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Josué Farías has died. He had been by a stray bullet last month during a clash between students and Zulia's regional police plus collectives, a clash that he wasn't even in.
María Corina had a can't-leave-the-country warrant set on her. I guess they couldn't get her go unscathed. Bummer, she was the noisiest opposition voice on the international front.
Minister of Repression Miguel Rodríguez Torres has received an award for... umm, journalism, for informing the country with veracity throughout the last months, and for promoting peace and national reconciliation.
It's like they're competing over who's more cynical. Reminds me of all those police attacks against journalists in the middle of crackdowns. I have to check if that's the same parallel journalists' union that gave Chávez another award last year.
Meanwhile, in response to Giordani's letter a bunch of PSUV heads have been appealing to their members for patience and "loyalty", and have made some remarks about "treason". It's kind of weird how their rethoric changed from scapegoating (barricaders/magnicide/economic war) to "what's important is to defend the homeland".
Provisional ex-president Ramón J. Velásquez has passed away. He's the one who finished Carlos Andrés Pérez' second term (1993-1994), and generally held in good regard, although the only specific thing I know about his presidency he (allegedly accidentally) signed an amnesty decree for a drug trafficker.
Anyhow, the Supreme Tribunal judged that active soldiers can assist to political manifestations and shit. Not that they didn't have them do so already, but I guess it's now sligthly less unconstitutional. How many minutes would it take for one participating in an oppository manifestation to get convicted?
Ex-minister and PSUV National Direction member Héctor Navarro published another letter in defense of Giordani, reiterating his denouncing of corruption and that French group thing, and harshly criticizing his labeling as "traitor" and the PSUV's lack of tolerance for dissent. He was then destituted and cited to the PSUV's Disciplinary Tribunal that apparently exists.
Alright, that's two cracks within the PSUV's apparently solid structure, will they propagate further?
Maburro has now attacked the "insomniac left" (orthodox socialists) over trying to fracture the roblution. A bunch of others have done so, most notably Jorge Rodríguez, Diosdado Cabello and Tarek el Salami (governor of Aragua), all the while demanging/begging for "unconditional loyalty" and shit like that.
Meanwhile the insomniac left is busy arguing back and defending each other. Also, one of those who wrote a letter to St. Nicolás is Rafael Isea (reminder: he's the ex-governor who left the country some time ago for the Empire, thought to be so as to snitch about drug trafficking stuff).
A word I've seen thrown around somewhat often among opinionists from that group is "Stalinist" (socialists you don't like).
/popcorn
There's now a captivity order for Henrique Salas Römer (opposition candidate who lost 98's elections against opposition candidate Hugo Chávez), as well as Gustavo Tarre Briceño and Robert Alonzo Bustillos, again over that magnicoupicide thing.
El Universal has been sold. Again I'm hoping it's not going the same way as Globovisión, Últimas Noticias or a bunch of others. The precedents aren't good, and it's one medium whose changes would be considerably felt (and it's my preferred one).
Oh, also, Últimas Noticias won a journalism award over the video detailing Bassil da Costa's murder, leading to the awkward situation of them getting an award for something whose majority of authors either left or were fired shortly after making it.
There's now a Special Brigade Against Violence-Generating Groups (note how it's not "violent groups"). Presumably the SEBIN wasn't enough. Hopefully it will ammount to nothing. (Whatever happened to the censorship agency?)
Another national blackout, affecting 15 states. At home it lasted for eight hours, also there's been something like five over the past week here, of about two hours each, and in Maturín state there was a blackout that lasted five whole days, naturally they weren't pleased over there. The electric system is bad enough as it is, but there's the possibility of a drought this year (most of our power generation is hydroelectric), maybe another crisis is coming?
Nico announced a gabinet reshuffle, a "government reform" presumably in response to the shitload of criticism he's been getting from his own side. I'm not holding my breath.
And I just noticed I still haven't seen even one anti-Giordani red contradicting his claims that the economic crisis and corruption is their fault, only that he shares responsibility or requesting doglike loyalty.
The guardsmen who got sentenced to jail for Geraldine Moreno's murder? Scratch that, they had their sentences reduced to that thing where you show up to a tribunal now and then. Meanwhile a load of political prisoners are still in jail.
Vladimir Padrino López (Strategic Operational Commander), on 1961's constitution: "Defining the Armed Forces as apolitical and non-deliberating was an aberration."
While we're talking about constitutions, Popular Will/María Corina/etc. have been proposing a National Constituent Assembly to deal with this whole mess. Unsurprisingly, a bunch of people aren't fond of the idea.
On the economic front, the debate has come again that the govt. is planning a bunch of liberalization and/or austerity measures. With things like Giordani's defenestration, or a former 'Che' Guevara councelor having been appointed to assist with government changes, or mixed results from the last currency change scheme, you have lively arguments for both sides. Also, extraofficially June's inflation was 5.5%, for an annualized inflation of ~62%.
