Opinion: So today August 21st: Protest, A Shaky Parliament and an Earthquake · 5:01am Aug 22nd, 2018

Now, for those who need to know, last Friday, Maduro announced a series of economic decisions (like anchoring our economy to an illegal coin and raising taxes) and the opposition decided to capitalize on this (knowing that the population would dislike it) by calling for the 21st of August to be a General Strike as a form of protest (nobody leaves their homes) and I was wondering if the population would accept, after all, the regime said that any business that complied with the call would be taken over by the regime and the radicals were saying that the petition was stupid and that the only solution was "rebellion" (even if they never explain what do they mean by that) by leaving their houses. I was sure that nobody would leave but I was worried for the population to not listen. The day came and...

The population stood in their homes.

Morning 8:20am on San Martín; Caracas

The Center of Caracas 8:38am

La Candelaria; morning

Libertador Disctrict 9: 03am

Vargas State

Zulia State

Bolívar State had all the basic industries stopped and only 10% of private activity

And many (if not all) states in the country complied.

The streets were barred of population as nobody left and most (if not all) stores were closed (most under the excuse of adjusting themselves to the new monetary system) and it got backing from the universities, journalist and some workers (the industries and commerce didn't back it for the potential consequences of it) also supported it. Granted, the radicals diminished it by saying (on the morning) that nobody was listening and later (on the afternoon) that people didn't obeyed and they were just suffering from Maduro's policies; the Leftist opposition (yes, they exist) used those very few places where there was activity and denigrated the main opposition for calling for a general strike on such a short notice and Maduro called for his own march of support for him and ignored the calling (as far I'm aware). Which means that there may be some signs that the protest may come back, they only need to be lead extremely carefully.

Maduro's March to Support Him

On the midday, the opposition went to the Parliament to discuss from Maduro's economic policies and, to my relief, they not only said that it was illegal (the obvious) but also called the population to "Fight for a National Political Change". No, the radicals ignored this and still accuse them of being sellouts.

The parliament then decided to discuss the most recent sentences made by the Supreme Court on Exile (one which declared Maduro out of office and the Parliament now had to call for a temporary president while elections were being held and the other that charged Maduro for corruption and that he was to go to jail for it)

The thing is that the Parliament cannot call for the new president (which has to be the president of the Parliament) without risking getting sent to jail and the Supreme Court let very clear that the sentence had to be followed by the military and the Police.

The Radicals claimed that the Parliament had to call for a "Transitional Government" (I'll explain another day the problem with this) and that the Parliament had to be the one arresting him. Also, tell me if this sounds familiar to you:

"The Parliament has a debt with the people of Venezuela and must follow what the Supreme Court Dictates"

"The Parliament is a collaborator with the dictatorship unless it follows what the Supreme Court Says"

Those were the lines said by the chavismo since 2016 and until the ANC was made, in that time, the radicals claimed that the Parliament shouldn't follow the illegal Supreme Court but when the Opposition named a new Supreme Court (not in exile) the radicals started to say that the Parliament had to obey that Supreme Court, that the Supreme Court was a democratic institution and not obeying it was against democracy and that those who didn't even give signs of agreeing with it were sided with Maduro.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg of why I dislike the radicals, but that is for another day.

So the radicals used the Parliament to throw sh*t at the moderates in the opposition by saying stuff like "The most democratic thing is to obey the Supreme Court" while the moderates (like Carlos Paparoni) were shouting at him "Are we in vacations?" and then aimed at a huge stand of a deputee that is in jail (Juan Requesens) and then remind the radicals that they haven't visited him neither give their support to him while the moderates have been trying to get to him and see how well he is.

The keybord warriors on twitter used this as an excuse to call him a sellout that should be sent to jail with Maduro.

Regardless, at the end of the session, the parliament approved (unanimously) their support to the Supreme Court (many in the moderate opposition remained on the idea that the Parliament wasn't a servant of any other body and it was the only true representative of the people) and asked the Military (as the Supreme Court Sentence dictates) to arrest Maduro.

After that, it looked like the day was going to end peacefully when there was an earthquake shaking Venezuela and even reaching Colombia.

There is some disagreements but many agree that it was between 6.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale

There were some jokes made about it:

I was told by a future seer that an earthquake would come and Maduro would then fall (just got this)
On this moment "if nature opposes us... fuck the wardrobe holding the empanadas got stuck due to the earthquake"
I left the house in boxers due to the earthquake

Any dignity I had left is gone from this house

The Country with the most salt

There was some damage on infrastructure

Torre de David in Caracas

I still need to get the images of Bolívar State (where it got the most wrecking) and it also was felt on the Amazonian rainforest as well as in the Macizo Guayanés (those that inspired the movie UP!) which are places that has never felt an earthquake before but, overall, nobody died and damage is very little, much to my relief. Still need to wait for the replicas though.

Also, believe it or not, chavistas are blaming the US for the earthquake.

I would be laughing if it weren't so sad... ok, I am laughing but I would be laughing more if it weren't so sad.

Overall, it was a tough day. Between the strike, the radicals making everyone's life miserable and the earthquake, this was kind of a hard day but I won't complain, it ended with the view fixed on a possibility of this regime ending and I may get shot for this but I think it was God's action that this earthquake got no casualties.

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