I was on my way back to San Felipe today so I could not follow events live (nor could I have attended the protests today for a variety of reasons). But in the end it did not matter much because censorship was heavy and tonight I can catch up through the net, Cable TV and Twitter, our only information these days.
The only thing I could see was at "Paramacay" my lunch stop on my way to Valencia where they had Globovision on. Maria Corina Machado was speaking at the rally and it was well attended (something confirmed by the pictures I saw tonight). Interestingly Globo was not showing anything this morning when I left home so that they decided to briefly show MCM was telling, they could not hide the success of the convocation. Also Paramacay had not on VTV, the state TV propaganda. Usually they show nothing or sports but to show Globo shows that, well, you know....
So it was with little concern that I arrived in San Felipe at 5 PM and after emptying the car I had my tea time. That is until a neighbor showed up to ask me if I knew anything about Caracas. So I went to my Playbook and turn on TV. The summary next.
The regime forced cable operators, at least Direct TV that I receive, to drop NTN24 from Colombia which had a live stream (their web page is also blocked with my provider) . Of course Maduro was on cadena inaugurating a grotesque new monument on top of a hill that I saw on my way through La Victoria. I also saw a gazillion cops and Nazional guards all the way from Caracas to La Victoria... apparently not all officials summoned to attend could go by helicopter so the highway should be made safe for them, just in case their car broke down and they got Speared.
What was more surprising is that CNN in Español showed 25, TWENTY FIVE minutes straight of Maduro cadena before they eventually got tired. I was flabbergasted, the more so that CÑN did not give the equivalent time to opposition leadership. Were they afraid to be taken off the grid too? It would be nice to know why Patricia Janiot went along. Still, CÑN showed that way, way less people attended the Maduro shindig than the opposition nice rally in Caracas and significant activities in many cities of the country (and Capriles more and more idiotically tweeting at sensing the situation escaping his slighter and slighter influence)
Eventually I started to get the body count. I looks like the regime used storm troopers to kill 3 protesters although 1 may be a chavista. Dozens of people injured? Things are obscure because the cadena kept going on in La Victoria with a night military parade. I will have to wait more for more hardcore news, but I am leaving you with some interesting stuff. The first one is a video when someone actually gets shot. You need to pay close attention and maybe look at it twice. But you will be sensible to the extensive shots, totally overdone if coming from security forces as students/protesters where running away.
Next one is from La Patilla which claims that the weaponry used against students is military grade.
And there is a gallery of pictures from El Pais of Spain.
Today we saw all the hallmarks of repression from a dictatorship:
- media censorship and closing of whoever had to be closed
- ignorance of the reality as the regime pretends all is fine though an official function (Titanic like orchestra?)
- brutal and disproportionate repression by police and army
- arrests by the dozen
- crimes through pro regime storm troopers
- pictures of assassinated people popping up on twitter
Otra imagen de manifestante asesinado en Chacao pic.twitter.com/qkSITdq5ro
— Marcos Morin Aguirre (@Mmorin_informa) February 13, 2014
We are in a dictatorship. Time to get used to it and act accordingly.------------------
UPDATE 1
Maduro has decided that there is a coup going on so there is an arrest order against Carratu Molina, former CAP aide de camp, and Gerbasi, former ambassador. Just as if these two old gentlemen where in any shape or position or strength to organize a coup. Nerves....
Also, let's think a little bit at how partial security forces have become in Venezuela.....
UPDATE 2
Another video worth watching
And better, it looks like one of the "protesters" displayed by foreign news, in particular El Pais as linked above, may have been an infiltrated chavista agent trying to stir trouble and provoke violence. La Patilla deconstructs the creep!
I am watchning Conclusiones @ CNNE. Terrible news coming out of Venezuela today. I pray for you. Don't know what to say. Somehow, it was expected.
ReplyDeleteMultiple links to content regarding today's unhappiness.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1xqzfp/this_is_caracas_venezuela_right_now_this_is_an/
"I was flabbergasted, the more so that CÑN did not give the equivalent time to opposition leadership. Were they afraid to be taken off the grid too? "
ReplyDeleteCNN is never even-handed, never.
But in their comments they are not pro Maduro. Go figure....
DeleteCastro's idea is to do everything he told and order to Chávez-Maduro, Correa, Morales & Cristina Kirchner: that way Castro recive money without work from these conflictive countries.The Cubans are living from the charities of these "three world" undevelopment nations, one example: Mexico "condoned" 70% of Fidel Castro's debt under the presion of the Latin American leftist presidents, now, Fidel says that he is "sending" doctors & medicine that the people of Cuba never had, -unasur & alba- BUNCH OF LIERS.