Some MUD heads have become more vocal about criticizing Popular Will/María Corina/etc. promoting protests. Besides reasonable criticism (deorganization, not getting the rest of the MUD to agree beforehand) they've also taken to undermine these protests further (linking protests with violence and immediacy, "radicals from either side" and a long and annoying etcetera).
But the icing on the cake goes to Capriles (or whoever manages his Twitter account) for also complimenting members of the Armed Forces on Independence Day for "defending the constitution".
I wrote the above before Ramón José Medina (MUD adjunct secretary or some other top-high possition) answered on a (comedy) interview that they didn't have a plan to release him and he got himself in jail anyways so whatever. This drew the ire of a large chunk of the opposition, with Popular Will requesting his resignation, other MUD members distancing themselves from that statement and overall leaving yet another mark against the MUD's "old guard". Ehh, I took it as the (tasteless) joke it was intended as, instead I'm more concerned that they really don't have a plan against persecution or anything.
Meanwhile, the MUD has been asking for loyalty and shit, blaming shit on "media laboratories" (and Ramos Allup saying a bunch of them come from the IP number 286.164.81.163) and miscellaneous stuff... well, they've been sounding more and more like the PSUV. I've been growing tired of them, things like the above bullshit, that they've been shown more eagerness to dialogue with the regime than the rest of the opposition (and a good chunk of itself) and the contradictions between what they say, what they do, and what they say the next month. Gee, things really have changed, and they're bound to keep on changing.
(I should probably point out that one of those MUD parties pleading for loyalty/unity/whatever the other side is Popular Will.)
Also, if you were to judge what caused the protests based on what you read around you'd think the protests had everything to do with Popular Will/María Corina/etc. and nothing to do with Bassil's murder or general outrage against the govt., a view that opposition politicians of both sides would like you to believe.
I rewatched those videos of collectives and pigs doing large scale raids against the population. It's still as unsettling as it was watching them the first time, to know that just like that it happened, and would happen again or worse.
Mayor of Rio Caribe Enrique Franceschi has been killed. The motive is unknown.
(If you're wondering, the motive for Eliezer Otaiza's murder a while back seems to be mere common crime).
Popular Will has denounced that Leopoldo, Enzo Scarano, Daniel Ceballos and Salvatore Lucchese (Municipal police chief during Scarano's term) have been severely beat up in jail.
Much like last year, the workers from Orinoco Siderurgics (SIDOR) have been protesting over laboural reivindications, this time with road blocking and stuff, plus a fairly large march. They haven't been victims of repression yet, and hopefully it'll stay that way, although they'v already been getting the demonization treatment as usual.
According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict, the first semester of 2014 was the semester with the highest number of protests in the last year, having more than there's typically been in a whole year, and it's on its way to be the year with the highest amount in history. It also points out a few interesting things, such as violent protests amounting to about 11% of the total of opposition protests (I thought it'd be well above that) and is a good reminder of a bunch of the bullshit that went on, such as the attacks-during-national-broadcasts or public condecoration of repressive forces.
Hugo 'Chicken' Carvajal, some retired general in a diplomat-related position in Aruba and almost certainly a drug-smuggler (accused by a snitchin' red magistrate, even), had been arrested over there and was supposed to be extradited to the Empire, by the DEA's request. Also he was also carrying three different passports when arrested. The reds allegued that he had diplomatic inmunity, Aruba's (Netherlands'?) authorities allegued that they had not yet accepted his status as consulate, all in all the reds threw a tantrum (and presumably some backdoors pressuring) and Aruba's authorities eventually yielded, sent Carvajal back and marking another victory for impunity.
Geeze...
A much needed, very good news: Marco Coello, one of those students detained since 12F, has been released.
I guess I can start bidding farewell to El Universal now, a bunch of writers have been kicked out of it, and others have quit in response to having their works excised.
The Empire blocked a bunch of visas from some boligarchs linked to human rights violations, so they can no longer visit Disneyland. I was wondering what had happened to those sanctions. Although I'm still worried that they can use the opportunity to act as victims.
María Corina has been promoting a "Citizen's Congress", a front of NGO's and stuff so as to organize a wider opposition. Sounds nice. Oh, and one civic assembly she was in was attacked by collectives.
The MUD had a 'shut in' per Ledezma's request, where its representatives met in closed doors to talk about whatever. Gee, so much for openness. Anyhow, one agreement reached after the first meeting was the ratification of Ramón Guillermo Aveledo's and Ramón José Medina's charges, although apparently Aveledo didn't agree all that much, because two days later he resigned off his charge. He's had a bunch of missteps recently, but from what I understand he'd otherwise been a very positive thing for organization, hopefully his replacement will be up to the task, especially now that the MUD needs restructuration badly.
