A Lightning Bolt That Keeps Shining in the Darkness
By TalCual
Latin American Herald Tribune
March 21, 2014

 
Francisco de Miranda - Caracas March 22, 2014 protest against the government.

Those magic acts from the Government through which it intends to make disappear the strangest coup d’état ever witnessed in Venezuelan history (one without the particular use of military weapons, among other things, as happened during the failed coup on February 4 of 1992) and most enduring in world history (taking into consideration it’s been over a month already) are quite amazing.

It has already bragged about its heroic triumph over its opponents several times through excessive repression, body counts and despicable acts of torture to young students. Yet, mass demonstrations keep taking place everywhere, across the length and breadth of the country.

But nothing like the epic battle at Plaza Altamira (the busiest square in eastern Caracas) and its surroundings since it all began. Major General Miguel Rodríguez Torres had the entire area militarized with hundreds of National Guard officers deployed in situ as the Government decreed a perpetual peace; it even solemnly handed the square to the mayor of Chacao municipality, Ramón Muchacho, for the recreational and cultural use of the zone’s inhabitants; not only appeased but pristine and all freed up from a few tons of garbage.

And (surprise!) a few hours after a lot of people flocked to this warlike-invaded square as they started saying prayers, banging pots, shouting slogans right in the noses of the bewildered national guardsmen. By the way, this particular slogan was tirelessly repeated there: We are not afraid!

And it is for certain that Venezuelan democrats have had in these action-packed days a very intense learning that has allowed them to confront the explicit threats that the chavismo regime has repeated for the past fifteen years: a politicized army willing to do anything for the Revolution and fierce armed paramilitary groups willing to eradicate anything – and everyone – in their path. And, we must add, the unrest continued in other parts of the country like Puerto Ordaz, Mérida, Táchira and so on.

But there is a whole lot more. We prefer not to make reference to the kooky allegations on professional terrorists, interference of foreign countries and personalities, arsenals exposed... comprising part of the instruments used for this coup d’état, simply because we find them absurd.

But one cannot fail to note the remarkable military move with which President Nicolás Maduro wanted to put an end to the situation. Something that is truly grotesque and a slap in the face to democracy in our opinion since all this was supposedly about negotiations for peace from the beginning, not creating conditions for a battlefield.

The tenacity of this protest, as we have said before, comes from very good and permanent reasons that won’t fade away with repression, chauvinism and rhetorical revolutionariarisms. These reasons have to do with the disappearance of nearly half of the basic products from store shelves, as just reported by local polling agency Datanalisis.

Inflation seems apocalyptic with a new devaluation of the bolivar called Sicad II. They have to do with the jump in crime rates, a fact even recognized by the own minister of the Interior, albeit he ended up blamed it on the protesters blocking streets and closing down neighborhoods to protect themselves from the national guardsmen and paramilitaries (who would have thought, right?). They have to do with the country nearly brought to a standstill. Or the indignation caused by the repressive abuses from the Government, especially against the youth. Among many other reasons of this devastation called chavismo.

You are on the wrong path, Maduro. If you want to continue sleeping “like a baby,” don’t let angry words and all that nonsense out of your mouth and find a way -- no matter that it is the hard way -- to make better decisions that will benefit all Venezuelans. Peace itself will not come out of those cheap exorcisms of yours. Peace will come when you begin respecting all those millions of citizens who are practically struggling for their survival and when you start addressing their very just demands.

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