Hi and thanks for download in this program.

I'm Vladimir Hernandez and I've just returned from Venezuela

where I've been reporting on the current unrest.

Venezuela's my home country and over the past few years I've watched as this once prosperous land

has descended into political and economic chaos. I never thought that people

there would be on the verge of starvation. Now they have had enough and they're out on the streets

in their thousands and I wanted to meet them to find out what life on the barricades is like.

So here it is, resistance and repression in Venezuela.

Sienor, in this moment of this hour,

you have a woman leads a group of teenage boys in prayer.

She is young with tattoos on her arms and a pink t-shirt tied across her face

so that only her eyes can be seen.

We are standing in a city square in Garakas beneath a tower in fountain.

Eight teenage boys are huddled with a woman in a circle, their arms around

each other's shoulders. The boys have hidden their faces behind Balaclava's and coloured shirts. Some

have gas masks covering their nose and mouth.

Amen.

Resitencia! they shout. Resistance.

I'm Vladimir Hernandez and in this week's assignment on the BBC World Service

have come to Venezuela to meet the protesters trying to overthrow their president.

They come from many places, Caracas and from other towns in the country.

We have boys from Margarita, from Barlobento, Barinas, Merida, Tachira, Maracaibo, they come to Caracas to protest.

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