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^^ Wait, I misread "that Maduro did it" as "what Maduro did", now it doesn't sound heartwarming. Ahh well.
As expected, protests were small today. I can't say I've been contributing much, though, I made a compromise with my family to deal with a bunch of important issues rather than assisting, which looking back was a stupid idea. I think I'll just break that deal.
Ombudsman (Ombudswoman?) Gabriela Ramírez: "If you apprehend 11 youngsters, or 15 youngsters or 20 youngsters in one of these places, and one person is hit or is treated or, you try... look, torture has a point, that's why we have to be very rigurous with the use of terms. Torture is used to obtain- you inflict physical pain to a person to obtain a confession and we have to differentiate that from an excessive treatment or disproportionate use of force and on the basis of wether it's torture or cruel, inhuman or degradating treatment the penalty's entity and proportionality of punishment. That's why it's important that we're rigurous with referencing these kind of denounces."
I've playing around with videos of repression flare-ups and Alí Primera's music. It doesn't get more poignant than water tanks under a socialist government playing hippie music while dispersing student protests. One of these songs even refers to students and "revolution".
And, again, there's talk about instituting a rationing card (right-wing boogeyman turned reality #3617). The resulting backlash has stopped them from doing so before (twice in Táchira), I wonder what will be the reaction now.
You know, no wonder antipolitics is a thing, considering how most opposition politicians don't seem to want do anything with what's going on, with the glaring exception of Popular Will.
There's been lots of people claiming the counter-revolutionary forces are demanding ransom from protesters' families so as to release them.
I wish there were clearer info on missing protesters, these reports haven't stopped, some are simply found and some are arrested and isolated but later released, but I can't find out if that's all of it or if there are truly disappeared students.
I wish Juan were still here, I want to ask him about Colombian political stuff, presumably they have things to say about what's going on here. There's also been lots of parallelisms drawn between their negotiations with the FARC and 90s Venezuela. Chilling stuff.
So, no nasty attacks today, no nasty attacks yesterday... I guess these are come-and-go things, for some reason. I guess this wasn't much of an update.
The rationing system is called "Certain-Supply Card".
Gisela Rubilar Figueroa has died. She was a chavist who was shot by (apparent?) protesters as she was clearing off a barricade.
I really hope that's not a sample of what will come.
There was this incident where a student (or not, there are good reasons to think he was an infiltrator, much like the one we had) burnt a bus ticket post in Altamira, causing the route to be suspended. It must have been a very important bus route, everybody is talking about it.
There were physicians' marches today (Physician's Day), and so the students joined up. And the pigs blocked off one such march in Caracas.
Apparently we almost made El Salvador's opposition win the presidency; officialists there are a (minor) political ally of our reds, and their opposition has been using our situation and particularly our protests as ammo against them, and almost got elected in a photo finish (around .2% difference). They're calling fraud now.
Oh, one thing, opposition deputees had been pushing disarment laws, which the reds shelved for years, long suspected and now confirmed that it was so as to not step on collectives' shoes.
Daniel Tinoco has just been killed. He was shot in the chest by a paramilitary while doing a night standing.
I'm not sure if this has to do with the protests but... a protester (who wasn't protesting at the time) was very clearly kidnapped by National Bolivarian Service of Intelligence agents (Sebín), fled, resisted arrest by the municipal police, got into a gunfire and one of their agents was killed before they identified themselves.
Edit: Untimely typo.
I'm pretty sure there's nothing more infuriating than "oppositors" who want things to go back to "normal".
Errata: The kidnapped guy above might not have been a protester. Either way one of the municipal policemen is under detainment, while Sebin's agents are free.
Apparently the paramilitaries who killed Daniel Tinoco were hiding inside an ambulance, and were let through barricades by the protesters they then shot at. It's not confirmed, but if it's true...
Maduro cancelled a visit to Chile for Michelle Bachelet's swearing in, perhaps because now he's bad publicity for her, because somebody within the PSUV can get ideas while he's absent, or because of the hundreds of Venezuelans there ready to make noise.
There was another raid at Lisandro Alvarado Centerwest University, by the National Guard and National Police, injuring students with gunshots and burning cars. I guess it was about time they violated university autonomy.
University of Andes' radio station has been burnt down.
Coincidence? Maduro now has a radio program. Next sunday I'm gonna see if they're still showing reruns of Chávez' TV program.