The Ministry of Tourism made Cheverito ('Coolie' or something like that), a cartoon character to promote inner tourism (and insult oppositors). I'm mentioning this only because it gave rise to the best political meme since the birdie (NSFW).
Ramón José Medina also resigned from his position at the MUD.
There's another 'shut in' tomorrow. According to this journalism piece the last such reunion was just plain abhorrent. More info here. The report is long so I kinda don't want to translate it, but in short: If true, the MUD heads can't get past each other's allegued misdeeds, can't focus on the shitload of issues the MUD/opposition has and instead want to see each other sink within the coalition, and just plain don't give a shit. Oh, and one of them was caught recording the whole thing.
The first Citizen's Congress assembly is taking place this tuesday. It still sounds promising but I'm worried that I haven't seen a list of participating organizations yet. Anyhow, it hasn't started yet and the traditional opposition has already begun claiming that it's not working out and is divisive.
The govt. has granted refugee status to orphaned Palestine children, and are now being taken care of here.
A Chilean politicial youth group leader came to check on human rights abuses. As he and two other Venezuelan student leaders were visiting jailed students inside the Helicoid (the SEBIN's seat) they were arrested for taking photos, he claims otherwise. They were released after a couple days, and he's now back in Chile snitching the shit out of their abuses.
There were now-confirmed rumors that degovernment was planning to privatize sell CITGO, an important PDVSA-owned company with a bunch of refineries in the US, especialized in refining our very heavy oil. Since they're starving for money I guess it was bound to happen... can the international business arbitration thing block it due to their pending case against PDVSA?
Besides that, the govt has requested a debate about gasoline prices (also predicted by rumors), which is to say they've already decided to raise it and are looking for support from others. Background: gas prices have been freezed since 1997 and the socialists/socialeftists have until now made it something of a flagship position, something of a "this horrible thing happened before but not anymore thanks to us". (Personal note: when I was a kid I didn't understand why people on TV complained about the price of something as cheap as fuel.) Oppository opinion is divided in two: those who support the decision on the basis that it's necessary (at this point it's pretty much free, a very high and recessive subsidy) and those of us who would rather see it go to waste than trust this govt with more money. That said, you can take a different approach and support an increase on the basis of environmentalism.
Either way, it's not going to do well in terms of social conflictivity.
On completely unrelated news, Maduro has bought a bunch of riot equipment for National Bolibarbarian Guardsmen, including 300 APCs.
While we're on it, I still think rioting and its derivatives are counter-productive for the opposition, but I wanted to confess that I love watching those APCs blazing under the purifying fire of a molotov cocktail.
The Sidor conflict has been escalating, now they've been shot at by National Guardsmen, including the use of live ammo. Also the workers have taken to use excavators to move rubble for barricades. The reds also tried that thing where they get their parallel syndicalists to agree a deal behind the workers' backs, and the usual demonization, which is especially telling because not long ago (or still?) they tended towards the officialist side of things.
The first Citizen's Congress took place. I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, which isn't much because I can't find videos or transcripts about the event. Anyhow, there are directives on what to do, how to get organized, etc. and it overall seems serious. On the downside it took place in an amphitheatre in El Hatillo, i.e. a place with a snobby reputation, which doesn't do well for the inclusive image it's supposed to uphold. And the traditional opposition still doesn't like it. Anyhow, there'll be more of these assemblies.
Due to the long-delayed government restructuration, the Nomenklatura has put their charges at order. They're probably just going to rotate ministries around. We'll see.
Now the excuse for long lines no longer is the economic war, but lack of cashiers. More important than that, they're going to extend the rationing supply system to private stores, because it's not socialism until you ration citizens' lives.
Despite all the shit going on, maybe it's time to try to pay less attention to political on-goings? Sometimes I get the feeling I might be going crazy.
The rationing stuff caused a bunch of protests, to nobody's surprise. And in classical socialist cynicism fashion, they're taking the opportunity to claim that it's thanks to these fingerprint scanners the rationing system is going to use (the same used in elections) that the opposition couldn't commit electoral fraud, and that it's the perfectest electoral system ever. Either way they've kinda backed off, now for private stores the system is going to be voluntary (?) and to be applied in phases (which is to say not soon).
That delayed government reorganization is happening, as expected it's just a reshuffle among the nomenklatura, with one remarkable thing, Rafael Ramírez's long career as simultaneously the worst Minister of Energy and Oil and president of PDVSA in history is now over, these charges are now held by two different people so at least now there's a pretense of accountability, as the one who helds PDVSA into account is not also president of PDVSA. Ramírez is now Minister of Foreign Affairs, presumably they let him have that ministry so he wouldn't go Giordani on them. No info on who's the new Vice-Minister of Supreme Social Happiness.
