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Awww, Mr. Blades' first letter is nice. It's nothing that hasn't been said before, but it reading it feels ilke reading someone's heart.
Anyhow, another protestor has died today. He was one of those running during 19-F's raid above. He hit his head while running and was then beat up by the National Guard.
The brother of a PSUV deputee has been killed, too. Don't know about the circumstances.
That's it for bad news. Repression seems to have been toned down, don't know what to make out of it.
My mates reoccupied our square. I doubt they'll put tents with supplies and stuff again, though.
Tomorrow there's another big march planned.
Student Geraldine Moreno has passed away today. On 19-F she had fallen to the ground after being shot with beanbag rounds, then was shot again in the face as she was trying to stand up.
Edit: And a biker was killed by a wire set on the streets.
Yesterday's manifestation in Caracas was also inmense, it's the biggest one in Venezuela that I've seen in a photo. The one we had here was also large, but I don't know if larger than previous ones. We were very disorganized, some people stayed at the square since they disagreed with the trajectory, and we stopped by a National Guard outpost, spent some time waiting around for some dialogue stuff (I still don't know what it was about), turned back, and a large part of the marchers had enough and detoured towards the square. The rest of us kept on and reached further than usual.
Judging from photos, things were less active than they were on 18-F (when Leopoldo turned himself in), but large nonetheless, and this was a worldwide manifestation, meaning there were are also a bunch of Venezuelans gathering in other countries, some gatherings being quite sizeable, though I assume it doesn't really matter beyond motivation.
Besides that, yesterday and today have been quiet in terms of repression. I still don't know what to make of this.
I'm glad I didn't put a funny picture about those wires, it'd have been tragic in hindsight (assuming the above wasn't self-defense). I've got a bunch of cool/funny pictures that I haven't posted lest they become retroactively tasteless. Turns out we have our own Ukrainians.
About those wires, yesterday General (r) Ángel Vivas (Twitter warrior) handed out info about those wires as a tip against paramilitaries. Today he was accused of complicity with the above death and was going to have its home raided by a shitload of National Guards. He went to the front of his home with a rifle threatening whoever would trespass, and neighbors gathered in his defense, eventually the Guards had to back off. Shit's crazy.
Capriles is having some dialogue with the reds tomorrow. It's created some division within the opposition.
Since you've mentioned the Ukrainians. They have avoided the worst, but shit's still tense. My newspaper had an article on Venezuelan protests that began with a header explaining that while most of the attention is focused on Ukraine, folks're up in protest at your place too. You guys have that comfort that your local big bully does not like the government. I've found some fun pics from there, so if you decide to post some, I'll dump them into the Images thread.
I think I'll wait until I'm sure I won't eventually look back at those pictures and cringe.
About our Ukraininans, they're Andeans ("gochos"), those from the states of Mérida, Trujillo and Táchira, also that's where protests began three weeks ago.
As for actual news:
Wilmer Carballo has also been killed. He was shot in the head by a paramilitary.
As you can guess, today's repression has been nasty. Beyond the above, there also were dozens of detainments and some beatings.
Also, Vielma Mora backed off already.
Capriles refused to meet with the reds, and took a harsher stance towards the government.
Yesterday Maduro had a manifestation along with a bunch of bikers. From what I've heard it was something of a pat in the back for paramilitaries to keep up with terror.
There were also various lootings reported throughout the country, including here nearby, no doubt indirectly caused by the above.
I'm convinced now, criminality on the streets is deliberately fomented as state policy as a tool and reward for their paramilitaries. That means socialists are responsible for, at least, over a hundred thousand deaths.
Edit: Oh, and before I forget. Altamira is at the center of Caracas, and it's something of a meeting ground between both halves. That repression is much more intense there is quite suspicious.
Crime is encouraged by certain parties for the benefit of the government? I know it's pretty bad there, but I didn't know corruption was encouraged. Do you know who were the biker group were?
Encouraging corruption is fairly common, actually, and extremely obvious in our case. For a quick local example, on 2012 around $20 billion (a third of that year's inflated budget for imports) went to made-up companies, according to two officialists authorities, three if you count Mario Silva's audio in which he directly accused Diosdado of it. State authorities haven't made an investigation about this and never will.
What's not so common is encouraging street crime (through impunity, insecurity, conflictivity, etc.). According to the radical side of the opposition (the side that, I must admit, has been proven right over and over) this is done so as to incentivise and give carte blanche to paramilitaries to operate descentralizedly outside the law to intimidate or attack oppositors, most notably during elections day (note how I only recently started referring to them as "paramilitaries" instead of "red thugs" or "officialist gangs"). Now that recent events have shown how important they are to socialists, I find that entirely believable. It's also said that it's done to, again, ghettofy areas by making it a dangerous choice to go to poorer areas to campaign or protest (or live or do anything, really), as well as to incite the middle class to leave the country (that is, a predominantly oppository demography with the means to move out. They did something similar in Cuba, through expropriations instead of crime.)
