[News] Venezuela - The Real Significance of the Student Protests
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Fri Feb 21 15:05:43 EST 2014
The Real Significance of the Student Protests
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/printmail/10380>http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10380
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/print/10380>
February 21st 2014
/Venezuela specialist Dr. Julia Buxton gives her view on the meaning of
ongoing opposition protests./
As the March 5^th anniversary of Hugo Chávez's death approaches, there
is turmoil in Venezuela. Students have been protesting against the
government in nation-wide demonstrations characterised by disorder and
violence that have led to the death of three people. Initially organised
to protest against economic shortages and insecurity, these
demonstrations have been calling for 'la salida' -- the exit of
President Nicolás Maduro. They have been supported by sections of the
opposition alliance, Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD), led by
Leopoldo López and Maria Corina Machado.
For many commentators -- and for the government itself -- these events
mark a rerun of earlier events, when the opposition pushed for the
removal of Chávez through a failed coup in 2002, a private sector
lock-out in 2002-3 and a recall referendum against Chávez in 2004. Maria
Corina Machado, a signatory to the 2002 'Carmona Decree' that
temporarily dissolved the Chávez government, was a key protagonist of
the recall referendum. Her 'civil society' organisation, Súmate,
received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy in
Washington, where she was feted by President George Bush in May 2005.
*Lessons All Round*
The /Chavistas/ learned a number of lessons from the events of
2002-2004: the importance of consolidating grassroots support (hence,
the launch of the social policy initiative, the Missions); the need to
build regional solidarity (hence, the acceleration of regional
integration initiatives such as the ALBA); the capacity of the private
sector to paralyse economic activity (hence, the deepening of the
state's role in the economy); and the urgency of countering false
reporting on the country (hence, the funding of community and public
media and new regulatory codes for broadcasting). It was this period
that was the catalyst for the transformation of an initially centrist
Third Way project into Socialism of the Twenty First Century.
The opposition similarly absorbed lessons, after anti-government unions,
business associations and the local Roman Catholic Church failed to
galvanise public opinion behind regime change in 2002. It adopted an
electoral path as the balance of power swung to moderate factions, and
radicals associated with unconstitutional tactics were pushed to the
margins. This reaped dividends in national and regional elections after
2008 as the MUD focused on bread-and-butter voter concerns and wooed
/Chavistas/ alienated by the government's statist lurch with soothing
language of reconciliation and promises to improve, rather than remove,
the benefits delivered by the Missions. At the same time, the
protagonist role of the private sector media was gradually tempered by
introduction of European-style broadcast regulations.
US-based lobbies antagonistic toward the advance of Chávez's socialism
(and sympathetic to marginalised radicals) no longer saw these elements
of 'civil society' as an effective oppositional vehicle and jettisoned
them, deciding that a new tool for regime displacement had to be
nurtured. Students in private sector universities became the new
vanguard of 'democracy promotion'.
*Rise of the Student Opposition*
In 2008, the US-based Cato Institute awarded the US$500,000 Milton
Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty to student leader Yon Goicoechea
for his role in mobilising protests against the suspension of private
broadcaster RCTV's licence. At the same time, a sizeable amount of the
US$45 million in funding provided annually by US institutions to
Venezuelan opposition groups was channelled to 'youth outreach' programmes.
With financial support and media training, Venezuela's student and
opposition-aligned /Juventud Activa Venezuela Unida/ (/JAVU)/ became
vociferous and mobilised, focusing after 2010 on the alleged censorship
by the state of private sector broadcasters[1] and on government
legislation intended to democratise the administration of the
universities. The latter was portrayed as a threat to university
autonomy and some public institutions, such as the Universidad Central
de Venezuela, were driven into the opposition camp.[2]
In 2011 JAVU activists staged a hunger strike in support of 'political
prisoners'[3] and demanded that the Organisation of American States
should intervene. Protests in 2012 focused on underfunding in the higher
education sector and in 2013 demonstrations were organised outside the
Cuban Embassy, first to demand the return of Chávez from chemotherapy in
Havana and then to challenge the result of the April presidential
election.[4]
Given this history of protest, why have the current protests gained such
significance?
*A Problematic Turn*
The current protests are important on two counts. First, they mark a
coming together of the student movement and radical elements of the MUD.
López and Machado have been organising with the student leadership,[5]
in particular in relation to the February 12^th demonstrations on
Venezuela's Day of the Youth, which commemorates the role of young
people in the 1814 independence battle of la Victoria.
Frustrated by the slow dividends of the electoral route, López and
Machado are challenging the position of Henrique Capriles as MUD leader,
even though he defeated them both in the MUD's 2012 primaries. As
Capriles in recent weeks has nudged closer toward dialogue with
President Maduro on the issue of public security, following January's
murder of former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear, the uncompromising López
and Machado have sought to open a chasm between Capriles and grassroots
anti-government sentiment.
