Government supporters attack Venezuela opposition leader

CARACAS, Venezuela – Supporters of Venezuela’s socialist government attacked the head of the country’s opposition alliance on a downtown Caracas street Friday.

As Jesus Torrealba was addressing reporters, a half-dozen men suddenly approached and began to hurl punches and objects at him, apparently without provocation.

Torrealba, who didn’t have a bodyguard with him, fought back with his fists and managed to escape. As he fled, the group began to throw chunks of the sidewalk at him, with some shouting “fire some lead” bullets.

Afterward, his face bruised from the encounter, Torrealba made light of the incident.

“I’m fine. They didn’t even mess up my hair,” joked the opposition leader, who is bald. “Neither the militarizing of cities nor the actions of violent groups will manage to stop legitimate and peaceful social protest.”

Torrealba and a small group of opposition supporters had planned to march to the headquarters of the state-run electricity company to protest the government’s power rationing plan. But they were turned back by a heavy police presence and were in the process of calling off the demonstration when the attack took place.

Venezuela is suffering from a severe energy crisis, and President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday slashed the public sector workweek to just two days as a power-saving measure. He’s also ordered rolling blackouts of up to 4 hours a day across the country until dangerously low water levels at the nation’s largest dam are replenished.

Torrealba was a Communist Party activist in his youth. He was elected the head of the wide-ranging Democratic Unity coalition in 2014 in an attempt to connect the normally elite-driven coalition with poorer Venezuelans once loyal to the government.