I think I'm gonna reread some Gene Sharp stuff. Did you know Chávez and his cronies abroad really hate the guy?
It's March 12th, Flag Day, but really, more remarkable than that is that it's been a month since the beginning of the... revolution? I hope.
So yeah, it's been an extremely hectic month. Things feel so much different now... now the MUD is negligible, the rest of the opposition is extremely active out of sheer indignity, and most important of all, the regime is going all-out, apparently the time many of us have dreaded is here, the point where the regime needs blood to sustain itself. I somewhat expected (should I say hoped?) things wouldn't come down to this, but here we are.
I said I wouldn't post photos, but I guess I'll just go with the flow of things. Very roughly in chronological order:
(The only line I want to do is to kick your ass Maduro.)
(Note: That's not a real tank, it's a monument.)
(Don't be part of VIOLENCE!)
(If someone happens to ask: Where's Venezuela? The answer is very simple: On the left side of your chest.)
(That's ex-ambassador Diego Arria explaining the Rome Statute to the guardsmen.)
(That's Leopoldo and his wife Lilian Tintori, as he was turning himself in.)
(I also put my barricade nyah nyah!)
(Note: That's a monument, too.)
("@NicolasMaduro give the order and we'll end with fascism here in Lara tomorrow my commander!On our knees and ready for war!" "@dcabellor [Diosdado] looks what those fascists did to me they put a barbed wire warne the guard here in cabudare" "@Jorge0181Samuel @carolavanzadora @ZKVTV no I went out of my house to go look for a spare part and they traps with barbed wires at neck level" "@dcabellor putting barbed wires so one gets killed dear God how far do they want to go")
(There was a National Guard helicopter nearby.)
(Note: That's a real, functional tank.)
("We love you, boys. Strength" "God supports the valiants who act through love, like you." "If you're receiving this you are a hero of Venezuela <3 Strength" "We are with you. Strength")
("Bicentenary Device for Citizen's Security" i.e. a National Guard tent)
(This government is like a bikini, nobody knows how it holds itself, but EVERYBODY wants it to go down.)
(⚠ WARNING: STREET CLOSED. COUNTRY UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
(In Venezuela the only full fridge is the morgue's)
(Here we Venezuelans don't want to celebrate the heat of carnivals either. Snowy beach -21 ° C. London-Canada. S.O.S. VENEZUELA)
(We are Venezuela, students)
(I don't believe in socialist ministers with Rolex. I don't believe in communist artists with Hummer. I believe in my people who toils the fuck off day to day.)
(Touristic ad: Venezuela, peaceful destiny, cool destiny.)
(Collectives and National Guard (they're a couple now))
(#PrayForVenezuela)
(That's Simón Bolívar.)
(They can't find sunflower seeds for me...! S.O.S. Venezuela)
(Don't pass; witches)
The most observant of you might have noticed a variable number of stars in the flag. Flag Day Trivia: The one with seven stars is the pre-1999 flag, and has been something of an oppository symbol since, especially among the most fervent side of it.
Whoa. That's a lot of pics.
I missed a bunch:
(Génesis Carmona: I'm tired of "at least being alive.")
(Maduro we're going for you.)
(I want this (live), not this (you haven't seen anything))
I have many, many more but they're redundant.
Jesús Enrique Acosta has been killed. He wasn't a protester, but he was nearby when paramilitaries attacked protesters.
And the Central University of Venezuela has just now been attacked by the National Guard and Police.
Guillermo Sánchez has been killed. Again he wasn't protester, he was just walking by when paramilitaries attacked.
Apparently the reds have plans to block Twitter and Youtube.
They've also ordered the detainment of those who "finance and supply violent groups" (i.e. people who give us sandwiches).
According to Twitter, rioters arrived at a tower in Altamira to break stuff, 30 minutes after Maduro had said rioters arrived at a tower in Altamira to break stuff.
And yeh, "raiding spots" seem to be increasing. At first it was much of Táchira and Mérida, then Chacao, now Valencia.
It's now legal to say the $'s price. I'm going to miss "Voldemort", "Unspeakable" and "'How much is a green lettuce worth?' '78.15 Bs. F. per leaf'".
Huh, I missed these news, but Antonio Rivero is into hiding. I dunno why exactly (I assume an arrest warrant, with Leopoldo and Carlos Vecchio that's three notable oranges).
Arquímedez González has been killed, from a gunshot to the head in the wee hours of the night. Presumed to have been targeted due to setting up barricades.
