Venezuela: the entire country could expect moderate rain and other unwelcome news

Weather forecasters warned that a tropical storm was looming and the entire country could expect moderate rain and other unwelcome news. The national meteorological institute, Inameh, linked the bad weather to a regional weather system. Civil Protection Acting Director Luis Díaz Curbelo called on the public to take precautions.

The opposition said it would press ahead with a march announced for next Saturday even though the authorities hadn't responded to requests for official permission. Oscar Pérez of the National Resistance Command called on the Public Defender to "guarantee the right of protest" and take measures so that permission for the march was granted.

In Zulia, a group of retired former workers of the Venezuelan Central Bank (VCB) declared a hunger strike in demand for better payments. Spokesman Cirilo Amador said that rights enshrined in the Constitution shouldn't be "usurped" any more, and warned that protests would continue until their demands were satisfied.

Reporters Without Borders, the French-based press rights pressure group, called on the authorities for a "total clarification" of the circumstances in which newspaper executive Pierre Fould Gerges was shot dead by gunmen on a motorbike in Chuao, Caracas, earlier this week.

Residents of El Junquito took to the streets and blocked highways to make their case after being without water supplies for a month and a half. Community leader Clemencia Camacho said officials had not kept earlier promises that water would be delivered to the district.

Workers on the Metro subway system in the capital criticized the company for hiring members of the military reserve corps during protests connected with collective bargaining negotiations. Union leader Pedro Coronado denied his members were on a deliberate go-slow.