Dearborn Heights Woman Terrified As Streets Of Hometown In Venezuela Erupt With Violence

(WWJ) Tensions and violence in Venezuela continue to rise as protesters rally against the presidency of Nicolas Maduro.

The New York Times is reporting at least a dozen people were killed "as the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, erupted into a night of riots, looting and clashes between government opponents and the National Guard late Thursday and into early Friday, as anger from two days of pro-democracy demonstrations spilled into unrest in working-class and poor neighborhoods."

Zahra Ayoub of Dearborn Heights, who was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, spoke with WWJ about the ongoing crisis in her country.

"The tear gas, the oppression, the robbery, the kidnapping, the hunger, the not being safe, the everybody has to be at home by 5 o'clock before you get shot or you get killed, it's just a nightmare," she said.

Ayoub, 42, says she has an uncle in Venezuela who is dying of cancer -- but unable to get pain medicine. She's worried about her family. "There is no morphine, there is no aspirin, there is nothing to calm his pain away," she said.

And she's outraged about how little attention has been paid to the crisis in her home country the last few years, she said.

General Motors stopped operations in Venezuela after its only plant there was illegally seized by authorities, the automaker said in a statement.

That move made international headlines. But for the everyday people, the residents, no one has seemed to care, Ayoub said.

"Where is the justice," she said. "All because GM got shut down, everybody's raising an eye on it, but they couldn't raise an eye two years ago?"