Radical opposition student (and homophobe) Lorent Saleh and his companion Gabriel Valles were, while in Colombia, detained and turned in to the SEBIN, allegedly for national (Colombian) security reasons or some stuff. Apparently Lorent was taking classes about war shit. I'm not quite sure how legal a deportation would be, but I do know turning them in to those who wouldn't respect their human rights is in itself a human rights violation.
And apparently they also blocked the webpage for NTN24, the Colombian cable news channel they blocked a while ago. I can't open the webpage but I can pass it through Google's translator.
Rodriguez Torres has now openly spoken about paramilitaries, claiming that officialist armed groups require more organization and requesting them to join militias instead (some unconstitutional Armed Forces shit) so as to better perform their job "defend the revolution" and such thinly veiled bullshit.
Leopoldo's trial started recently, after having been delayed over and over, systematically his witnesses and loading the prosecutors with witnesses belonging to the PUSv. Reportedly, Lionpoldo is as defiant as ever.
And finally, one of the delegates at a PSUV congress did an opening act using this... thing:
Socialism is the crack cocaine of the masses.
The reds released a (real? fake?) video of Lorent Saleh and Gabriel Valles clearly talking about blowing bars and stuff to stir shit up.
They also eventually got around to requesting Rafael Isea's extradition.
Red Flag has left the MUD. Radical oppositors, they're one of those small socialist parties I actually do like, and at least here they were one of the few who put effort into trying to orientate the protest movement(s) into something more organized. While some of its members announced their leaving of the MUD, others claimed no such thing happened and accused the formers of being pro-govt infiltrators, the former accused the latter back of being pro-MUD opportunists or some shit, confusion was had. Anyhow, they're out of the MUD and they really hate it now, accusing it of all the cohabitation stuff I've mentioned earlier.
Student Sairam Rivas has been released under parole. She's one of those student leaders who got arrested during the raids against the camps four months ago.
Iván Simonovis has been released and put under temporary house arrest instead so he can get his long overdue medical treatment. Reminder: he's the former Metropolitan Police officer who had been scapegoated into being the one-sided, deliberatedly responsible for causing the violence outbreak that led to the April 11th coup, and had been in jail for almost a decade now.
Inflation figures are here, showing a very slight decrease from 63% to 62%. They haven't announced if they're using a new methodology they talked about that would show lower figures, but there are reasons to believe they did (besides gut feeling when shopping); a rollbacked report shows the 5.5% figure for June that had been unofficially thrown around.
Eight people (now nine) died in an hospital in Maracay (Aragua) from an unidentified disease. The reds have been ridiculously defensive about it, denying suchs deaths but that they didn't die from the same disease but that the one disease they died from is nothing to be worried about but that it's the opposition attacking through a bacteriological war, and more importantly, the governor had the doctor who announced those deaths put under investigation for "linguistic vandalism" and had an arrest warrant put on him, he's in hiding now. You know the usual alarmism that comes from outbreaks? Multiply that by 5 due to the government's hermetism.
The Nazional Guard illegally raided a bunch of homes, arresting 64 people who had been protesting (rioting?) earlier.
The MUD's new secretary executive has been selected, it's Jesús 'Chuo' Torrealba, heavily involved political activist, anchorman of radio and formerly television programs relating to livelyhood in worse-off areas, noteworthy advocate for political participation, overall nice guy. My critique of him would be that he's a bit too eager to defend MUD parties and 'Unity' in situations that don't warrant it, which I guess is fair enough if he's going to represent them.
For some reason the topic of emmigration has been hot lately. The majority of those who emigrate are people who went through higher education, looking for opportunities that Venezuela is currently unable to provide, and whose skills are required to improve the country.
Anyhow, I'm mentioning the emmigration thing partly 'cuz I wanted to mention that I've come to the decision that I'm staying here, and it's going to take a lot more than what's been going on to change that.
Funny, I was about to ask if you had plans to move, or even able to. As tough as it is, sometimes one has to stand their ground in the face of truly awful oppression and stay to make their home a better place.
(Whoo, people still read this thread.)
I came to that decision about the emmigration thing because I'm too attached to this country to leave it, not to stand my ground or anything. To be perfectly honest, I haven't been doing much to better things up for the nation (or for me). The thing is, everything is slowly deteriorating, and short of there being a political change (and then only maybe), everything I do will at most only result in delaying the awfulness. I guess the best I could do would be to work in opposition activism, but I'd still have no guarantee that it'd end up mattering, and it's already gotten me into personal troubles.
Everything feels so pointless nowadays...
PSUV deputee Robert Serra has been killed along with his wife, while they were at home.
María Corina has a radio program now.