A protesting student became paraplegic after a policeman shot him with live ammo.
CÑÑ journalist Federico Rincón did a report in Táchira, and repression was much less so than on other days, especially there, so now you know that protest crackdowns are nastier than you see on international TV.
There was also a civic-military (codeword for "military") manifestation in favour of the Armed Forces and in particular the Nazional Guard. The militarymen far, far outnumbered civilians there, it was quite telling. And of course, and the usual militarism and politization of the Armed Forces.
There's been reports of systematic snitching on oppositors.
I read the name of an old classmate in one of those lists of detainees. That was in Altamira so it's likely not him, but now I know how it'd feel.
About Altamira, this morning the National Guard raided and militarized it (nobody was there at the time), then made a spectacle about how they liberated it or something.
There were also rallies against Cuban interference, particularly within the Armed Forces. I hope we're not turning xenophobic, some of the stuff I've heard about these rallies hints to that.
While we're on the topic of foreign things, I must say that I'm absolutely not pleased about what I've read from foreign leftist media. I wasn't pleased with left-wing (or right-wing) sources misrepresenting or oversimplifying issues, but now that journals have also taken to call us right-wing extremists, or blogs calling us fascists, for protesting against scarcity, censorship, state terrorism, etc... well, I don't like it, in ways that don't apply when it's the PSUV who does it.
Besides that apparently the rationing system is up to go. At the very least the cards physically exist. They're limited to state markets, tho. "For now".
So... I guess things have been quiet enough to so-so understand what the opposition panorama is like:
Before all this, there were two groups, the electoralists (i.e. those who focus on electoral campaigns) and the civil resistors, the first group leading the agenda and the latter being negligible outside opinion articles and Twitter, but aside of conformists and abstentionists (fuck those guys), neither group would step onto the other's shoes.
Now things are entirely different. The upheaval very clearly surpassed the MUD's leadership within the opposition, and said leadership, if it exists, now rests within the students. It doesn't help that it's now clear that a good chunk of the MUD isn't very interested in opposing the government, and the few things they've done seem more as being dragged to it than anything.
(Did you know that the only 'official' electoral victory for the opposition was led by students? Chávez called it a victory of shit and pretended it never happened, but still.)
Traditionalists (AKA analists, as in poll analizers): A very diverse group basically consisting of people saying that we were doing fine and one way or another we should go back to it.
Marchers: Activists, basically. Organize manifestations, deliver flyers, paint graffittis, etc. All against the government (instead of advertising for a candidate or party as usual).
Barricaders (AKA guarimberos): Set fire on things, throw stones, and of course, set up barricades. Since I haven't seen any photo of any of them who isn't also young, I assume all of them are students.
Many traditionalists and barricaders are okay with marchers (and I bet most barricaders are also marchers), and many marchers and most (all?) traditionalists are against barricaders, as well as most public figures. As you can see things are quite messy now.
I've kinda mellowed out to barricaders, I can't say I like people using them as an argument against the opposition (or worse, as scapegoat for the government's failures, or even worse, to justify their abuses), but there's the argument that they're quite riling, and at the very least they have that effect on me. It's worth noting that not all barricades are meant to block random people, but as defense against collectives in areas where they often operate.
Oh, but traditionalists, dear heaven do these people seem out of touch. There are things I agree with (need more organization, need to expand to predominantly chavist areas, need a project that's attractive to them (though not saying which), other stuff), some stuff I'm not sure what to think about (the MUD is not a hindrance, Leopoldo and María Corina jumped the gun by calling for activism when they did) and many, many things I can't agree with at all (the protests are a hindrance, the main factor behind these protests are Leopoldo and María Corina and not sheer outrage, we aren't a majority, they'll respect a presidential electoral victory, we should dialogue unconditionally, we'll have more elections with theoretical chances of winning, early 00s flashbacks, and fatalism, lots and lots of fatalism).
As for officialism, they seem to be divided into government functionaries with their state structures, and random people who give just enough of a shit about the first group to be on their side, but not enough to participate in their manifestations or anything.
And of course, all of this could change in a matter of weeks.
Edit: The liberated territory at The Great Battle for Altamira Square™ has been lost, now loads of protesters are there along with a bunch of National Guardsmen still there, as if nothing had happened. I think it's also the first time that it's peaceful there at this hour.