That said, whether it was the central government's intention or not, the murder rate has tripled over the last fifteen years and these are some of the effects it's had.
I dunno which group those bikers belonged to.
Oh, and one last thing about the division thing. While it still exists (does it?), the "poor means chavist, middle class and above means oppositor" division has grown weaker and weaker over time, while "rural means chavist, urban means oppositor" has grown stronger, according to electoral results, presumably because rural areas have grown much more dependent on the state for sustenance, jobs and information, and paramilitary activity (including electoral fraud).
Would you look at that, just today there were two quotes from officialist sources about what I'm talking about.
As for other news... no news is good news, I suppose. No deaths, no nasty cases of repression, roads still blocked, etc.
You know, I still think road blocking is counter-productive, but I have to admit that all that effort put into it is quite inspiriting.
Ummm... former world boxing champion Antonio Cermeno was killed in a roadside robbery. Apparently the UN ranks Venezuela as having the fifth highest homicide rate in the world.
I honestly didn't know it was that bad, Storm. I kind of feel ridiculous for not taking world affairs like these seriously sooner.
To be honest I didn't know it was that bad either until a year or so ago, only that it was bad, not "top tier" bad.
And I feel even sillier about not taking any of this seriously. I was very apolitical until about 1.5 years ago (that is, I was a very apathetic oppositor before that), which looking back was an extremely irresponsible position to take.
It's 27-F, anniversary of the day the country hit rock bottom (tl;dr: widespread riots and looting, and the (non-bolivarian) National Guard killing lots of protestors). It's also something of a socialist holiday, since it's probably the best argument they have against a previous government and market liberalization (since that's what triggered it). The fact that they exalt this while they crack down on protestor and encourage looting has not gone unnoticed.
In fact, Maduro declared this 27th and 28th to be non-laboral days, though this has more to do with the fact he wants protests to wither out, as there's this carnival this weekend and the longer holidays last, the better for him. In turn, opposition mayors cancelled carnival festivities.
There was also this other Conference for Peace for dialogue and blah blah. Since they haven't done anything yet for there to be conditions to dialogue, the MUD and students boycotted it.
Besides that, a bunch of trucks carrying missiles were sighted in plain daylight in Táchira, presumed to be a form of intimidation.
And I guess that's it. Protests have been going on without any major incident, though I've said that right before something terrible happens.
Also, with all the recent shit going on I forgot to mention that 18-F was the anniversary of Black Friday (1983, the first of many devaluations and first of a series of economic policies that would bring the country down). February truly is an eventful month, isn't it?
Yes, the above was a "calm before the storm" thing. Yesterday and today there were cases of excessive uses of force, namely launching shitloads of tear gas at protestors and dozens of detainments. Despite all this, the government is insisting on that Conference for Peace thing.
Another biker died, he crashed into a barricade at high speeds.
There's an arrest warrant for Carlos Vecchio, one of Popular Will's higher ups.
More attack planes were sighted around Caracas this time, although in this case you can argue that's it's in preparation for public acts next week.
(Also let me clarify something, Black Friday was the first of a series of devaluations, not the first one in history.)
Edit: National Guard Giovanni Pantoja has just been killed, from a gunshot into the eye.
It's the first time since all this flared up that I don't make a daily update.
The extended carnival strategy clearly didn't work. Protests have been going on as usual (and getting increasingly creative) and yesterday's manifestation (or at least the one in Caracas) was also huge, not larger than the others, but huge nonetheless.
The national TV channel that would broadcast the Oscars, didn't, so as to not show contestants' solidarity messages.
The National Guard has started using Chávez singing and Alí Primera's songs (anti-establishment singer and composer) while repressing protests.
The Russian Minister of Defense has talked about on-going negotiations to install military bases here.
Socialism is the absolutely worst thing to have happened to the country in over two hundred years of republican history.
A bunch of Altamira rioters attacked a journalist. Good going, team. Also tear gas clouds there seem denser with each passing day.
There's been a lot of conspicuous silence from various notable MUD electoralists, such as Ramón Guillermo Aveledo, Henry Ramos Allup and Julio Borges, plus some suspicious remarks that seemingly go against the civil resistance aspect of the opposition. There's this radical-oppositor argument that the MUD, or at least much of it, actively works to assuage the opposition against bringing the regime down since for various reasons it's convenient for them to keep the status quo, an argument that with time I've come to understand more and more and each day seems more valid, especially now that the situation calls for something. I'm not sure I'd call the MUD collaborationist, but...
While we're at it, I've noticed that most of those I recognise as abstentionists (not people who abstain due to apathy, people who promote abstention as a form of protest) have been conspicuously silent about all this. I now believe they were merely anti-MUD "oppositors" or covert reds. Non-abstentionists of all kinds (including anti-MUD ones) have been as active as you'd expect.