In turn, the student movement has embraced the 'salida' demand of López
and Machado, threatening to stay on the streets until Maduro leaves
office. This is against a backdrop of growing tension, with ongoing
raids by security forces on private sector warehouse facilities, where
food and goods are allegedly being hoarded to create artificial
shortages, and with the interception of a recorded conversation between
a former Venezuelan ambassador and a vice-admiral where plans for
violence and 'something similar to April 11^th ' were being discussed.[6]
The second distinctive aspect relates to the role of social media.
Although mobilisations and related violence have been on-going, with two
student deaths in 2010, they have not received the same level of
attention as the protests earlier this month. One indication of an
orchestrated campaign has been the frenzied activity by opposition youth
on Twitter, which seems to be substituting for the once vociferous but
now calmer private sector media[7] that could traditionally be relied
upon to galvanise international attention.
Despite claims that social media 'democratises' the media, it is clear
that in Venezuela it has had the opposite effect, exacerbating the
trend towards disinformation and misrepresentation, with overseas media
groups and bloggers reproducing -- without verification -- opposition
claims and images of student injuries allegedly caused by police
brutality and attacks by government supporters. In its reporting, the
Guardian newspaper[8] cited tweets by opposition activists claiming
pro-government gangs had been let loose on protestors. No evidence to
substantiate this extremely serious allegation was provided. It also
reported on the arrest of 30 students on 12^th February, following
serious disorder, including barricade building, tyre burning and Molotov
cocktail attacks, as if it were an egregious assault on human rights.
The report was subsequently tweeted by Machado. By way of context, 153
students were arrested in the UK during the 2010 protests against
tuition fees.
The images disseminated, for example, to a Green Movement activist in
Iran and then circulated to her thousands of followers with the tag line
'pray for Venezuela's students', and to other democracy movements around
the world show Egyptian and not Venezuelan police beating demonstrators.
This same image was carried by the Spanish newspaper ABC.[9] Photographs
and video clips of Chilean, Argentinian and Bulgarian police suppressing
demonstrators and carrying out arrests (in their home countries) have
been circulated and published as of they were assaults in Venezuela,[10]
and one widely reproduced image shows Venezuela's Policia Metropolitana
corralling student protestors. The Policia Metropolitana was disbanded
in 2011. Twitter has additionally been used to harangue commentators,
including this author, who checked the accounts of her abusive critics
to find most had only been tweeting for a day and in that space of time
had accumulated around 40,000 followers.[11]
*Lessons Not Learned*
Capriles has been steering the opposition down the electoral path in
recognition of the fact that ordinary voters are alienated by violent
protest and disorder. It has been widely acknowledged that such a
strategy will take time to produce results, but it allows the MUD to
build an electoral base and credibility as a political alternative. This
hard work will be undone by a return to unconstitutional activities. The
students and MUD radicals offer no governance plan, with 'salida'
serving as a hash tag, not a strategy, according to one opposition blogger.
Just as in 2002, radicals have forgotten that the people they must
convince are Venezuelan voters, not international opinion. There can be
no short cut to replacing a movement and government that is genuinely
popular. Attempting to induce regime overthrow is unnecessary when the
option of a recall referendum is available, and it is irresponsible when
the outcome of violent change will only be a cycle of violent revenge.
Finally, journalists have yet to learn that authoritative reporting
requires fact-based accounts, not recycled and unchecked tweets from
Twitter -- a mechanism that can be used to promote delusion as well as
democracy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/0126/Venezuelan-students-protest-Chavez-s-TV-censorship;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/venezuelan-police-break-u_n_450824.html;
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5104
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12071995
[3] http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6021
[4]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/venezuela-protests-studen_n_308...
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/venezuela-protests-studen_n_3087449.html>
[5]
http://www.ventevenezuela.org/maria-corina-leopoldo-lopez-estudiantes-si...
<http://www.ventevenezuela.org/maria-corina-leopoldo-lopez-estudiantes-sindicalistas-sociedad-civil-lasalida/>
[6]
http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#!en/video/descubren-planes-violentos-de-la-oposicion-venezolana
[7]
http://globovision.com/articulo/comunicado-de-globovision-a-la-opinion-p...
<http://globovision.com/articulo/comunicado-de-globovision-a-la-opinion-publica-8>
[8]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/venezuela-violent-clashes-c...
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/venezuela-violent-clashes-chavistas-opposition?CMP=twt_gu>
[9]http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#!en/video/prueba-delcy-rodriguez-que-medios-manipulan-realidad-venezolana
[10]
http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2014/02/constructing-venezuela-protests-a-photo-gallery.shtml#disqus_thread
and http://www.tumblr.com/search/venezuela
[11] http://www.keywebdata.com/?p=525;
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/1-10-twitter-accounts-fake-say-researc...
<http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/1-10-twitter-accounts-fake-say-researchers-2D11655362>
*Dr Julia Buxton is currrently Professor of Comparative Politics in the
School of Public Policy, CEU, Budapest.
--
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