Opposition Violence, Two Deaths Mark Day of Youth in Venezuela
Violent opposition groups attacked government buildings and
civilians, and clashed with police and government supporters following
peaceful marches commemorating the Day of Youth.
The violence has claimed two deaths and left 23 injured across the
country. Thirty arrests have been made according to government sources.
Venezuela commemorates the day of the youth on 12 February each year
in memory of the role of young people in the decisive independence
battle in La Victoria in 1814. Today marked the bicentenary of the
historic battle.
Caracas
In mid afternoon President Nicolas Maduro delivered a speech in
Caracas, praising the morning’s marches as peaceful. However, shortly
later one Chavista was reported to have been killed amid clashes
involving opposition activists. Juan Montoya, also known as Juancho was
shot. He was a community leader in the Chavista stronghold, Barrio 23 de
Enero. This afternoon National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello condemned
the shooting, and accused armed right-wing groups of “hunting down”
Montoya.
“They are fascists, murderers, and then they talk about dialogue,”
Cabello stated, referring to armed right-wing activists. The AN head
called for calm, and urged against reprisals.
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| Juan Montoya, on the right, talking to El Universal in August last year |
Violent opposition groups also attacked the attorney general’s office
in Carabobo Park, Caracas. Photographs of the scene indicate the
building’s exterior was damaged.
A building belonging to the government owned Fundacaracas
organisation was also attacked by opposition groups. A few hours later
the mayor of Caracas’s Libertador municipality, the PSUV’s Jorge
Rodriguez also reported that the judicial offices in Chacao, Miranda,
were also attacked. Later in the night the National Guard were deployed
to the state owned VTV offices in Los Ruices. Disturbances had been
reported in the area, though no further details were available at the
time of writing.
In the evening, President Nicolas Maduro stated that violent
opposition groups had also set fire to five police patrol vehicles. He
also stated that a group of around two hundred violent activists had
attempted to attack Miraflores Palace after the attorney general’s
office.
Merida
After weeks of small, violent protests in Merida, there was a large
march by government supporters in one part of the Andean city, and a
larger march by opposition supporters elsewhere. Both were observed to
be peaceful by Venezuelanalysis. However, violence began shortly after
the opposition march finished. Clashes took place in Merida’s streets
after individuals began burning garbage in intersections and erecting
barricades.
A larger confrontation took place at a major intersection in the
city’s north. Witnesses told Venezuelanalys.com that they saw men in
balaclavas occupy a number of apartments, and fire live ammunition into
the streets below. Riot police blocked the intersection. Hundreds of
government supporters gathered a few hundred metres behind the police
lines.
“We’re defending the city centre,” one supporter told Venezuelanalysis.
The Pro-Government March
At the pro-government march in the morning, Roger Zurita told
Venezuelanalysis.com, “I’m worried about confrontations but I’m marching
because today is the day of the youth, to celebrate the battle of La
Victoria, not because of the opposition march. We have to organise
ourselves around our values. We’re celebrating with happiness and peace
the youth who struggle, our independence, the struggle for political
power. Today we have an anti-imperialist youth and people are waking up,
we’re not going to fall for the right wing’s games.”
“I’m marching for various reasons, mainly because I still believe in
the project of our country, which still hasn’t been fully realised, but
if we work just a bit harder we can do it, we have a lot to do. Also
because it’s important to show that we are many, there are a lot of
people who believe in this. What’s been happening in Merida is sad,
regrettable. It’s a shame that they [violent sectors of the opposition]
can’t propose anything without violence. We shouldn’t respond with
violence. But the only proposal they seem to have is to get people into
power who have never cared about the people, they just want to sell our
country to the [US] empire,” Raquel Barrios told Venezuelanalysis,
referring to the last four days of violence in Merida.
“I’m marching to commemorate the battle of La Victoria, but they [the
opposition leadership] are manipulating the youth of Merida and parts
of the opposition, they want to put an end to everything we’ve achieved,
but they won’t be able to, because we’re peaceful people but ready for
any necessary battle,” said Douglas Vasquez told Venezuelanalysis.
“Basically I’m marching to rescue Merida. We can’t let Merida be in
the hands of violent people. I’m a teacher at the University of Los
Andes (ULA), and I feel very ashamed that the recent violent incidents
are mostly promoted by people from the ULA, who hope to create
discomfort in the people in order to overthrow a consolidated and
democratically elected government,” Katania Felisola said to
Venezuelanalysis.
The Opposition March
The opposition march started at the ULA and went down the Americas Avenue after a last minute redirection.