The Students' Movement released "Mérida's Manifesto", delineating a bunch of important points about the movement (principles, objecties, etc.).
Anyhow, it's March 5th, the first (anual) anniversary of Hugo Chávez' death (officially, at least). As such, I've prepared this:
(but he kicks buckets lol)
("Duuude wake up it's your anniversary!" "Lalala I can't hear you~")
The guy who made a CG Chávez going to hell video made it private, so you'll only get to see it in your imagination.
There's now been over a thousand detainees.
The OAS is having a meeting about our situation tomorrow. The reds and international political allies did much to prevent it, but it's going on anyways thanks to Panama's pressuring. Thanks Panama!
In turn Maduro severed diplomatic/commercial relations with Panama. (Does that mean we can't use the canal anymore?)
The USA's House of Representatives passed a motion to sanction the bolibourgeoisie (freezing their bank accounts, negate visas, etc.). Thanks USA! (Is the House of Representatives big and comfy?)
Another biker has died from crashing into a barricade.
Weeeheeeeeee, we did something, wheeeeee.
The OAS is having a meeting about our situation today. The reds and international political allies did much to prevent it, but it's going on anyways thanks to Panama's pressuring. Thanks Pan
wut
Now I know not to save any draft with text I wouldn't want to be read, lest it gets randomly posted.
So... yesterday at chabes' deathday party Maduro made a thinly veiled order for collectives to repress protests, and last night there were nasty raids in Táchira and Mérida, like the one two weeks ago, plus the National Guard attacking residences here in Maracaibo and in Chacao (in Caracas), the latter ones using APCs to crash into parked cars.
^^ You're also the only Latin American country to have done anything so far beyond making letters saying that violence is bad. Gee, we were there to help out when you had to deal with your Pinochets and your Fujimoris.
There was another large scale paramilitary raid just now.
You know... I hope I'm wrong, but, the idea that the government wants to start a civil war seems likelier with each passing day.
And the broken relations means our investors and the Zona Libre de Colon suddenly find themselves unable to retrieve loans they are owed. At least that is what my media tells me.
If it serves as consolation, they weren't going to pay anyways.
Yeh, our businessmen owe yours huge debts which they can't pay due to currency scarcity. Martinelli came here twice to sort it out with Maduro and as with most negotiations involving our government, they totally didn't.
I've read that Hollywood's chief leftie Oliver Stone came along to pay his respects to the Galactic Commander.
That's not consolation, you bad debtors.
I don't know if he came along, but there's this new documentary from him, "My Friend Hugo", shown last night on forced simulcast ("cadenas", chains or something). The title and the fact that it repeats the cancer innoculation thing tells me everything I need to know about this. This was, by the way, at the same time of last night's raid, it's happened very often so far that there's a repression flare-up whenever they go on one of those cadenas.
Besides that...
National Guard Adner López León and bike-taxi driver José Gregorio Amaris Castillo were killed during the raid today.
Protests seem smaller today, I know some of them were cancelled due to the above, but...
Also, there's now a Génesis Carmona Avenue and Geraldine Moreno Avenue, in honor to these fallen students.
Edit: ^ We'll pay! Just let us fix some issues here first.
Nationwide Broadcast, that's as accuarate as I can think of Cadena Nacional.
^ Yeah, that should do.
About the above two killings, officially (according to Diosdado immediately after it happened) they were killed by local residents. Extraofficially, Adner López settled a score by killing José Gregorio Castillo who was also member of a collective, and was in turn killed by another member in revenge. This is according to tweets by a journalist from the reliable newspaper El Universal, which doesn't mean it's true. It's discomforting that there'll never be a reliable official investigation about these sort of things and so you won't find out the truth unless there's video evidence or something. At any rate, assuming that Diosdado is lying is always a safe bet.
Deputees Hiriam Gaviria, Julio Montoya and Alfonso Marquina are now Hiriam Gaviria, Julio Montoya and Alfonso Marquina. Gaviria is also stepping down from his seat (his replacement is another oppositor), and the others are joining another MUD party (I heard Popular Will). A New Era seems messy.
There's this march tomorrow, and mayor Jorge Rodríguez "disallowed" it, again. They never learn. I wonder how large will it be, things were relatively calm today and yesterday. I hope we aren't running out of steam.
Also, correction, it's Geraldin Moreno Park.
Edit: Oh yeah, and the OAS assembly predictably only resulted in a "violence is bad" declaration, the only votes against being Canada's, USA's and Panama's. Gee, I thought I could at least count on Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Chile and maybe Colombia, I hope your oppositors make good use of this. As for the rest, you better sell yourselves off for a higher price now.
Edit edit: Duh, there was a raid yesterday, it wasn't calm at all.
Both the oficialistas and the oppositors here felt a kindred spirit. We can call our president lots of shit, but that maduro did it hurt all of our sensibilities beyond this one being an election year.
Awww. Thanks, Panameans
Also:
(Untranslatable.)