Just to chime in, appreciate you making these posts-it's an interesting and levelheaded read, and it's miles better than the generic news media reports.
Seconded. I don't have anything meaningful to contribute to the topic, but I'm reading it.
Oh well, I was intending to post something along these lines the first moment you complain about lack of attention, but I may as well do it now so I won't have to later.
Ahhh, I like reading writing this, too
I think it's also doing me good in making me keep track of what's going on.
Anthony Rojas has been killed by "bikers", presumed collectives. Once again he wasn't a protester, just a student. Collectives have been found prowling around the area multiple times, too.
The seat of the Armed Forces' National Experimental University has been burnt down. There are a bunch of pictures of National Guardsmen letting a bunch of "oppositors" break in, reportedly there right before the firebreak.
Panama is granting their place at an OAS event for María Corina to speak up.
That must've hit a nerve, now officialist deputees are looking to revoke María Corina's parliamentary inmunity.
The Supreme Tribunal of Justice is trying to force opposition mayors at protest hotspots to repress barricaders. Since municipal police have no riot control equipment, they're obviously refusing, and are also making an opposition mayor's association or something over abuses like that.
There was a nasty attack today in Rubio (Táchira), with the National Guard using actual guns and, again, using their APCs to crash into cars.
What's that stuff about that university? A false flag operation?
Assuming the photos really are from right before the firebreak, yeah.
Edit: Nopes, they're from 2009, so... who knows?
Daniel Ceballos has been arrested without a warrant by SeBIN agents. He's the mayor of San Cristobal, Táchira's capital. Rubio's councilmen Francisco Rincón and Horacio Pérez have been detained, too.
Enzo Scarano, mayor of San Diego (Carabobo) has been sentenced to 10 months of prison for not complying with the Supreme Tribunal's order to shoot at barricaders.
There was another attack at the Central University of Venezuela, this time by paramilitaries.
There are 80 tons of riot control equipment coming. From Germany, for extra Nazi vibes.
Gee, it sure has been a dramatic afternoon. For a lighter note, since the failed militarization of Altamira there's been no more nightly episodes of riots and repression, instead protests have been going on peacefully over there.
Wilfredo Rey has been killed. He was a driver for a transport line, shot by a paramilitary according to the provisional mayor. Argenis Hernández has been killed, too. He tried to stop a biker at one of his barricades, who then shot him. This was in San Cristobal and San Diego, the two municipalities that had their mayors removed.
On mayors, the PSUV seems to have their eyes set on Eveling (Maracaibo) and Ramón Muchacho (Chacao, you can guess he hasn't had an easy job).
Despite having a bullshit arrest warrant on him, Carlos Vecchio showed up at Caracas' manifestation today (large, by the way).
Student leader Gaby Arellano has been injured with a shot tear gas canister, she's part of the students' Trilogy of Evil equivalent (along with Juan Requesens and Roderick Navarro).
Again, the OAS meeting was voted to be behind closed doors, and they didn't even let María Corina speak anyways. She was detained as she arrived to the airport (released shortly after).
Adriana Urquiola and her unborn child have been killed. Yet again she wasn't protesting, she had to walk after her bus was stopped by a barricade, when paramilitaries attacked the nearby protest.
Just like that, Cabello decided that María Corina is no longer a deputee, based on having accepted Panama's position at the OAS, against the constitution (a public functionary accepting a foreign government's charge). I'm not a constitutional lawyer but they have a point, although obviously it's more complicated than Cabello just firing her. That said, he's also said they're going to charge her for high treason...
Gaby Arellano's home has been illegally raided.
The new currency exchange system is here. Another auctioning system but without the upper price limits the other one had. On its first auction the price was about 1$ = 55 Bs. F. (up from 11). At that rate, the minimum wage is the lowest in the continent, a bit under 60 $/month (although that might not be an appropriate rate to use).
Huge increase in subsidized food prices at state stores.
There's this petition to release Leopoldo and the other political prisoners, signed by 96 expresidents.
There are reports of Chacao's police aiding the National Guard in illegal raids. I hope Ramón Muchacho is not jumping the fence or anything.
National Guardsman Miguel Antonio Parra has been killed. He was shot during the above ransacking of Gaby Arellano's home, which also involved paramilitaries.
Also, I don't think I've mentioned this but it's kinda important, Maduro on TV has been patting the National Guard and collectives in the back, thinly veiledly praising them for maintaining repression.
