I count at least three: the fingers in the eyes, the breaking wrist and the humiliation of having to hold tight to your own clothes. And who knows how many others we can count, starting with the image of this armored cops and whatever they did to this kid. Amnesty International is taking notice. The numbers of government expressing their concern keeps growing.
More images right now and for a few days in the photo gallery of the English section of El Universal. Look on the lower right side, no links, it is java.
There you have it, the lovely bolivarian revolution has reached midnight and the ugly terror and repression filled fascist pumpkin is coming back to life.
Note on further censorship: the bolivarian revolution has absolutely no sense of humor. Even imagining as a joke what would a post Chavez era be, gets you a stinging communique from Propaganda Ministry. the Tal Cual humor editorial of Laureano Marquez this Friday, translated at Miguel's blog, will be used to prosecute him and Tal Cual because according to the women in charge of Chavez "communication", Blanca Eekhout, Elena Salcedo, and Vanessa Davies, it is an open appeal at insurrection.
Vanessa, que tan bajo has caido......... Las otras no tienen vida, pero tu, tu no deberias meterte en esto. Das pena ajena!
It's bad, but it's not torture.
ReplyDelete3 cops on 1 perp make it easier and safer for all involved. Now when he gets to the station house... well... I suspect this poor hombre will be pissing blood for a month.
In ND they have a close up of the face of the soldier on the right.
ReplyDeleteHe has a very Cuban look to him.
photo 8 on the el universal site shows some storm troopers with the visors up. You can see the faces of a bunch of young boys inside those costumes. What a shame.
ReplyDeletegee does it make you all mad enough YET to take out El Mucho Macho? what are you waiting for? Shut the country down with general strikes and transportation disruptions. Get on with it already
ReplyDelete"
ReplyDeleteBrazil Concerned with Venezuela's Restlessness But Not Too Much
"
http://www.brazzilmag.com/component/content/article/81-january-2010/11786-brazil-concerned-with-venezuelas-restlessness-but-not-too-much.html
This Brazil goverment has their hands soaked with Venezuelans' blood.
No sé quién es el que torturan, ni el porque. Pero los que hacen esto a una persona son unos desgraciados buenos para nada y me callo la boca para no decir obsenidades sobre esta clase de gente no de animales.
ReplyDeletedon't believe everything you hear or see. Manipulation is very common here. I live in Venezuela and I've never seen cops dressed like that. None of the cops are Cuban. The majority of people getting hurt are chavistas (the two students murdered), police, and Cuban doctors. Most of these people are not peaceful protesters. They are violent and destroy property. I've been threatened for no good reason. The cops here are actually very, very subdued. I've never ever seen one attack anyone. I'm sure there are hot headed cops that cross the line, but I'd be pissed if my co-workers were being attacked too. I invite anyone who wants to actually see this for themselves. I'll give them a place to stay, free. If you only knew how much information is being distorted and fabricated.
ReplyDeleteIvan
ReplyDeleteAnd what gives you that credibility for us to believe you?
Is the student on the picture above chavista?
Please, enlighten us.
Or better, go away. This type of silly argument do not work anymore, the whole world is on to Chavez incipient brutal fascism. Or have you missed, for example, the red shirts of Lina Ron attacking students and any one opposing Chavez? Red shirts, brown shirts, which is the difference?
It is now time to state the obvious solution to this problem: lead.
ReplyDeleteI have been on the pacifist side of a movement. Walk the street; throw rocks at the national guardsmen; retreat. In the end, it accomplishes nothing. Guns is what the commies really fear.
I have been watching this Venezuela situation for a very, very long time. I have laughed at the half-hearted efforts of the Venezuelan people against Chavez. Like my father used to say about left-wing dictatorships, "El Plomo calma al perro."
Chavez will not go away with banging pots and pans. He won't go away with 'student demonstrations'. He will go away when he meets a force just as strong as his. Civil war is the answer here.
We are now ten years into this mess and a resolution has yet to be reached. Is there a brave Venezuelan willing to raise a rifle and shoot at Chavez's goons? And become a martyr for the revolution. I doubt it. You have all become a running joke: protest and retreat. Repeat...,
In Nicaragua, we picked up the gun and challenged the Sandinistas to a duel. We barely came out of it alive but we at least tried to make a change. You Venezuelans are simply playing hide-n-seek with Chavez. Pitiful.
If you want to take your country back, it is time to pick up the gun and challenge him and his goons.
I'm with the Sheik on this one, but I'll put it in the form of a question. Is this revolution -- green velvet, purple, or whatever-- going to happen? Are we going to get Teheran redux, or is it just going to fizzle again, like all the others
ReplyDeleteMoe
ReplyDeleteThere is a problem with your Nicaragua comparison.
First, in Nicaragua both sides had weapons and knew how to use them. In Venezuela the real weapons are on Chavez side. Who will man the front line? You?
Second, Iran and Venezuela are oil producing country. As such the oil buying country will allow a certain amount of killing until eventually they step in. We are in the XXI century, not in the Reagan years anymore.
Martin and Sheik,
ReplyDeleteI have intuited that since the first few years of Chavez....but few agree with me.
On the other hand (in my opinion) going to elections is, and has been just 'leading sheep to the slaughter'.It gives nut case lefty US Americans , spoiled totally naive Europeans and corrupt Chavista's good reason to then say " well Chavez is at least a democrat, We have elections."
