Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Thursday April 7, 2016 Protest

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Thursday April 7, 2016

Being away for 2 weeks has made a big difference in the humingbird visits. There are maybe only 2 Sparkling Violetears in evidence (one, of course, is Tom Thumb) and I haven't seen the Giant Hummers Andre and Andrea.... Hopefully they will return soon.

There was a Call To Arms by Graciela with the Coopera folks to join the protest against the new proposed Government taxes at 5pm at San Blas square. I thought that I might be able to squeeze that in before meeting the biker gang at 8pm.

The group gathered slowly at San Blas and grew as people joined in from everywhere. News reports eventually put our crowd at around 350 persons. We walked up Simon Bolivar until we hit Borrero at City Hall. The police had barricaded the road to send us south along Borrero and then up Sucre. Apparently a pro-government rally of reportedly 150 people were barricaded in along Bolivar at Parque Calderon.

When we got to the south side of Parque Calderon, we were met with a complete barricade, with hundreds of police behind them, to keep us from accessing Parque Calderon. I am always unnerved by the immense police preparations and the presence of officers with the tear gas guns. One lady was passing out white roses to the police, but very few were accepted embarrassingly.

Our crowd was not happy with the barricades because the eventual destination was to be Santo Domingo square. The barricades have simple hinges, one lift upward and they come apart. Some of the younger ones in our crowd tested the barricades a few times, made a large hole, but were held back by a wall of plexiglass shields and then the tear gas was shot into the crowd. That was my first experience with tear gas and luckily I was far enough back that I only got a mild whiff. This happened about 3 times until a rainstorm hit and much of trhe crowd headed for cover, or left. I had no umbrella so I took cover. This also scotched the idea of the biker gang going on a ride tonight so I was in no hurry.

At one point the pro-Government demonstrators started to come along Cordero but the police quickly sent them back to their side. Actually, I am grateful the the police showed that much restraint. This whole situation could have gotten unnecessarily ugly. The rain also helped to dampen the mood a lot.

I am not going to caption many of the photos today. You get the idea.

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al