Resistance and Repression in Venezuela Our World

is using torture and imprisonment without trial against those

who oppose it - a claim the government denies.

Protests have been held against a vote to elect an assembly

to change the constitution, which opposition parties say

could create a dictatorship.

For Our World, Vladimir Hernandez reports from Caracas.

His film includes images and descriptions of violence.

Welcome to Venezuela.

Once the richest jewel in Latin America, it is now

a country drowning in political and economic chaos.

A state with the largest oil reserves in the world is now

so impoverished that it cannot feed its own people.

TRANSLATION: Even if I die, it's worth it.

How long is this going to go on for?

We are a hungry country.

As his people rage, President Nicolas Maduro's grip

on power has grown increasingly desperate.

All opposition is being systematically crushed.

It is feared a new constitution will extinguish democracy

and establish a dictatorship.

As the battle for Venezuelan democracy reaches boiling point,

the BBC has heard disturbing allegations of state

torture against demonstrators.

Several officers there are told us,

"We are going to give you the shock treatment."

For Venezuelans, long accustomed to economic hardship,

the assault on their democracy is proving the final straw.

I have been to Caracas, to meet resistance to the reforms

of Nicolas Maduro and find out what future lies in store

for this troubled country.

If you want to find out who is behind a demonstration,

head to a university.

This is Uceve, the largest university in Venezuela.

I was a student here myself.

In my day, we were protesting against a rise in the bus fare.

Today, it is a rather more desperate story.

In a quiet room on the campus, I meet four young protesters.

They have disguised their identities and we have changed their voices

to protect them.

The way I see it, the resistance is everybody who is against a regime.

Many people see it as a dictatorship.

At the moment, they are even trying

to change our constitution.

I think the resistance is those people who come out to protest

and are willing to take the lead to confront the police

or the national guard.

It's not like there is this little group of resistance over here,

and a group of normal people over there.

No.

We are all the resistance, and we are all against

what is happening.

Some have labelled us as terrorists, but I think that all of us youth

who make up the resistance are brave fighters, defending our people

from the government's brutal repression.

The students are known as escuderos, or shield bearers.

Young men and women like them see their role in the resistance

as protecting the ordinary people who demonstrate every day

from the national guard.

We are going to meet a resistance group at Las Mercedes,

and then we moved to the place where it normally kicks off.

Every protest march is accompanied by the escuderos and when the people

move into stop the march, the escuderos will move

in and confront them.

They never allow us to make it as far as where the march is meant

to end - they use the excuse that we will destroy the whole city.

Our role is also to secure ground.

Because just as the police and national guard are trying

to push us back, we also have to seize our chances to advance.

My job is to pick up any falling helmets or gloves,

to retrieve them and give them back to the boys,

or to be looking out for them, or collecting

the stones, or whatever.

It is not just a matter of marching forward and that's it.

It's really about everyone's duty.

There is a naivete about some of their actions, but it is clear

that they are brave.

Most of the dozens who have died in this wave of protest are those

at the front.

But there is a little resentment that they have been allotted this

role in Venezuela's struggle for democracy at such a young age.

It shouldn't be just up to us to get out there representing

thirtysomethings or fortysomethings.

I mean, they have to come out as well.

I think we suffer the worst of the government's decisions

and that's why we haven't any choice if we want to gain our independence

to move forward and make a life for ourselves.

What I've noticed in most of the marchers, most of those

at the front are really, really young kids, to be honest.

I don't think they should be there.

You are supposed to fight for your children's future.

You should not get your children to fight for your future, right?

It wasn't meant to be like this.

By the time Maduro came to power in 2013, the Bolivian revolution,

begun by his charismatic predecessor, Hugo Chavez,

was spluttering badly.

Price controls and the state seizure of industry had apparently failed.

When the oil price fell, Venezuela's extravagant

spending didn't stop.

The country found itself borrowing heavily and increasingly reliant

on imports of food and medicine.

In the last four years, the economy has shrunk by a third.

The IMF estimates that inflation is running at over 700%,

the highest in the world.

The people began to go hungry.

Three out of four Venezuelans lost an average of 18lb

in weight last year.

Corruption, say critics, helps the regime to stay in power.

By controlling foreign exchange, the government decides who prospers.

The army are kept onside by being given charge

of the most critical imports.

The media is muzzled.

In March, Maduro's supreme court declared the opposition led national

assembly to be illegitimate.

Days of daily demonstrations and violent clashes

with the security forces followed.

Over 100 have died, and thousands more have been arrested.

Then, in May, President Maduro declared that a new constitution

would be drawn up.

The government wanted to rewrite the rules of the game,

and no-one was asked if this was what they wanted.

It's hard to get the government to talk to the media

but the minister in charge of food distribution -

a key job in today's Venezuela - did agree to talk to me.

In the Chavista worldview, there is a familiar bogeyman.

It's hard to say who represents the opposition in Venezuela.

But no-one would argue against former presidential

candidate Maria Corina Machado.

Disbarred from politics by ruling party legislators,

she remains a political force and is keen to be

seen with protesters.

But Maria Corina Machado thinks there is far more to the resistance

than violent protests.

There is a word going around calling the opposition 'the resistance.'

What is the resistance for you?

You don't have to look far to find who she is talking about.

Street kids like these appear at every demonstration.

Their enthusiasm to take on the security forces,

whilst brave, places them in real danger.

Their motivation often stems from a profound sense of injustice.

TRANSLATION: Three days ago, they nicked me, they tortured me,

they asked me who was paying me.

It's a lie.