I know that sometimes I am over- protective and like to nip things in the bud, but for that same reason, when problems come up and my solutions look like overkill to some,nobody can deny that I have been pretty " lucky" all my life.
Let's say I believe in the old girl scout rule" always be prepared".
Many folks have several ideas that go in contra to the strikes that seem very lame to me." It's not the right time( as though the right time ever exists in these types of cases)- or " we have to have a consensus" but no one EVER really knows when that exact consensus happens...etc.etc.
It doesn't matter how it starts as long as it is continued.Later a ball in motion will stay in motion and through our usual tendency for things to become popular, more and more people will latch on.
But if people are unwilling to do what it takes, and unwilling to risk lives,or even more common JOBS,then unfortunately Chavismo wins.
I am hoping against hope that this new student protesting will start something good.
Moe, what is your connection to Nicaragua? I was born there - left in 1974.
ReplyDeleteNow days you need a corporate sponsor like CITGO and PdVSA as few governments want to get involved third world countries.
ReplyDeleteBut why bother? Chavez and his crooks are wrecking the country better than any insurgency could. Like why blow up the power grid its already wrecked for years and at a cost of many Billions of Euros. Food production, there is nothing to wreck either its all imported. The turning point will be when the people come out of the barrios and join the students and middle class.
Daniel - great post as usual. My only comment is something that I have seen creeping more and more into your comments section and at ND in particular. This issue of someone being "cuban-looking", as if there were an evil looking entity encompassed by these "cubans". I take offense because I am cuban, and I have no idea what these people are refering to. I know there are very evil people in power in Cuba, just as in Venezuela. Many Venezuelans are also in Cuba, usually vacationing, and I hear similar anti-venezuelan comments from cubans. Please people, stop and reflect, there is no such thing as a "cuban look" as opposed to a "venezuelan look".
ReplyDeleteThese folks at MINCI might be more logical if they were crackheads. They somehow "deduce" this: "represión, el asesinato masivo de militantes y la censura, se iría borrando la memoria colectiva a favor del proceso revolucionario" from a picture of...CANTV. I mean, it can't because of water dripping from a spigot, or Chavez as an older man. Though maybe the picture of Castro and Ortega somehow inspired the thought?
ReplyDeleteAnd then "Por último se muestra una imagen en la cual una vez plenamente restaurada la IV República" is somehow derived from a depiction of Radio Rochela?
But kudos, big-time, to Laureano for gems likes this: "Diez años sin Esteban:…Comienzan a verse los primeros signos de reactivación económica...Se consigue nuevamente azúcar en los supermercados." Except I'm afraid that first sentence isn't really a joke.
Gatorab,
ReplyDeleteI really think it is inoffensive when people say' so and so' looks like a particular ethnicity or race.There are face types that are more common in some countries than others.I don't understand your worry.
When I was in Venezuela, many people tagged me as Gringa or Italian.I never gave a hoot.What's the problem?Did I have to get angry and say I am Venezuelan??? Of course not.Most people are innocent in these remarks.
I think the issue of Cubans in Venezuela is not against Cubans per se, but rather against Chavez's plan to use Cuba against Venezuela in more ways than one.
Gatorbarb: IMHO, "Cuban looking" refers to Fidel’s goons on loan to Thugo. I read a book about a European jailed in Sandinsta Nicaragua who identified Cuban personnel in Sandinista prisons by their accents. As the Cuban accent- and grammar- are quite distinct from those of Nicaragua, it would be feasible to identify Cuban personnel in Nicaragua at that time.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, it would be more difficult to do that in Venezuela, because the Cuban and Venezuelan accents are very similar, at least to my uneducated ear: Caribe, Caribe. As both Venezuela and Cuba are mixed-race countries, it would be problematic to identify a Cuban by facial appearance.Perhaps Cubans dress differently than Venezuelans. I don't know. I do know that in Argentina my style of dress identified me as a gringo, a foreigner. Sorry, white shirts and navy pants aren’t my style.
Undoubtedly Cuban security personnel are in Venezuela. Whether they are on the level of dealing directly with street demonstrations, I have no idea. IMHO, stating there are Cuban security goons involved in controlling street demonstrations is based more on suspicion than certainty. But there are definitely Cuban security people in Venezuela. Bear in mind that the Cuban security personnel in Venezuela are as much your enemy as they are the Venezuelan oppo’s enemy.
There are also Venezuelans with Cuban refugee roots. I knew a Marachucha whose parents came from Cuba. Surprise of surprises, her father was an entrepreneur. These Venezuelans with Cuban refugee roots are friends of the oppo. At least I cannot imagine any of them supporting Thugo.
gatorgab
ReplyDeletei think you are overreacting!!! there is plenty of "cuban look" in caracas, just like this one
http://blackcat.ca/lifeline_data/images/CUBA1,Day_5-Tropicana-08-20041029.jpg
@nicacat56
ReplyDeleteI was there for the September uprising & the final one in '79. I was 15-16 yrs old during that period. Ripe age to be brainwashed since the Sandinistas recruited heavily in high schools. They were very good at recruiting young people. Later on the revolution just became an excuse to control and steal from the country's resources. The war destroyed everything: families, careers, wealth, and friendships.
Today I am 46 and wiser for having gone through all that mess. I feel sorry for Venezuela (visited in the 90's) and for what its people are going through. It is a sad, sad situation.