By Simón Rodríguez Porras*

Without popular support and with growing divisions within chavismo, Maduro's government has relied on the military for his violent attacks on the large wave of popular demonstrations that began on April 4. Two weeks of repression have resulted in nine dead and hundreds detained and wounded. But the demonstrations have not ceased to grow and on April 19 hundreds of thousands, in rejection of Maduro's shift towards a dictatorship, took to the streets in all of the major cities. On the night of April 20 there was a generalized eruption in El Valle, a working-class neighbourhood in southern Caracas. Amid the riots and looting, eight people died electrocuted while trying to take food from a bakery.

About 50 US cruise missiles were launched on military installations of the Syrian regime of al-Assad by order of Donald Trump. They argue that it was in retaliation for the chemical attack perpetrated by Bashar al-Assad days before.

There has been a new criminal and genocidal action of dictator Bashar with the support of the Russian air force of Putin. A bombing with a chemical gas has killed 72 people and left dozens injured on Tuesday, 4 April, in the town of Jan Seijun, north-western province of Idlib (Syria). "There are about 560 people affected, but the staff is still in shock, so I estimate that this will not be the final figure", explains Dr Mohamed Katoub, coordinator in Turkey of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS).

Driven by President Tayyip Erdogan a referendum has been called for 16 April to reform the constitution. With the proposed presidentialist reform, the prime minister disappears and the president of the republic concentrates the executive power. The president can also take part in the election of the judiciary. The legislative elections will happen every five years (now they are every four), matching the presidential elections. The number of deputies will increase to 600 (50 more than the current ones). In short, Erdogan attempts to concentrate full powers to perpetuate himself.