there, and non-American sites.



Lol, I typed that because when you go to many American sites, this is what you see:



This is literally CNN.com right now; 'cause who in mainstream media cares about people being murdered in the streets? Those people aren't Americans, you know who's an American? The $19 billion app.



And, on FOXNEWS.com, you don't really care about that, Obama didn't cause that, we're worried about the "government in the newsroom"!



On MSNDC.com, we care what Chris Christie is going to say.



Venezuela and Ukraine aren't even in the top ten things!





I thought for a second maybe HLN was covering it. I was like, "Oh, they're going to sensationalize it!", but then I remembered they're the missing-white-girl/trying-to-use-YouTubers-to-have-some-sort-of-relevance-in-this-day-of-age channel.



And then, ABC, lol, actually ABC News was reporting on it – it was their number one story.



And this is just me venting on it. Genuinely, I hate blogging about stuff like this, because there's no twist to it, or silver lining, or happy thing. But the fact that the other guys with actual journalism degrees don't, or they at least wait until they know that they can make it sexy in some way, that's the reason why I do, that's the reason I will continue. Why? Because I think that it's more important that more people know about this than Facebook acquiring WhatsApp.

I think that's where I want to actually end this article. All that typed, I'd love to know your thoughts too.

Venezuela Verging to a Hasty Decline

There was a protest last Wednesday, organized by students and hard-line opposition members.



These anti-government demonstrators trying to raise awareness over their frustration over issues ranging from rampant crime, all the way to that reoccurring theme during many of these protests: money trouble.



Then, pro-government supporters counted with a march of their own, to express their support for current Venezuelan President, Nicholas Maduro.



The problem is that: with this protest, and then the counter protest, and then the police there, everything turned deadly.



Reportedly, at least four people have been killed. Earlier reports are saying that everything turned sour because pro-government supporters showed up on motorcycles, and started firing on the protesters.





The crowd panicked, everyone started fleeing, chaos ensued, and now we have a death count.



Human rights groups have denounced this government crackdown on its people. Specifically, these peaceful protests which has lead to the arrest of thirteen anti-government activists in the past two weeks, on anti-terrorism charges.





Nonetheless, it'd be very interesting to see what happens. Especially, since this news is not being covered on a lot of places local to this. In fact, even in the US, many of the main networks have not talked about this at all. It's really been the Internet trying to get the word out on this.

So, as the situation develops, as always, I'll try and keep you as up to date as possible. And, I'd love to know your thoughts on this article. Of course, remember that there is a share button down below.