Neighbouring countries fear Venezuela may drift into civil war amid political unrest

There are fears being expressed by neigbouring countries in South America like Peru that the political unrest in Venezuela may snowball into a civil war thereby causing an influx of refugees into nearby countries.

That much fear was expressed by Peru’s foreign minister Ricardo Luna who says political crisis is deepening in Venezuela and its economy is imploding under the rule of President Nicolas Maduro.

Luna who was speaking a day after summoning his counterparts from across the region to Lima to condemn the “rupture of democratic order” in Venezuela said Maduro support at home and abroad had shrunk as he seeks to consolidate power through the constituent assembly.

Peru’s foreign minister said that there are fears of humanitarian crisis that has already sent waves of Venezuelan refugees to neighbouring nations, including some 40,000 to Peru in the past six months.

Read also: EU set to come down hard on Venezuela over political unrest

“Our fear is that you really have a low-intensity civil war, which would produce a humanitarian crisis of great proportions,” Luna said in an interview in his offices in Lima.

Four days ago, embattled Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was returned to house arrest after spending four days in military prison, his wife Lilian Tintori revealed on Twitter.

Lopez, 46, was already under house arrest when he was picked up by Venezuelan intelligence services overnight Monday, one day after a vote to choose a powerful constituent assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.

In the last two months, no less than 80 people have lost their lives in the often violent protests as adversaries of Maduro have been blocking highways and setting up barricades in protests of increasingly severe economic crisis that has left millions struggling to get enough to eat.

 

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