10 minutes ago from a facebook friend who lives in Caracas:

"Things are getting extremely serious in Venezuela people. The opposition violence continues. Yesterday David was blocked in the middle of the road by a gang that came out of nowhere and started burning rubbish for a barricade. They were mostly kids, 12-14, led by an older adult. The opposition really are using children as weapons to push for a warlike situation.

Today, a rogue ex special police agent stole a state helicopter and used it to attack the supreme court with grenades and bullets. The pilot flew a sign citing article 350 of the constitution, which the opposition have used in recent weeks to declare themselves in rebellion against the government. In social media videos, the rogue pilot said he represented a coalition of military, police officers and civilians. This seems unlikely given the fact that there were no simultaneous attacks elsewhere, but we are talking about an armed attack against the state.

On my way home driving through the streets of Caracas at about 11pm tonight, the atmosphere is very tense. There are tanks in the street, and a sense of panic, compounded by the almost constant violent protests of the opposition, which mean that you can clash with a street blockade at any time or be attacked for being a Chavista in the street.

When I got home, there was broken glass on the street and worried neighbours outside. A group of opposition people had set fire to a rubbish container and walked through the streets breaking bottles and chanting that the government is going to fall before being dispersed by police. I live near el 23 de enero. My neighbours are still all outside, ashen faced keeping watch. The situation is extremely serious and people are very worried. I truly believe that we quite possibly stand on the cusp of civil war.

Sorry for the brevity of the message, but I'm on my phone and wanted to get message out. Have no internet at home."