GoFundMe, Amazon and Smugglers: Venezuela's Protest Supply Route

(Bloomberg) -- Helmets and goggles come via private couriers or tucked in carry-on bags. Portable radios and gas masks are smuggled across the border or sent on charter planes.

The near-daily demonstrations that have rocked Venezuela for about two months are sustained by rivulets of material and money that coalesce into a stream of support. Crowd-funding websites like GoFundMe and Generosity are awash in campaigns for protesters -- some raising tens of thousands of dollars -- and Amazon wish lists of gear circulate on Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp.

The rapidly growing community of Venezuelan expats holds fund raisers and collection drives in the U.S., Panama and elsewhere while back home, political parties and activists help dole out the supplies before marches. Concrete financial numbers are nearly impossible to come by but the aid is critically important to protest leaders' overarching plan: Maintain a steady presence on the streets until they force President Nicolas Maduro (or the military) to call new elections.

They failed to oust Maduro back in 2014, deciding to end weeks of demonstrations after suffering dozens of fatalities. They're being tested even more sternly now. The death count has climbed over 60 while thousands of others have been injured or thrown in jail. But with the oil-rich country's economic collapse worse than ever and Maduro seeking to further tighten his grip on power, protesters appear more determined this time.

“This fight is a matter of resisting and staying put,” said Samuel Olarte, head organizer for Popular Will, an opposition party. “This type of support will keep arriving as long as the protests continue."

Word of Mouth

Olarte's office is filled with megaphones still in original packaging, boxes of new Amazon-brand batteries and black trash bags full of t-shirts featuring stenciled images of Leopoldo Lopez, the leader of Popular Will who's been in jail since the 2014 uprising. Olarte coordinates everything from marches to lunches prepared by neighborhood groups. Message services, social media and word of mouth are used to rally people together.

“The ones who are willing to protest are not the ones with the means,” said Julio Jimenez, a 39-year-old activist in Caracas, better known by his Twitter handle, @Juliococo, which has more than 350,000 followers. “The work at hand is connecting them."

The most widely attended marches seek to reach downtown Caracas, with its presidential palace and ministries.

The vanguards come dressed for battle. Their faces are covered, goggles or gas masks hang around their necks. They wield homemade shields, prepare Molotov cocktails before the march kicks off and wear leather gloves to pick up and throw back tear-gas canisters that security forces shoot into the crowd. Protesters also have to fend off water-cannon blasts and pellets, marbles and sometimes even bullets that are fired at them.

‘Gift a Mask'

The government labels them terrorists. They say any acts of violence they commit are in self-defense.

The vast majority of the people in the marches actually are peaceful. Entire families, the young and elderly, all come dressed in white. They don tricolor red, yellow and blue caps and carry Venezuelan flags.

The masses cheer on the front lines as they clash with security forces. Many hand out sandwiches or water. Others pass out bottles of Maalox -- an antacid said to curb the effects of tear gas -- from car trunks. When the gas starts to fly, most pull back and leave the younger, angrier protesters to duke it out with national guardsmen for hours.

A gas mask, one of the most sought-after items, can run anywhere from $10 for a simple respirator to hundreds of dollars for a military-grade model. Either way, it's far beyond the means of the average Venezuelan -- many of whom are hard-pressed to buy basic staples.

So last month, Jimenez started the campaign #RegalaUnaMascara, or “Gift A Mask.” As protests spread, donations poured in and he has since handed out a couple hundred of them.

Authorities are now working to choke off international aid. On May 17, lawmaker Diosdado Cabello, the second-in-command of the ruling socialist party, announced Operation Knock Knock, an attempt to disrupt the protests' supply chains.

“If you allow your door-to-door company to bring terrorist equipment, then anti-terrorist laws should be enforced on you,” Cabello warned courier services. State television has since aired videos of police raids at customs offices and the homes of protest operatives, filled with shipments of helmets, sling shots, and in some cases, even firearms.

Those sending supplies seem largely unfazed.

A group called Politically Persecuted Venezuelans in Exile has already shipped some four tons of material to resistance groups, according to its head, Jose Antonio Colina, 43, a former national guard lieutenant now living in Miami after taking part in a failed 2002 coup attempt. Things like gauze and energy bars are mailed, but radios and gas masks are sent on charter planes or smuggled across the border.

“It's a completely clandestine operation,” Colina said. “The regime can try, but the border is very long.”

--With assistance from Noris Soto Fabiola Zerpa and Margaret Newkirk

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Rosati in Caracas at arosati3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net, Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Stephen Merelman