Social unrest has simmered in Venezuela for the last few years, at times breaking out in widespread protests, and tensions have mounted this year, as an opposition-led legislature leads aneffort to recall President Nicolas Maduro.
But a protest that broke out near the presidential palace in Caracas on Thursday indicates that the strife has reached a segment of the country critical to the government's popular support.
A group of Venezuelans waiting in line at a supermarket in Caracas made a run for Miraflores, the presidential palace, after they sawwhat appeared to be people affiliated with the government taking food they had been waiting for hours in the heat to buy.