Fernando Peña, a chemical engineering student at the ULA told
Venezuelanalysis’s Ewan Robertson, “The students have felt the need to
show themselves against [the goverment], because they have taken
students prisoner in Mérida and Táchira just for expressing their right
to protest. Right now feelings are very tense, because the people are
tired of the government, [and] the students are the centre of the
mobilisation throughout the country. The people now deeply disagree with
the decisions that the government makes…living in Venezuela has become
ever more difficult”.
Jan Carlos Lopez, worker in the Medical Faculty of the ULA told VA,
“Some of the main reasons [for the march] are the shortages that are
being experienced in the country, criminality, and insecurity. There
isn’t an organisation that can protect us at night time so that we can
go out. That’s what we’re asking for, security so that all Venezuelans
can live in peace.”
Other opposition marchers told Robertson that they blamed the
government for the violence, for “sending out motorbikes to attack
students”.
In the violence after the marches, two people have been reported as
injured, both shot in the legs. One of those was Jilfredo Barradas, a
state government photographer.
“It’s a show, everyone knew it would turn out like this, it was
planned,” one Merida activist told Venezuelanalysis, referring to the
violence both in the Americas intersection as well as on Avenue 3.
Further, Gustavo Bazan told Venezuelanalysis, “On Friday they
[violent opposition sectors] wanted to store Molotov cocktails [in the
apartment where Bazan lives] and break up bricks in order to have rocks.
I stepped out of line a bit and I told them that here they weren’t
protesting against the government but rather against their own
neighbours. I challenged them to take off their balaclavas and said to
them they weren’t capable of coming over and having a conversation. They
jumped over the fence and three of them started to beat me up. A friend
and a building security guard saved me. I filmed them while they
prepared the Molotov cocktails”.
Other cities
Electricity minister Jesse Chacon informed through his Twitter
account that “violent groups” surrounded an electric substation in San
Cristobal and threw Molotov cocktails at it.
According to AVN there was also violence in Aragua and Carabobo states “which left material damage”.
The governor of Carabobo state, Francisco Ameliach said that “violent
groups burnt a truck with liquid asphalt”. Ameliach alleged that the
head of the MUD in the state, Vicencio Scarano had financed the crimes.
The minister for internal affairs, Miguel Rodriguez Torres, said that
violent groups had tried to set the Aragua state government building on
fire.
Official response
Tonight Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz informed the public that
so far there have been a total of two deaths, 23 injured, and thirty
arrests. Along with Montoya, student Basil Da Costa died after suffering
a gunshot. She added though that public lawyers were investigating and
visiting hospitals to determine the exact number. According to Maduro
the two men were both shot in the head, “like the sharp shooters who
murdered [people] on 11 April [2002]”.
Ortega also said that four CICPC (Scientific Crime Investigation
Body) vehicles were set on fire, as well as other private vehicles.
Regarding the march in Caracas, she said “they were guaranteed
security from Plaza Venezuela to the Attorney General’s Office, there
was nothing to impede them”.
Maduro also warned tonight that “whoever protests or marches without permission will be detained”.
“These are trained groups who… are prepared to overthrow the
government in a violent way, and I’m not going to allow this, so I call
on Venezuela to be peaceful,” Maduro said.
Foreign minister Elias Jaua alleged that Leopoldo Lopez was the “intellectual author of the deaths and injuries in Caracas”.
The Ecuadorian government emitted a statement today condemning the
“acts of violence and vandalism by irresponsible members of the
opposition”.
“We hope for the prompt reestablishment of social peace in our
brother country and because respect for the government and its
legitimately constituted institutions has precedence”.
Opposition statements and response
“This a call put out by the students and supported by the Democratic
Unity [MUD opposition coalition], this march on the day of the youth is
taking place when the government is repressing, with jail, with
torture,” Leopoldo Lopez told CNN yesterday, in anticipation of today’s
events.
“The government has an agenda of violence and as they control the
monopoly [sic] over communication in Venezuela they hide it…the call
that has been made is to be in the street,” he said, blaming the
violence over the last week in Merida and Tachira on the government.
Speaking tonight on Noticias 24,
Lopez blamed the national government for today’s violence and deaths.
“Who is generating the violence? The government… repression by the
national guard, the police,” he said.
Some of the top tweets by
the opposition at the moment also blamed the Tupamaros groups. The
Tupamaros are now quite small, but are often blamed for any violence
that takes place. They support the national government.
“They (Tupamaros) are animals and they should all die,” wrote Daniel Garcia.
“Hitler, come back and put all the Tupamaros in gas chambers” wrote Andreina Leonett.
“When the first student dies all the streets of Venezuela will burn,” wrote Jose Gamboa.
Over the last week far right opposition leaders such as Leopoldo
Lopez have been calling for people to “go out into the street” in order
to achieve an “exit” of the national government.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/staged-opposition-violence-in-venezuela-towards-a-colored-revolution/5368759
