claim: Claims Venezuelan people threw money in the streets to protest health conditions.
evidence: This narrative of sabotage and "economic war" has provided a public rationale for the government’s use of authoritarian tactics to intimidate and punish its critics. Doctors and nurses at public hospitals have been threatened with dismissal from their jobs in response to public statements regarding the shortages. Local human rights organizations have been threatened with the loss of international funding. Ordinary Venezuelans who have participated in protests—both planned marches and spontaneous demonstrations—have at times been subject to detention, beatings, and unjustifiable prohibitions on further protest activity. Some have been prosecuted in military courts, in violation of their right to a fair trial. [...] Ordinary Venezuelans reported being arrested during street protests over food scarcity—some organized and some spontaneous—and being subject to beatings and other mistreatment while in detention. These detentions followed a similar pattern to scores of other cases documented by Human Rights Watch in Venezuela in 2014, when the government launched a widespread crackdown on largely peaceful anti-government protests. [...] Ordinary Venezuelans were arrested during street protests over food scarcity—some organized and some spontaneous—and reported being subjected to beatings and other mistreatment while in detention. These detentions followed the same pattern as scores of cases documented by Human Rights Watch following a Venezuelan government crackdown on largely peaceful anti-government protests in 2014.[109]