Mayor David Smolansky and councilman and de facto leader of Popular Will Freddy Guevara have another radio program. Apparently every politician is an anchorman nowadays.
Despite having just been released under parole, Sairam Rivas has been extremely confrontational towards the government. Inspiring, but with as many things I'm not sure it's a good idea for her to do so right now.
Geez, Capriles keeps fucking equating protests with violence. As a matter of fact he raised the ante and they're now equal to an armed uprising and civil warring. Next time he's going to claim they're a fascist attack orchestrated by the empire. He also gets a bunch of stuff wrong (or is lying) about anti-apartheid, saying that armed attacks was something they planned while Mandela was in jail and later had a change of heart.
Oh, meanwhile there was yet another attack of paramilitaries and pigs shooting at students (rioters) at the Central University of Venezuela.
Yet another nationwide blackout, this time affecting 12 states (out of 23). While we're at it there's been either outright blackouts or low power here on an almost daily basis for the last 6 weeks or so.
Despite all the shit going on in the world, the price of Venezuelan oil has been consistently going down for quite a while already, right now being at $86.6 per barrel, or approximately 6 Calderas.
Meanwhile, Popular Will really going for the Constituent Assembly thing, they're getting signatures right now. Explanation: to call for a Constituent Assembly you need 15%+ of the electorate to sign up (approx. 3 million), then there's a referendum to see if it's accepted, if 50%+ vote yes there are elections to select the constituents (Popular Will argues the elections' terms are those of the signees, the magistrates/rectors will predictably argue otherwise), afterwards they'll draft a new constitution, meanwhile they're the state's topmost authority, afterwards there's a vote for the new constitution, if it passes, new republic.
Ehh, I think just about everything about it can go wrong, ultimately it doesn't change that it's the reds who have de facto power to block/ignore whatever proceedure gets tries, no matter how constitutional or well argued it is. As a matter of fact, that's what they're doing right now. And of course, it's a chance to make another blacklist.
Edit: Wait, oil prices were even lower than I thought. Corrected. Geeze, Caldera's government seems even less terrible by the day.
Student Carlos Villamizar was arrested during a protest a week ago, he was then ran over by a National Police bike, and was beat up by other jailees. He's currently comatose with severe head injuries...
Lest I forget, Simonovis' release chillingly sparked an outcry among radical reds. Keep in mind, it's a temporary house arrest thing due to medical reasons; even if taking for granted accusations they've made about him is something which you accept, he should still receive treatment like any human being, criminal or not.
Remember Yendrick Sánchez, the guy who did this (and all these)? Apparently they hadn't released him last year as I thought, but was only released a couple weeks ago. Poor guy.
There was this clash between collectives of peace and the Body of Scientific, Penal and Criminalistic Investigation (CICPC, i.e. forensic police); the collectives denounced persecution and shit after they had their place raided, and its leader José Odreman made a "if I'm killed, I responsibilize Minister Rodríguez Torres" public statements. Hours worth of gunfight later and five redshirts were dead, including Odreman. Should've written an open letter instead.
The Police and reds in general denied that they were a collective, just a random criminal gang of no importance that attacked them. Cue shitloads of photos of Odreman with PSUV celebrities (including Rodríguez Torres himself), public statements from him in the name of his collective and collectives in general, overall stuff proving that Odreman really got along with the PSUV. Officialist explanations then ranged from insisting that the gang was not a collective, to being opportunists who tried their chances at the PSUV, to being infiltrators from the fascistic opposition, sometimes admitting that maaaaaaybe there are armed collectives who might have done less than legal things in the past, and demonizing Odreman's not-collective real hard, along other armed groups.
The reaction from other collectives and radical reds in general ranges from swallowing up the above justifications, to bewilderment that the government that arms paramilitary groups to kill students would be (or at least one of their police forces is) capable of slaughtering such groups, or even *gasp* saying mean things about them, in both cases accusing the government of treason.
There's been discussion about if this was the start of a creolean Night of Long Knives, although nothing noteworthy has happened since then so probably not.
Edit: I wanted to mention, Lorent Saleh videos and Robert Serra's murder reminds me that it sucks to not have a serious, independent investigation on those sort of things.
These assaults and murders are never going to be solved, are they? I wonder how things managed to get that out of hand where organizations can just bend the law to prosecute and kill whoever they want.
Corruption. Lots and lots of it. "In Venezuela you steal because there are no reasons not to steal." Replace 'steal' with 'murder' or whatever fits the context.
To clarify the investigations part, I meant that besides the obvious problem of judicial persecution, it sucks not knowing what to believe in highly politicized cases where the truth isn't obvious (is Lorent's (low quality) video real? Did he actually mean it? Was Serra's murder a political assassination or a mafia dealing or something else? or which reason?)
