On Saturday, thousands of Venezuelans protested in the capital city of Caracas.

The organized march, done in an effort to blame government policies for the state of the country's flailing economic situation, was the first of the year. This march hopes to revive the protests that took place last year.

Although the protesters banged empty pots to show their lack of foods supplies, there were no major incidents with the riot police that cut access to the center of the city.

According to the BBC, opposition politician Maria Corina Machado said, "[President Nicolás Maduro] must step aside now, so the Venezuelan people can stand united again."

Architect Jose Salinas said, "There are food shortages, shortages even in drugstores, prices have gone up across the board, meat costs twice what it did recently."

Despite what appears to be a real food shortage, the demonstrations were demonstrably smaller than they had been in the past.

Venezuela is a major oil producer, and the country has recently been hit by falling oil prices on the international markets.

President Maduro sees a conspiracy.

On Friday, the president called on to the National Assembly to investigate what he is describing as "an economic war" against his government.

Furthermore, he believes some supermarkets are causing the food shortages. Maduro said that four chains have been lying about their supplies and have gone as far as getting rid of the items so that the people can't have them.

Maduro said he will "produce the evidence" to back up his claims.

"For many years they have been hiding goods from the Venezuelan people," he said. "They have a system to spread rumours and create problems, anxiety and queues."

"Enough of sabotage against the people," he added.

The Venezuelan economy has been in recession since December.

President Maduro has openly accused the United States of waging an economic war on Russia by flooding the markets with oil.

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