The saddest part is that there is 1 assassination per day, average.
Any protest day may yield up to a couple of hundred arrests.
The crimes are clearly linked to the repression forces who use weapons that are not allowed for such crowd control, such as round large spheres that cannot be qualified as bullets but that are not anymore buckshots/pellets.
Increasingly bullet death and injuries are reported. But those are coming from an increased participation of the paramilitary colectivos of chavismo, as this harrowing video from Tachira today (or yesterday?) clearly shows.
San Cristobal @danielduquenal @JoJakubowicz @alekboyd @MariaCorinaYA @Karmenarteaga pic.twitter.com/5yp5MsUTmK— bogrup (@bogrup) May 16, 2017
And speaking of Tachira, just like in 2014 that state has become a hot focal point for protest against the regime as its governor is truly despised by the populace.
Torture is now widely reported. And it seems that it is for the sake of it, for terror purpose since the kids arrested cannot possibly have much information to offer under torture. We learned today that they have fed some kids with pasta and excrement "sauce".
One major difference with previous bouts of protest under chavismo is that this time around the protest level in the provinces is almost overtaking the one from Caracas, when not higher like in Tachira. Tear gas has been freely dispensed in at least half a dozen of cities, and even smaller cities are seeing now increasing protests, even chavista strongholds like in Guarico state.
Repression has gotten more and more violent as days pass. Breakpoint in the escalade of terror where reached in Caracas on April 19 and then May 3. Valencia break point was even worse as the governor promoted massive looting in order to blame the opposition for it. Unfortunately looting got out of hand and he had to call the army fast.
Speaking of looting. Food is becoming scarcer. One reason is the constant interruption in traffic through protests. Another one is that the regime is so bent on over repressing the opposition that it neglects other security aspects. Looting of food trucks are on the increase. Now caravans are organized with several trucks hiring armed escort vehicles. But I digress.
Yet, in spite of all the harsher repression people seem undaunted. Protests show indeed less attendance but frequency increases and determination is obvious. Certainly people need breaks but overall attendance remain high, or rather incredibly high considering that it has been a month and a half!
The video below I took yesterday at the plantón which intention was to blockade some major highways of Venezuela. In certain areas people died but at least in Plaza Altamira nothing regrettable happened. As you watch the video consider that it was at the end of a day long activity, so the crowd you see is quite something. Outside of Maidan I cannot think of recent examples of such determination.
So there you have, an increasingly degraded situation. No positive hopes for the time being.
PS: no links given but this information is now public knowledge and you can also follow my twitter timeline which has references to all of the above. And that is easier to keep active than the blog, under present circumstances.
Daniel, just a note to let you know I am reading your posts and passing them along to my social contacts "on the Right" in the USA.
ReplyDeletePeople tend to comment along the lines of 'that's what socialism causes' and 'send in guns for the people to use' and so on.
Politics here in the USA is turbulent right now but Trump will meet Santos on Thursday and the problem Colombia faces on its border with refugee flow is a serious matter.
The people against Trump are fiercely against Russia and include those who want to ramp up the fight against Assad in Syria.
There are clearly links between the regime and Russia and Syria (Tareck).
When the OAS meets later this month after Trump returns from his trip to the Middle East, we shall see what happens, but I remain optimistic that the winds are in favor of some sort of meaningful action against the regime.
"Protests show indeed less attendance but frequency increases and determination is obvious. Certainly people need breaks but overall attendance remain high, or rather incredibly high considering that it has been a month and a half!"
ReplyDelete"an increasingly degraded situation. No positive hopes for the time being."
Excellent report an synopsis, thanks. What I'm worried about is that protesters will gradually get tired. Granted, 1 crowd goes out on Monday, replaced in part by others on Tuesday, and so on. Les foules se renouvellent.. But if the numbers do not increase, this can go on for months, even years, and Maduro still dancing. People could get frustrated if nothing happens in a couple months. I bet that's what the regime is betting on: "hasta que se cansen"..
The MUD should start thinking about strategies to keep people motivated and numerous for the long haul: 1/ promote rotations at work: some employees can protest certain days, others other days, so that everyone takes a break, and the company keeps afloat. (how can a company survive, if most of their employees are in the street everyday?) 2/ Finance a manufacturing facility for mass production of pupubombs. 3/ Finance another facilty to give away white T-shirts with logos.. "libertad", fuera maduro", elecciones YA", etc. they are cheap, free at the start of each protest. 4/ Plan for 2 MEGA / MEGA SUPRMARCHAS per month, besides the daily smaller, rotating protests. These have to be HUGE, planned well ahead, with starting points but without revealing the routes to be taken, and with alternative routes to fool the repressive forces. I mean shut down 90% of Caracas/Valencia/Maracaibo, etc for the whole working day.
5/ Assaults at certain Chavista points (Tarek's, la Casona in Campo Claro, ministerios, etc, without prior notice, ataques relampago.
Etc.. Time for smarter strategies, or people will get tired and frustrated out there.
I read an article today about how the vast majority of the standing against the protesters agree with them and like most of the military fear what happens if they dont do what they are told. That they fear wearing their uniforms home at night as they are so hated they will be killed. They all want change too and when the regime starts to crumble it will go fast.
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