Odreman's collective case is one of such cases, it's as easy to believe that they got the bad end of a shady deal as it is to believe that they inconvenienced the CICPC or a prominent PSUVer or something.
Edit: I guess it was so predictable I forgot to say it, but what I meant by Serra's case being politicized is that the reds are rabidly pointing the blame towards the CIA-organized, Uribe-financed opposition.
A few days ago there was a protest by... collectives, against raids to their headquarters. Apparently a bunch of CICPC agents were arrested, and they don't like it. IIRC the CICPC is one of those institutions that have retained some autonomy from the central government (which is not to say clean). Anyhow, those collectives were organizing a march demanding Rodríguez Torres' destitution, and would you look at that, he was destituted right after the march got cancelled. It's beyond indignating that being a criminal thug gets you far more political consideration than anything else.
The new Minister of Persecution is Carmen Meléndez, former Minister of Defense whose job consisted on giving gifts to grunts. The new Minister of Militarism is Vladimir Padrino López, some gorilla higher up who's the most visible face of the politization of the Armed Forces, participating in (and organizing?) all those pro-government military parades and speeches and shit.
Oil prices have kept their slump, this time reaching 75.9 $/b, it's become quite the talking point.
The PSUV and MUD had marches the other day, both were microscopic. As many polls indicated, the PSUV's image is through the floor, but the MUD isn't faring well either, I'd guess acting like we're still in 2012 is getting back at them.
Venezuelan Penal Forum along with a bunch of other organizations released a 100+ pages report detailing every (known) case of murder, repression, raid, torture etc. that occurred between february and may. Lots of interesting data, like a ranking on which group was more involved in repression (in decreasing order: Nazional Guard, civilians (collectives), regional pigs, unidentified individuals, and national pigs (I thought they'd be close to the top)), mentions that at the peak of things at least 800,000 people participated in the movement, out of which 20,000 were barricaders, and a reminder of miscellaneous bullshit that I want to remember forever, such as the thinly-veiled calls for violent repression on national broadcast. Also these two charts:
Repressed protest (sloppily made for some reason):
Detained protesters:
1996-2005 were kinda low on arrest, seems like.
Yeh, I'm curious why. 1996 was the year President Caldera had the International Monetary Fund fix his mess, you'd think those measures would've increased conflictivity and thus arrests, but apparently not. Maybe the police went on strike?
I'm also curious as to what happened in 2005-2006 (I know 2007 had a load of reasons for protests against the govt). Interestingly, the number of protests has been greatly increasing in recent years, but except for 2014 the number of arrests has reduced.
Oh, lest I forget, the proportion of peaceful protests repressed stands at about 29%, going up to 50% in Tächira and Mérida.
Also, I remembered I was supposed to post this. Remember that time you told me about markets full of vinager?:
History repeats, first time it's a tragedy, the other a farce, eh? Tell me please Chavist media routinely provide you with news stories about the local foundry having just cast its 500.000th ton of raw steel.
Chavez still pretty popular over there, or is that just certain demographics? Just wondering.
^^ They've been doing that since forever.
^ It's not what it once was, but it pains me to say it, the dude still has a large chunk of followers. He had the luck of becoming a birdie right before the really nasty part of populism hit us (economic crisis, social conflictivity, etc.), partly because he raised public spending for 2012s elections, meaning that intuitively you'd blame everything on Maduro instead (and after all, he's not free of blame either), and that's how nowadays you can find people who say they admire Chávez but no longer support Maduro/the government/the PSUV, as if one didn't have to do with the other.
That said, I wonder how strong that support would be if tomorrow censorship, PDVSA-financed publicity, clientelism, etc. were to end. Since it's chart season I guess it's a good time to post this public spending growth vs. approval rating graph:
(Huh, I hadn't noticed that hole in 2002-2003, which is against I'd have guess. Then again, polls.)
While looking for that picture I dredged through my SOS Venezuela folder, then I realized I could just make it public. (I put on the 'otros' folder the photos that are misleading (and in the tank's case, probably false) or missing context, plus a couple bloody ones).
Rewatching that folder makes me regret that I didn't save every single image of the events. I wasn't trying to be selective, but all those photos seem meaningful now.
So, it's been slow news days, which is probably for the better.
There wasn't enough militarism, so the gorillas got yet another wage raise, 45% this time. In response to the outcry Maduro had to do a minimum wage raise... of 15%
There's been reports of him and Enzo, Daniel and Salvatore being thrown shit at and stuff like that. Leopoldo has started refusing to attend his overly delayed hearings in protest for the judiciary's refusal to acknowledge the UN's order to free him. I hope he knows what he's doing, so far even in jail he's been doing a good job in being a nuisance to the government.
From the looks of it, it doesn't seem like there'll be primary elections for MUD candidates these elections this time either. Geeze.
