A few days after arriving in Venezuela, we drive past La Carlota military base in the east of Caracas, which was a regular site for the violent street protests commonly known here as guarimbas.
The highway we were travelling on was often blockaded by protesters 鈥 guarimberos 鈥 who made up the backbone of the self-dubbed 鈥淟a Resistencia鈥. They received glowing praise in the international media during the wave of protests that rocked the country from April to July.