The 2016 Venezuelan protests began in early January following controversy surrounding the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary elections and the increasing hardships felt by Venezuelans. The series of protests originally began in February 2014 when hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protested due to high levels of criminal violence, inflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods because of policies created by the Venezuelan government though the size of protests had decreased since 2014. In the first two months of 2016, over 1,000 protests and dozens of looting incidents were recorded throughout Venezuela. Much of the looting occurred due to shortages in Venezuela with Venezuelans forced to stand in the sun for hours while waiting in line for scarce products. By September, Venezuela saw some of its largest protests in the country's history with over one million demonstrating on 1 September 2016 and 26 October 2016. Into November, protests ceased due to the Vatican-backed dialogue between the opposition and the Bolivarian government, though the talks began to fall apart by the end of December. The protests are listed below according to the month they had happened. January 5 January – After their success in the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election, opposition lawmakers were sworn into office obtaining a majority status while Bolivarian lawmakers walked out in protest shouting demeaning statements at the opposition as they left. With journalists granted to enter the National Assembly building for the first time in years, chanting and scuffles were reported and captured on camera. Outside of the building, hundreds of opposition supporters gathered while a larger crowd of government supporters gathered outside of Miraflores Palace denouncing the newly elected opposition parliament. 7 January – After the opposition-led National Assembly removed images of Hugo Chávez and Simón Bolívar, two symbols of the Bolivarian Revolution, from the National Assembly building, the Bolivarian government called for protests and to place the image of Chávez "on every street corner", with President Maduro ordering all members of the military to place images of both Hugo Chávez and Simón Bolivar in their homes. 13 January – Early in the day, three opposition lawmakers led protests outside of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice building after the lame duck parliament stacked the court with pro-government judges in December which blocked an opposition supermajority in the parliament. While lawmakers were entering the National Assembly building, government supporters threw tomatoes and fireworks at them. With no choice but to