An aunt who lives in the US came to visit us. Venezuelans abroad have a bad reputation politically speaking, they're said (and if going by my internet experience, seems to be true) to be out of touch with on-goings here and tilted towards the radical side of the opposition, and are despectively called "Miamers". Nonetheless I talked to her and she (a radical) seemed very lucid about what's going on, and I didn't know she was involved in political activism during visits here. She's also told me about harassment by radical leftist groups who sympathise with the govt, as well as those conspicuous protesters abroad I've heard of near Venezuelan embassies who do pro-PSUV demonstrations but can't sing the national anthem, and depending on the country, can't speak Spanish)
Also María Corina seems to be very popular over there (and Leopoldo too, of course) which contrasts with her niche (but important) status as the main radical opposition figure, unattractive to moderates and hated by chavists. Also according to her our protests and its repression really did a lasting impact on the government's international reputation, is that true? Anyhow, we talked about other miscellaneous stuff I should've written down. Oh, and housing. Good times.
(Maybe I should stop using the term "radical" and start using "confrontational" or something.)
Radical is fine to me, gets the point across.
It's November 21, University Student's Day.
By the end of 1957 General Marcos Pérez Jiménez' oppressive regime had grown increasingly intolerant and repressive, although there was still this atmosphere of apparent normality that characterized the regime. That year there were supposed to be presidential elections, but Pérez Jiménez didn't like the idea (he had already lost an (unfair) election five years earlier), so rather than risk Rafael Caldera (that one) getting elected for president, Pérez Jiménez elected him for jail and announced that there would be a plebiscite on his rule instead. On this day university students staged very large protests against the plebiscite and demanding democratic rights in general. The National Security (the SEBIN of the era) cracked down hard on the students, sending many to jail and closing down the university. Unlike any of Pérez Jiménez' previous abuses, this didn't sit well with the population at large, and they'd make it known, it's regarded as fuel for the mass revolt that toppled his regime a couple weeks later, allowing for democracy to finally set its roots into the nation.
Naturally, this year's University Student's Day is also special.
Incomplete list of oppositors killed by the regime (note: not all are students, Monica Spears and Thomas Berry were killed by common crime shortly before the whole ordeal. Sorry I couldn't find a more fitting image. The total number of murders stands at 42)
List of people (mostly students) still jailed since that period, (very incomplete, they're too many to fit). To my knowledge the only one that's been released is Christian Holdack, second one from the top. The number stands at around 80, with over a thousand released but having a "don't fuck with us again" parole.)
I took the liberty to translate these two articles, made during the heat of fervent protests and relentless repression:
I like students
by Laureano Márquez
When this era passes -because it will pass- and the story of this moment is written -because it will- not from the advantages of official truth imposed by media control, fear and deceit, but from historical distance, more serene and thoughtful... By the time Venezuela will have been built over ideas of tolerance and respect, progress and peace -because it will be built-; then, when that time comes, it will be wholly shown the importance of the struggle the student's movement is taking on at this painful time and their children will feel proud of what their parents did for democracy and freedom.
"I like students because they're the leavening of the bread that'll come out of the oven with all its taste". And I like them because of the honesty of their principles, for the tolerance and respect of the struggle they wage. I like them for their ingenuity, their intelligence to visage what the country should be with a lucidity that -with their few years- one wouldn't expect.
I like students because they speak of an inclusive and respectful we; for their compromise with peace and non-violence. I like students because they're conscious that this struggle is for the survival of the soul, to not transform into that which indignates and oppresses us. I like students, because beyond the avatars of the present they're already designing in their heads the future they expect and deserve. Because they don't give up; because they swallow gas and keep on foward; because they have more ideas than words, more future than past.
I like students because they remind me that our homes weren't so bad if they produced such sensible and wonderful people as them; because this country wasn't so absurd if the idea of democracy has managed to survive like a flame lit in their hearts. I like students because when they have their clothes taken away to humilliate them, you don't see a naked student, but an emperor clad in the suit of dignity and decorum. I like students, because they suffer the iniquities of political struggle without demoralizing, without getting discouraged; because they remind me that I was like them, but they are much more than me when I was like them; and I then see that past and future aren't as distant as they seem. I like students because they fill me with hope when demoralization beats me; because they reconcile me with humanity in moments of cynicism and evil in action; because they light the path when I feel the night is still long and it'll take too much for dawn; because they make me feel the desire of being a better person. I like students because I hear them talk and I picture a different country in my soul. I like students because, paraphrasing Andrés Eloy Blanco: they're living the dirtiest years of history, but they will survive and it'll be their time, "the time of triumphant virtue, of standing justice, where voice reaches the liberty of dreams".