Nobody gives us money - we come out because we want a better

future, we want a better future for Venezuela.

They split my head, they hit me in the body,

they grabbed me, they told me they were going to rape me,

they said they were going to kill me.

Fuelled by their grievances, some of these young protesters

take considerable risks.

This is one of the most controversial aspects

of the so-called resistance - small pockets of demonstrators

at the end of the protest come to places like this,

a military base, and try to attack it.

In there, they're already scuffles, with some people telling them,

"Don't do it, you're valuable, you're a young life,

don't lose it."

Because over there, the national guard is already waiting for them.

One person trying to cool the hot heads of the protests is a senior

citizen now known as Senora de la Tanqueta, or 'tank lady'.

She rose to fame in April by refusing to move

out of the way of a small tank.

She was taken to prison and interrogated before being released.

The experience has not put her off going to the demonstrations.

The stakes are certainly high for both sides,

and the regime is defiant.

This residential block in Caracas is called Los Verdes, the greens.

It has been a focal point of vociferous anti-government

protest since April.

Neighbours here set up barricades on irregular basis

and clashes with the police and National Guard are frequent.

One evening, the government said, another was enough.

Margarita, her husband and her cousin who lives

in the apartment, were petrified.

Although her husband and her cousin were released,

the intrusion into their home has badly affected the family.

But not all members of the tower block were so fortunate.

When she heard the police begin their assault,

Camila and some friends went to hide in a neighbour's apartment.

TRANSLATION: When he opened the door of the wardrobe,

the man who grabbed me, he did it by the hair, he lifted me

and threw me onto the bed, and then they beat the boys

in the head.

They really beat up the boys horribly.

Even though she told police she was pregnant,

they took no notice.

TRANSLATION: We were lying facedown on the floor,

then they told us to take out their shoelaces.

Then they kicked me about ten times.

In the bum, in the legs...

They also beat the rest of the girls.

They kept on beating us, even when they took us

out of the apartment.

They told someone, come on, I'm going to kill you,

right here, right now.

Why did they take me?

Because this is a dictatorship and they nicked whoever

they want to, whether you are doing anything or not.

Camila taken to some of the worst prisons in Caracas,

before eventually being released.

Simon was not so lucky, he was arrested at a demonstration,

accused of being a member of an opposition political party.

TRANSLATION: They grabbed me from behind, 18, 20 cops

that came down on me, while they were kicking

and hitting me, they put me on a bike and took me

to the headquarters of the intelligence agency.

Originally designed as the futuristic shopping centre,

today, the Helicoide is a place whose name makes even

the hardened shudder.

Held in an overcrowded cell for over two months,

Simon witnessed prisoners returning from interrogation, with tell-tale

signs of having been tortured.

TRANSLATION: One got back, you could tell he was frightened,

he couldn't stand up straight and you could see the burn

marks on his ears.

And the other guy, you could see his black eye,

it was all bruised, so you could see they have given him shocks.

Later on, several offices there told us, we are going to give

you the shock treatment, and we're going to grab

those two and soak them, keep them soaked all night long.

Simon was beaten but not tortured, he could not get

out of the Helicoide.

Even though he received a release order from a judge,

intelligence agency officials ignored it and he was only released

over one month later.

Today, he is still trying to get back on his feet.

TRANSLATION: At night I'm very anxious, any little

sound makes me jumpy, I feel like I don't know

what is going to happen.

I'm still worried that any time, they will come and knock on my door

and take me back there.

Far from being intimidated, the opposition are

growing in strength.

Whilst we were filming, with Maria Corina Machado,

and its ordinary defection from a Chavista loyalist.

This is the Attorney General of Venezuela, now playing

a key role in the crisis.

The Maduro regime was not impressed.

Despite the government's denials, the Attorney General has claimed

that the security forces are using unauthorised firearms.

What is clear is that many protesters have been killed

and severely injured by the reckless use of riot control munitions.

Many in the opposition believe that behind the bluster,

Many in the opposition believe that behind the bluster,

the end game is being played out.

a recent unofficial plebiscite showed 7 million voters

were against President Maduro, as many as had elected him in 2013.

Do you think we are in the final days of Chavism

as a proposition in politics?

The president sees a very different future for

the opposition in Venezuela.

Whilst the politicians fight it out, the students of Uceve continue

their own perilous resistance.

TRANSLATION: I don't mind giving up my life out there in the streets

if it is for a good cause.

I believe I would prefer to die than live in this way.

I will never be able to achieve my attentional as a person here,

because the government isn't letting me.

TRANSLATION: I'm scared of dying, I'm scared of seeing

someone getting killed, to be near them when it happens.

After all, we are supposed to be fighting for the safe of living

in a better Venezuela.

TRANSLATION: when you're standing behind a shield

and they fire at you, the impact deafens you.

It leaves your ears ringing.

There's always the risk that by trying to see

what is going on a ahead of you, that a pellet can get

through the shields and hit you in your eye.

That's your eye gone.

Or it could kill you.

TRANSLATION: I always think that maybe one day,

my luck will run out.

And I think about those boys who didn't make it back home.

Every time I get home from the protests, I tell

myself that it a gift.

Because many of my mates didn't make it back.

They may be dead, or under arrest.

This is a country that has seen many of its youngest people killed,

injured, or arrested.

People like these are commemorating the

lives lost in this wave of political unrest.

This is very much an open wound, and the consequences are far

from known, regardless of who is going to run this nation.

The government now plans to convene a

new assembly, to rewrite Venezuela's constitution.

It's a future that many in the country are dreading.