Also, the exact average for the auction was 1$ = 51.86 Bs. F., slightly less painful I guess.
A protesting student was ran over by someone driving a PDVSA SUV, he's seriously wounded right now.
Daniel Ceballos has been charged with one year in prison. I fear for Popular Will.
Leopoldo wrote an article for New York Times. It's a good overview of what's going on.
For more English stuff, here's a speech with María Corina during her journey for the OAS conference.
A local National Electoral Council office was burnt down. It's a block away from a National Guard outpost, and in an area that has met abuse from them. Hmmm...
(The day one attack on the General Prosecutorship's office was staged by the government, by the way. Not all cases of burning shit are false-flag operations, though.)
Yet again Maduro denounced a conspiration for a coup against him, by three unnamed Air Force generals. The remarkable thing about his wolf-crying this time is that there are strong rumors about who these generals are, including from serious newspapers. Hopefully the Armed Forces' penetrability is true and the coup part is false.
Edit: Gee, what's with font changing sizes.
Editedit: Wait, that was dumb.
Yeh, the municipal police denounced that they had warned the National Guard before the attack on the National Electora Council's office. Definitely a false-flag operation.
Besides that, there was also a bunch of National Guard/paramilitary attacks on local residence blocks. The National Guard even ordered the municipal police to stay afar, though they still managed to arrest some collectives.
As for the generals, they were in adminstrative positions so they couldn't be conspiring, at least not directly. Presumably they weren't loyal enough, intestinal war, or simply wanted to make the story more credible.
An infiltrated National Guard captain was captured in Táchira, and... they agreed to release him in exchange for releasing some students. Shit's crazy. Presumably they had to capture more National Guardsmen first so that it'd be a fair trade for one student.
There was this farmers' strike in Mérida. As a form of protest they also gave out their stuff to passerbys for free.
The reds announced they'd start the process for selecting members of public powers with expired periods, namely National Electoral Council rectors, magistrates, and the comptroller (the previous one died years ago). I wonder why they're doing this now, maybe they're trying to calm things down with concessions, or they got around to getting the Deputees 100 through 110 they need to unilaterally select replacements.
For more fishy negotiations, the MUD has been very supportive of dialogue with Unasur's intermediation, and apparently the accepted mediators would be the chancellors of Colombia (okay maybe), Brazil (no) and Bolivia (lolno), and no further conditions. If that's it, I can't really view them (as a group) as anything but collaborationists. Let's see what's going on.
Roberto Anesse has been killed. According to witnesses, he was guarding a barricade when Zulia's regional police arrived shooting, killing him and detaining others as they were taking refuge in nearby homes.
And our governor had had a talk with us students just three days ago.
Besides that, I must say the flame wars between Capriles' and Leopoldo's supporters is the most untimely thing ever. From what I can tell, actual protesters (I started participating again) could care less either way.
Anyhow, it's almost page 4, so I'm going to take this opportunity to post pics. It's been very inconvenient having that huge picdump load whenever I'm going to post something, especially now that the internet is giving me issues (it took me ages to make this post), so having it stay here is a plus. Here it goes:
(That's the entrance of IIRC the Central University of Venezuela)
(Sirs of the international community, we are human beings, not an oil barrel.)
(That's the Minister of Health being attended by protesting physicians after their protest was dispersed by tear gas as she was there.)
(Farmer's strike)
Class: Calculus II on the streets
Topic: Integration by parts
∫udv = uv - ∫vdu
[Untranslatable mnemonic] One day I saw = a Venezuela without queues living decidedly and united.
(Stefania Fernández, Miss Universe 2009)
(Geraldine and Génesis were beautiful, too!)
(That's Gaby Arellano.)
A man has died of electrocution as he was removing some barricades, touching a high tension cable while at it.
There was another nasty large scale attack on San Cristobal this morning. Also using excavators to remove barricades.
There was also another attack on Chacao, using water tanks to break windows and flood appartments. There were also Army soldiers (not the National Guard, the Army) wielding sniper rifles (without shooting).
There's now been over two thousand detained protesters.
Oh, one correction above, the new currency exchange system satisfies a very small part of the demand, meaning that a ponderated price for $ is well under that, so the minimum wage is not that low.
(I said "could care less", oh the shame.)
You seem to have the bad luck that your strongman seems to have more than Berkut to call upon.
BTW you've got my sword, and my axe, and my differential operator.