HATE AND PRIDE
Monday 23, December 2002

I am writing tonight because I am not sure I will be able to write tomorrow, and I do not want to bring any shadow over your Christmas Eve celebrations. I really want people that can enjoy Christmas to do so because I am so jealous of you guys. And my Christmas will not be too bad either, as I think that nothing bad will happen and that I will be with my close family for a subdued celebration, but celebration nevertheless.

Today I was exposed to two events that speak volumes about things that are going on in Caracas, wilder, more radical than in the rest of the country, though that rest seems to catch on.

HATE

This morning I went to the post office to mail my Christmas cards. Yes, I managed to get the inspiration, people will get them late but they will. It did seem strangely important that I managed to write at least some of my cards.

At any rate, the post office is at a mall close to where my parents live. The mall could not close because the post office is inside, banks are inside, some food stores are inside, etc.. But 90 % of the other stores are closed since December 2!!!!! And the few that dared open are rather empty of customers even though there is a certain movement due to the stores that cannot close, or close part time only, for obvious reasons.

So I am going up to the post office and my Mom stays behind to go pay her water bill. And suddenly I am hearing some form of commotion, whistling and people banging walls, metal parts etc, "cacerolazo" style. I turn back and from above I see an elderly man arguing with some people and lots of people gathering around screaming "get out” and other pleasantness.

I freaked! There was such a negative energy from that lynch mob that I could not deal with it, I could not care for what was going on, or who was harassed. I knew that the worst that would happen to that person would be that he might get a few knocks and be kicked out and I suppose that that helped me turn my heels and flee. Because that is what I did, flee the scene with almost an anxiety attack. My partner told me later that it was probably a mix of my strong introversion, my non violent nature and a rush of adrenaline that I could not control.

Anyway, I go to the post office to hide, and while I am sticking my stamps the noise becomes deafening enough to go through the office closed doors.

A woman comes in and says that the guy booted out was a famous comic of yore that has cast his lot with Chavez. I started arguing almost vehemently that chavistas and anti chavistas should be able to go get aspirin to the pharmacy without being rounded up! The two women looked at me, said “whatever” and that was that.

Eventually I finished licking my stamps and the noise went away. Well, when I caught up with my Mom, she told me that actually that person had come with a female friend and was loudly complaining and threatening the stores that were closed. Of course as a chavista he was upset that all but the essential was closed and was doing his party work. Unfortunately the audience was not right. I started feeling better because after all, if he is a fool and accepts public exposure he should accept its consequences. Later we met a friend of my Mom that is a neighbor of that guy and that bitterly complained about all sort of pressure that he put on his neighbors with loud chavista meetings and other stuff. This of course brings about loud reactions from the neighbors making that street a hell of a place to live....

Conclusion. This was my first direct exposure to the verbal violence that has become the norm in Caracas, and we all know that this is only a step away from physical violence. And I did not do well, feeling all my senses shocked, outraged by such a display of violence. Do I need to toughen?

PRIDE

This same afternoon after a suitable recovery (scotch before lunch and wine with lunch) I went to the "marcha de las antorchas", that is "torch march". At 6 PM armed with my flashlight and my whistle I went down the street with my younger brother. We joined the activity of the day which consisted on starting several marches at different points of the city to converge to the main building of the State Oil industry. The thing was to carry some form of light, a candle, a flash light, a torch, whatever.

It was impressive to see the march arrive to my intersection. We waited a few minutes before we jumped in. After we walked for a couple of miles we had occupied the four lanes blocking all traffic and I managed to climb and look at a sea of light going both ways as far as I could see. 2 miles? Who cares! It was just glorious and gave me chills. This time no hate, just a wonderful positive energy, an unbelievable joy and optimism to get out of our plight one way or the other.

After what must have been a 3 miles walk we reached the concentration point which was so packed from the different marches that we could not get close enough to see what was going on. We did manage to reach a small walkway that crosses a street and we could see a sea of people coming from the now famous Plaza Altamira.

It was really a big happening, a big party. Street vendors feeding flags to what has become a sea of flags, and all sorts of items based on the color scheme of our flag. All sorts of guys selling water bottles, sandwiches, etc... Music everywhere, spontaneous waves, etc... We did hang around for half an hour but decided to come back as there was absolutely no way to join some of our friends. To begin with, serious wireless phone conversation is just impossible in such a noise.

We did go walk back and by 9 PM I was back home exhausted but happy.

Thus I had the two sides of the coin today. Let's see which one will carry the day at the end.