ReplyDeleteSo opposition supporters deem that the police should not protect public and government buildings brutalized by frenzied extreme right students? How exactly was the violence provoked by the government? The opposition is simply reaping what they sow.
ReplyDeleteOh good! CÑN cannot get a single vice minister (and there are more than 100 of those) to declare yesterday but this blog gets an "anonymous" chavista ringing in!
DeleteOf course, I am not going to bother replying to you, all the evidence is out. By experience I know that there will not be a single objective reply to my arguments. Comment bombing, that is all what you guys do, just as your stormtroopers infiltrate opposition marches to create violence, as they did spectacularly yesterday for the whole world to see. Well, those that have no ideological blinders like chavistas....
The liberal press always blindly supports any thing that smacks of Marxism including obvious repression and murder. Then they assure you that they report the news impartially and fairly. Leftists can do no wrong. When will the love affair end and how many have to die before they accept the fact that Karl Marx and his adherents are just destructive, ruinous murderers? As the leftist agenda fails in the US, we may see similar provocations here in an attempt to get it back on track.
ReplyDeleteGeez another anonymous extremist coward, yeeeah
Delete"When will the love affair end and how many have to die before they accept the fact that Karl Marx and his adherents are just destructive, ruinous murderers?"
DeleteI expect a very long time, if ever. Liberals are still infatuated with Islamists, despite decades of terrorism and centuries of oppression.
As terrible as Marxism is, it has a long way to go to catch up to Islam in brutality and cruelty.
Really? The Washington Post editorial page regularly eviscerates the Venezuelan regime, for one. From your language, I assume you would label as liberal.
DeleteLet's try to focus on Venezuela. There are plenty of other sites to play keyboard warrior in the repub/dem comment wars.
No matter how sick democracy may be in Venezuela may be, that's the bench mark. I have said many times that, when the people of the ranchos and barrios come down off the hills and protest, that will be the end. We call this People Power! What is the government to do? Bring out the tanks and machine guns and kill them? There was a time when governments could do this but, not now. Even the Chinese would not support such an act.
ReplyDeleteVenezuela lives by oil exports. To have to accept a UN oil for food program would would destroy Venezuela! The problem is that those is power don't understand this and Dr Castro is too far gone to explain it to them!
There are no news stories, zero coverage, of these events in the United States. The tattered remnants of the Fifth Estate here seems almost as amazing as these protests against the repressive, farcical Maduro regime.
ReplyDeleteIt is called a "dirty war"
ReplyDeleteThank you this post. My boyfriend is from Venezuela but sadly my Spanish is not good enough to follow the Spanish media on this so I really appreciate your English blog.
ReplyDeleteAfter 15 years of living under an incompetent and corrupt government, you can't help but wonder if violence isn't a better alternative if it means you might create a better tomorrow for your family. Either way with the crime rate being what it is even with the rallies death and fear is ever present in a country where you live under a so called "sovereign" government that doesn't even assure your own safety.
ReplyDeletePersonally I welcome the turmoil and aggressive actions that these students are doing, what should of happened in April 2013 is hopefully going to happen now. The people who are tired of living in this hellhole are going to demand change and achieve it one way or another.
I love this blog, I hear Twitter is also blocked in Venezuela now, can anyone confirm? movilnet and cantv seems to be blocking twitter from what I am hearing..
ReplyDeleteTwitter is not blocked entirely, though there does seem to be difficulty accessing certain media through twitter. It seems selective rather than blanket blocking.
DeleteI'm just sad that people still think it's a student protest. Why isn't regular people on the street? Why aren't they acting?
ReplyDeleteI have never understood why the Venezuelans are willing to take that much. Anyhow, my boyfriend said simple things like "rain" make people rather stay at home than go and protest, I dont know if that is true for the majority, though. What I'm missing is a real direction - at the moment protests seem to be very uncoordinated and spontanous.
DeleteFucking leftists go to hell
ReplyDeleteVery unfortunate..... the near collapse of the Venezuelan economy, all created by self-serving government policies, is creating undue hardship for the Venezuelan people. Chronic basic food shortages, crumbling infrastructure, omnipresent corruption and violence are daily events in this beautiful country. Only a divine intervention will change all of that.....and will change it.
ReplyDelete