By Lidk Rodelo with additional reporting by Carlos Camacho in Caracas.
Hundreds of Venezuelans gathered without facemasks on the night of June 23rd to celebrate the eve of San Juan, June 24th, just as Coronavirus jumped 25% over the last week, adding more than 1,000 new cases to 4,000-plus confirmed patients.
The revelers danced while parading San Juan statues, crowding the narrow, Colony-era, cobblestoned streets of Curiepe. Other cities held similar festivities.
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At one point, revelers started chanting: “Who doesn’t want to die should not have been born,” in apparent defiance to strict quarantine imposed by the Nicolas Maduro regime. The more traditional chant of “San Juan todo lo tiene, San Juan todo lo da” -San Juan has everything. San Juan gives everything- was also invoked.
Because the quarantine, the June 24th Battle of Carabobo military parade, was canceled by the regime because for the first time since the holiday designated in the early 20th century.
