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Venezuela's
poor join protests as turmoil grips Chávez's revolution
Government
claims protests bear the hallmarks of US-backed coup plot led by
jailed opposition leader Leopoldo López
20
February, 2014
The
poor neighbourhood of Petare in western Caracas is not an obvious
hotbed of anti-government sentiment. In the past, its residents have
been among the major beneficiaries of Venezuela's public health and
education campaigns, and an economic policy that resulted in one of
the sharpest falls in inequality in the world.
But
as demonstrations sweep several major cities, even the people of
Petare have taken to the streets to protest again surging inflation,
alarming murder rates and shortages of essential commodities.
Jorge
Farias, a self-employed motorcycle taxi driver, once voted for the
late president Hugo Chávez, but this week he joined opposition
rallies.
"This
country can't stay like this for much longer. If it's not lack of
food, it is the fear of being killed when you step out of your house
to go to work", he said. "I would like to wake up without
this fear," he added. "I have never seen this country in
this state of total collapse. We are going from bad to worse, and we
are losing faith".
"Ya
esta bueno ya", is phrase which Venezuelans are hearing with
increasing frequency. Roughly translated as "Enough already",
the slogan captures a wide-spread sense of discontent and growing
uncertainty over the country's future.
Scenes
of political turmoil have played out for two weeks in cities across
Venezuela. Pockets of destruction can be seen in the public squares
of Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo, San Cristobal and Puerto Ordaz. At
least five people have died in clashes and dozens have been wounded.
Government
officials claim the protests are limited, but the sense of tension –
as well as government repression – is escalating. On Wednesday
night, groups of protesters across the country were dispersed by
National Guard troops firing teargas and rubber bullets in what has
been the strongest show of government force so far.
The
centre of Valencia – a northern industrial city and Venezuela's
third largest – was filled with flames as demonstrators blocked the
streets.
In
the Altavista area of Puerto Ordaz, in Bolivar state, witnesses said
national guard troops fired rubber bullets and teargas to break up a
student protest camp, and stood by as about 60 plainclothes
government supporters on motorbikes opened fire at protesters. "The
tanks, the guard and the motorizados were all shooting at the
students. There are several wounded," said Ines Duran, who had
been providing food and water to the students. "They have the
weapons, we only have sticks and rocks." Despite the increased
risk of violence, Farias said he was determined to keep protesting.
"I am scared, but I am also scared on a daily basis", he
said, adding that he had been the target of multiple robberies. "I
am sick of not imagining a better future".
In
Caracas, the focus of the unrest has been the streets of the affluent
Chacao municipality, where night after night people have gathered to
protest against shortages of basic goods, price inflation of more
than 50% in a year and street crime that has cost more than 100,000
lives since the late president Chávez took office 15 years ago,
ushering in a period of "Bolivarian revolution" that his
successor, Nicolás Maduro, continues.
The
government has won successive elections on this platform, most
recently in municipal polls late last year.
And
with an electoral mandate, it says the protests are a US-backed
coup-in-the-making, spearheaded by the firebrand opposition leader,
Leopoldo López, who is being held in a military jail while he awaits
charges for inciting violence.
Maduro
has called the street actions "a fascist plan" and has
vowed to eradicate them "as one eradicates an infection".
The
opposition blames the government for denying people a right to
protest, and accuses the ruling camp of escalating the violence
through the use of armed militia-like groups, or colectivos, trained
by Cubans to control and intimidate demonstrators.
Those
on each side of the divide are dismissed as puppets of Washington or
pawns of Havana, but the name-calling fails to capture the
frustrations that many in opposition feel about national decline –
or the passion with which those who support the government are
determined to protect the gains made by poorer communities.
Others,
who support neither camp, can still find themselves victims of
unrest.
William
Briceño barely escaped the government building in Chacao where he
works before it was ransacked by protesters last week. "I came
to work the next day and someone had stolen my computer and several
of my belongings," he said, speaking through a shattered office
window. "These protests are not the solution. Students say they
want dialogue but they destroy everything around them."
Inside
the office, his colleagues were working on makeshift desks and
kitchen tables: the furniture was looted or destroyed during the
protests. The sign outside had been torn down, and in its place
graffiti read: "SOS Venezuela".
"Dialogue
would be the best way out but the government has refused to
acknowledge our problems. Still I can't support or understand where
this violence takes us," Briceño said.
Protests
are set to continue with another big opposition march scheduled for
Saturday. Uncertainty about where this confrontation will lead is
palpable, but for those who desire change, the risks are worthwhile.
Waiting
it out until the next election is a luxury she can't afford.
Rodriguez has leukemia, and although she could once benefit from
government help for her treatment, these days she cannot get hold of
the imported medicines she needs. "This has got to come to an
end", she says. "If not for me, for the rest of the
country".
Others
say dialogue is the key.
"This
is a long process. Things will change but there will be a lot of
repression before it happens because both camps have locked horns",
says Juan Garcia, a technician in a clinic. "People are tired of
everything, even of these protests, but the government hasn't been
able to solve any of our problems".
For
the moment, however, the violence appears to be escalating. Whether
this leads to a repeat of failed efforts to unseat the government in
2002 and 2004 or a more profound change will be decided in the days
and weeks ahead.
For
Juan Tavare, a gardener who must cross the city from his poor
neighbourhood in Palo Verde to get to work in the affluent
neighbourhood of Altamira, it just makes his already tough life more
difficult.
"You
can feel the discontent everywhere you go", he said.
On
Wednesday, as protesters gathered around the main square of Altamira,
in Chacao, he left work early and ended up skirting through burning
tires and barricades of burning trash blocking the road, narrowly
missing a detachment of National Guard troops who opened fire on
protesters with teargas and rubber bullets
It
took him two hours to walk to his home in Palo Verde, which was
relatively calm by comparison. "But where I live you still have
to worry about finding food and not being killed by thugs", he
said.
From a right-wing source
The
Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night – and the International Media
Is Asleep At the Switch
20
February, 2014
Dear
International Editor:
Listen
and understand. The
game changed in Venezuela last night.What had been a slow-motion
unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all
of a sudden.
What
we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you
understood.
Throughout
last night, panicked people told their stories
of state-sponsored
paramilitaries on motorcycles
roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and
storming
into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he
might be protesting. People continue to be arrested merely for
protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes
an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports
of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right
abuses: National Guardsmen shooting
tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We
have videos of soldiers
shooting civilians on the street. And that’s just what
came out in real time, over Twitter and YouTube, before any real
investigation is carried out. Online media is next, a
city of 645,000 inhabitants has been taken off the internet
amid mounting repression, and this blog itself has been the object of
a Facebook “block” campaign.
What
we saw were not “street clashes”, what we saw is a state-hatched
offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents.
After
the major crackdown on the streets of major (and minor) Venezuelan
cities last night, I expected some kind of response in the major
international news outlets this morning. I understand that with an
even bigger and more photogenic freakout ongoing in an even
more strategically important country, we weren’t going to be
front-page-above-the-fold, but I’m staggered this morning to wake
up, scan the press and find…
Nothing.
As
of 11 a.m. this morning, the New York Times World Section
has…nothing.
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