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<h1 class="title">The Real Significance of the Student Protests</h1>
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<p class="byline"> <span class="date">February 21st 2014</span> </p>
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<p><em>Venezuela specialist Dr. Julia Buxton gives her view on the
meaning of ongoing opposition protests.</em></p>
<p>As the March 5<sup>th</sup> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>Lessons All Round</strong></p>
<p>The <em>Chavistas</em> 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.</p>
<p>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 <em>Chavistas</em> 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.</p>
<p>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’.</p>
<p><strong>Rise of the Student Opposition</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>With financial support and media training, Venezuela’s student and
opposition-aligned <em>Juventud Activa Venezuela Unida</em> (<em>JAVU)</em>
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]</p>
<p>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]</p>
<p>Given this history of protest, why have the current protests gained
such significance?</p>
<p><strong>A Problematic Turn</strong></p>
<p>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<sup>th</sup>
demonstrations on Venezuela’s Day of the Youth, which commemorates the
role of young people in the 1814 independence battle of la Victoria.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<sup>th</sup>’
were being discussed.[6]</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<sup>th</sup> 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. </p>
<p>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]</p>
<p><strong>Lessons Not Learned</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"></div>
<p>[1] <a
href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/0126/Venezuelan-students-protest-Chavez-s-TV-censorship">http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/0126/Venezuelan-students-protest-Chavez-s-TV-censorship</a>;
<a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/venezuelan-police-break-u_n_450824.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/venezuelan-police-break-u_n_450824.html</a>;
<a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5104"
title="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5104">http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5104</a></p>
<p>[2] <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12071995"
title="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12071995">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12071995</a></p>
<p>[3] <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6021"
title="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6021">http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6021</a></p>
<p>[4] <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/venezuela-protests-studen_n_3087449.html"
title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/venezuela-protests-studen_n_3087449.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/venezuela-protests-studen_n_308...</a></p>
<p>[5] <a
href="http://www.ventevenezuela.org/maria-corina-leopoldo-lopez-estudiantes-sindicalistas-sociedad-civil-lasalida/"
title="http://www.ventevenezuela.org/maria-corina-leopoldo-lopez-estudiantes-sindicalistas-sociedad-civil-lasalida/">http://www.ventevenezuela.org/maria-corina-leopoldo-lopez-estudiantes-si...</a></p>
<p>[6] <a href="http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#"
title="http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#">http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#</a>!en/video/descubren-planes-violentos-de-la-oposicion-venezolana</p>
<p>[7] <a
href="http://globovision.com/articulo/comunicado-de-globovision-a-la-opinion-publica-8"
title="http://globovision.com/articulo/comunicado-de-globovision-a-la-opinion-publica-8">http://globovision.com/articulo/comunicado-de-globovision-a-la-opinion-p...</a></p>
<p>[8] <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/venezuela-violent-clashes-chavistas-opposition?CMP=twt_gu"
title="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/venezuela-violent-clashes-chavistas-opposition?CMP=twt_gu">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/venezuela-violent-clashes-c...</a></p>
<p>[9]<a href="http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#"
title="http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#">http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#</a>!en/video/prueba-delcy-rodriguez-que-medios-manipulan-realidad-venezolana</p>
<p>[10] <a
href="http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2014/02/constructing-venezuela-protests-a-photo-gallery.shtml#disqus_thread">http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2014/02/constructing-venezuela-protests-a-photo-gallery.shtml#disqus_thread</a>
and <a href="http://www.tumblr.com/search/venezuela"
title="http://www.tumblr.com/search/venezuela">http://www.tumblr.com/search/venezuela</a></p>
<p>[11] <a href="http://www.keywebdata.com/?p=525">http://www.keywebdata.com/?p=525</a>;
<a
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/1-10-twitter-accounts-fake-say-researchers-2D11655362"
title="http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/1-10-twitter-accounts-fake-say-researchers-2D11655362">http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/1-10-twitter-accounts-fake-say-researc...</a></p>
<p>*Dr Julia Buxton is currrently Professor of Comparative Politics in
the School of Public Policy, CEU, Budapest.</p>
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