(This one's more honest about the not-so-peaceful happenings:)
I'm with the kids
by an anonymous writer
I'm with the kids, I look so many photos, they, they kids, their fury, their rage, their inconformity, their anger, and why not? their little bit of hatred, their pinch of violence.
They aren't saints, nor priests, nor civilists, nor poets. Thye're that, kids. They aren't made of reason, but passion, their eyes brightened by so much green gas, stone in hand, aimed and stretched slingshot, a beer bottle made out of cloth and gasoline, of cloth and kerosene, a silly bottle that spits fire against bullets.
Just the same, I'm with the kids. Like that punk under 20 who punches the armoured carrier real hard, with that one who hugs the guardsman trying to soften him so that he doesn't shoot her, with the one who flips the bird with his warrior-tattooed arm, as if the profanity could crush the shotgun, with that one who grabs her violin and plays the national anthem, as if the Guard could understand her.
I'm with the kids, wrong or not, with their megaphone and their resistance, their barricades and their disobedience, with those who escape their mothers, who can no longer keep them home, with the kids who turned the streets into their defense fields. With the kids who are dead set into waking up a dormant country that only wails, a country of words, a country of the ugly kind of peace, the one of submission, of conference
I'm with the kids, I forgot what words are for, I bring them water, pieces of cloth and vinager. The kids remind me that I'm not dead, that this country is mine, that this country deserves us. I'm with the kids, wrong or not.
I'm with the kids who cry at night silently, who touch their injuries and bury their dead. I'm with the kids, innocent, naive, fighters, dreamers, maybe because I was 20 years old once, maybe out of shame of leaving them alone, I don't know, because of irresponsibility, because of my small quota of hatred, because I believe in achievements, not handovers, because I'm like them, a bit dumb, another bit fierce, or simply because I don't want to leave my country to hienas.
I'm with the kids, with their ashen faces, their injured hands, their scraped knees, their aphony, their weariness, their mourning, their wailing, their frustration, their impotence, with each stone, at each night, during each day of this great revolt.
As for actual news... well, I haven't really been keeping up with political on-goings lately, but...
The Man got into yet another international impasse, this time with Elias Jaua (now Minister of Communes, those paramunicipality things I've talked about), his nanny was caught going through an international airport in Brasil with Jaua's handgun, after boarding a PDVSA airplane. Apparently that was one of Chávez' specific complaints during the 90s, but hey, that was a long time ago and all that.
It took literally over a year for it to come up, but Maduro finally abused his enabling law permit to pass 28 new laws in the span of two days. Heh, that was the reason I started this thread in the first place. Apparently gold mining was not already nationalized as I thought, or maybe he wants to "nationalize" it the same way they "nationalized" PDVSA? Anyhow, it's mostly economic stuff, the most important of which is an increase in taxes, which I guess it's there so as to having to print less money and prevent making the record of having the highest inflation in the world.
And for some humour, Maduro is now whining that the "fair price" for oil is $100 per barrel, so now that we've come full circle you can now safely say a fair price is whatever he says it is.
That's an awfully marxist view of history, and a very romanticized view of its study.
Things must be incredibly unstable right now with the plumetting oil prices, I find it sort of funny that the US's dick waving contest with Russia might have a positive effect elsewhere, though I fear the human cost... we have a bit of experience here regarding the death throes of (technically not)despotic governments.
I think he's referring merely to public conciousness in the future. Rather than whatever one views feb-may as, it'll be seen as a struggle between the forces of democracy embodied into idealist students and the forces of tyrany embodied into communist clowns who speak to birds.
Also, the party-government-state having more money isn't necessarily a good thing, it's what they use for electoral advantages, populist clientelism, and the corruption that glues the bolibourgeoise together. It all comes down to how much of that money actually goes for legitimate purposes.
Also I'm curious about the (technically not) despotic government part.
Of course not, I mean the exact opposite. Oil prices have been in steep decline due to the US's pressure on Russia, and that means less money to the party, and therefore social unrest and destabilization of their powerbase.
Well, wasn't it technically elected in allegedly democratic elections?
Ahh, sorry, I thought you meant that Argentina had a history with such government(s?). I do often hear of comparisions between Chávez and Perón, tho.
Regardless, Maduro's election was the one where the oppositor called fraud (not just terribly unfair) so that kinda changes things, especially considering the minuscule margin of victory.
One can give fancy political science terms to this (the current one in vogue is 'competitive authoritarism') and for a good while they seemed appropriate, but we're past technicalities by now, elections are the only democratic principle they have a pretense to respect beyond words (and of course, there's no reason to think they'll respect an opposition victory even if they can't pretend otherwise).
I thought the US and Russia thing was causing the markets to look into commodity bonds and stuff to protect their moolah. If that's causing reduction in oil prices instead, all the better, maybe.
Also, what do you think of this?