Venezuela is still having issues and useless peaceful marches that the government is having too much fun disrupting the crap out of them.

However, some places the Government plans of using both National Guard and the Colectivos (armed goons) clash when local PDs get in the way. Last night in the Sucre District, the Policia de Sucre got into a shooting match against Colectivos trying to loot business in a middle class area and actually won.

This morning there was another march announced for the Township of Chacao (still within the Great Caracas area) and the government pulled a fast one: It does not matter if the townships and districts have their own police, they are all under orders from the central government and that government issued a “Stay in your precinct” order meaning they were to stay inside and patrol was forbidden. Only certain cops assigned to foot posts at critical locations (hospitals) were allowed outside the precinct.

So, by 4 pm today, about some 65 people were take to Salud Chacao, a small emergency dispensary. Mostly were victims of either beat downs or impact from less lethal rounds and CS gas grenades.

And of course, not only the government produced injuries to the protesters as some were accidentally self-inflicted. It seems Molotov Cocktails might be a tad temperamental. (Graphic warning at the end of video)

URGENTE!! Así resultaron quemados manifestantes en Altamira 4pm 3M pic.twitter.com/rVb9LoApkA

— Alberth Amir (@unbarbon_mas) May 3, 2017

But I digress. The Venezuelan Government’s total control over all police departments allows them to switch on or off the protection they keep saying they owe to the citizens and that is a powerful tool.  Independent and elected chief LEOs controlling local Police Departments isolate communities from excesses like in Venezuela.  And the Chavistas know damn well how cops can screw up any plans because on both coup attempts, Metro cops gummed up the works long enough and badly enough that it help with both failures. One of the first things that Chavez did once he became president was to gut out the Metro police, remove it weapons and send them back to the streets with old Smith and Wesson Model 10 revolvers that had not seen either maintenance or light of day in decades. And I won’t even tell you about the crappy round nose lead ammo issued.

So, whenever the local leaders want to take over in selecting who is gonna be the chief LEO or you hear the rumbles of a “Federal Police Force” to substitute the local cops, scream loud, flip fingers and raise all the hell you can.