The students go to the National Assembly

[final update done 4 PM]

Right now I am listening to yet another cadena, except that this time it is the student intervention at the National Assembly. Well, in fact the speeches of the "bolivarian" students as the students who are protesting in large numbers in the streets made a statement and left the room.

I am not too sure exactly what happened and why the students decided to leave the ring. After all, this is what happens when you have a cadena, you have to wait until the abusive power finishes the blackout on news that a cadena means so that the normal media can come back in the air and tell you what happened.

But I have a pretty good idea of why the protesting students left the arena: the students felt that a trap was set up at the National Assembly, that they were going to be used so that the scandalously monochromatic assembly could pretend that it is a democratic one. They were not going to play "tonto util", useful fool, and let the totally discredited N.A. win easy points at their expense. Cilia Flores, who probably panned the trap, was duly upset and showed yet once more how much she is lacking in everything that should be required in the chair of a National Assembly. As the emcee of the event she did not mis a chance to drip her anger and resentment at any chance, even if only through the tone of voice.

So far their move looks brilliant. Why would it look brilliant for them to step down form what is supposedly the most august tribune of Venezuela? Listen to the speeches of the pro Chavez students that remained. The National Assembly is giving them all the time they want to speak, and on cadena. And what are their doing with their time? Attack the other students, discredit them, offer no novel proposal, read lists of the "revolution achievements" (that was particularly pathetic coming from a high school student that reminded me some of those kids trained by Castro to sing his lauds; he even ended his intervention with the now infamous "patria socialismo o muerte"). And along the way they show what happens to students when they submit themselves to the ideology of power. No originality there, just mean and vicious attacks, coupled with the bolivarian cassette that is now firmly ensconced in their brains and which allows them to repeat the same old message with the same old and stale words, picked directly from any of Chavez rant.

It is in fact, as I keep watching, a truly sad spectacle, to see how the regime is preparing its lame nomenklatura of the future.

I am putting below the main speech in Spanish of the representative of the protesting students, as I have already received it. Later, if I have time, I will put an English translation (some of the other speeches are appearing here, or at least excerpts):


Douglas Barrios, Universidad Metropolitana
(Primera intervención)

"La bandera de RCTV la mantendremos hasta que la señal del canal 2 vuelva a su frecuencia".

"Los estudiantes no somos socialistas, somos seres sociales. No somos neoliberales, somos libres. No somos oposición, tenemos proposición".

"Hemos conquistado una voz plural en la AN".

"No luchamos por intereses de grupo empresarial o tendencia politica".

"Promovemos la reivindicaron de derecho civiles".

"Exigimos y promovemos la reconciliación nacional".

"No criminalicen de antemano la protesta".

"Que se dé respeto a quienes han sido perseguidos y vejados públicamente, como es el caso de Nixon Moreno".

"Que se garantice el derecho a elegir".

"Los jóvenes estamos armados con conciencia, garra, solidaridad, optimismo, humildad".

"Estamos en la calle haciendo política sin los políticos tradicionales".

"Nuestras medidas de calle responden a la amenaza a la libertad de expresión que representa la medida sobre RCTV (…) Responden a la apropiación indebida de las antenas de RCTV".

"Estamos convencidos de que todos los venezolanos deberían ser tratados del mismo modo, sin discriminación".

"Consideramos que todos los venezolanos tenemos el derecho de ir a Miraflores".

"Consideramos que se debe rechazarse cualquier injerencia internacional venga de Nicaragua, Estados Unidos o Cuba".

"No creemos en el autoritarismo ni en la hegemonía de las minorías ni las mayorías".

"Reprochamos toda forma de gobierno pasado o presente que atente contra el derecho de la ciudadanía a vivir".

"Permítannos expresarnos y manifestarnos libremente".

"Tomen en cuenta nuestra propuestas en temas de interés nacional porque es nuestra generación la que enfrentará las consecuencias".

"Que no se menosprecie ni insulte la iniciativa estudiantil".

"El derecho a elegir es lo que hace al hombre verdaderamente humano".

"Llévamos una lucha sin pretensiones golpistas ni desestabilizadoras".

"Soñamos con un país donde podamos ser tomados en cuenta sin tener que estar uniformados".

"Sin más nada que decir nos retiramos ¡Por ahora!"

PS: earlier on today I had the following exchange with a reader.

[reader]

do you think the students will be given a fair chance at the AN?

J. W.

[me]

9:24 am
of course not but i do not think it matters much. if the assembly does not treat them well, it is the assembly that will suffer most.

Premonitory no?


-The end-