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<h3>True Colors of Venezuelan Student Movement Apparent in Feb.
22nd Releases</h3>
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<td valign="top"> <span class="small"> Written by Alex Main </span>
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<td class="createdate" valign="top"> Monday, 24 February 2014
18:52<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/true-colors-of-venezuelan-student-movement-apparent-in-feb-22nd-releases">http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/true-colors-of-venezuelan-student-movement-apparent-in-feb-22nd-releases</a></small></small></b><br>
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<p>On the night of February 22<sup>nd</sup>, a bizarre incident
took place in the Venezuela media-sphere. At around 4:00 pm Venezuela
time, a number of the country’s private media outlets posted a release
from a protest group identified only as the “student movement.” The
rhetoric and tone of the statement matches the positions often
expressed by extreme rightwing factions within Venezuela’s opposition
over the last 14 years. Venezuela, it alleges, is in the grip of Cuban
communists:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Foreign forces have laid a
military siege on Venezuela. Their mercenaries attack us in a vile and
savage manner. Their goal is to enslave us and be the masters of our
existence, dishonoring the flags that we have held up in the street and
that we will defend with our lives.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">We want our Freedom. To protect it
it's vital to defend the Sovereignty of the Nation, expelling the Cuban
communists that are here usurping the government and the Armed Forces.</p>
<p>The release demands that “the usurper [Venezuelan president]
Nicolas Maduro and all of his cabinet be deposed” and states that the
protests will continue until this and other demands are met. The
statement also calls for defensive action against state security:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">The regime has declared war on any
civilian who doesn't accept its marxist ideology. Our call is for
defense: to not allow the invaders profane your street, your avenue,
your property. Prevent their access so that they don't shoot up your
neighborhood, don't destroy your properties, don't hurt your loved ones
and, above all, so that they know that here there are battle-seasoned
Venezuelans, who won't allow themselves to be enslaved through the use
of force.</p>
<p>The rhetoric found in this release is reminiscent of the
language used by the promoters of the “guarimba” protests in 2004 which
– similarly to many of the protests that have been occurring in
Venezuela over the last two weeks – involved protesters blocking major
roads and with bonfires and barricades and damaging public property.
The explicit goal of the 2004 guarimba protests was to create enormous
chaos in city streets thereby forcing the government to either step
down or engage in mass repression. Or, <a class="blank" target="_blank"
href="http://www.venezuelanet.org/Sobre%20La%20Guarimba.htm">in the
words of Luis Alonso</a>, the main promoter of the guarimba ten years
ago:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">THE ONLY objective of “THE
GUARIMBA” (…) is to create anarchistic chaos on the national level with
the help of all citizens and in the main cities of Venezuela, so as to
force the CASTRO-COMMUNIST regime of Venezuela to order “PLAN AVILA [a
military contingency plan to enforce public order that was used during
the 1989 Caracazo protests and that left thousands dead].”</p>
<p>If mass repression occurred, the <i>guarimberos</i> believed
that elements of the military opposed to the “Castro-communist” project
would rebel and oust the government.</p>
<p>Needless to say, the terminology and goals of the students’
release probably doesn’t reflect the point of view of most Venezuelan
opposition supporters and it certainly doesn’t reinforce the common
portrayal of the young protesters as peaceful and reasonable.</p>
<p>But then, as if by magic, the original release of the unnamed
“students’ movement” was removed from many sites and in a few cases
replaced with a much less polemical text. <a class="blank"
target="_blank"
href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140223212749/http:/www.el-nacional.com/sociedad/Movimiento-estudiantil-Basta-humillar-venezolanos_0_361163962.html">Here
is a link</a> to the early version of an <i>El Nacional</i> article on
the student movement release that contains the text of the original
statement. Later that evening the editors quietly replaced the original
statement with the second one, as you can see in <a class="blank"
target="_blank"
href="http://www.el-nacional.com/sociedad/Movimiento-estudiantil-Basta-humillar-venezolanos_0_361163962.html">this
updated version</a> of the same article. <i>El Nacional, </i>one of
the largest newspapers in the country, and other outlets that made the
switch, never informed their readers of having done so. Here’s a
translation of a few key excerpts from the second release:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">[Venezuela's] youth can't stay
silent in the face of the profound pain in all Venezuelans' hearts
resulting from the hate and division that is being sowed. Our
consciences remain clear in protesting those who wish to establish
violence, ignore the country's most urgent problems and trample human
rights.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">The exacerbation of insecurity,
the deterioration of the quality of life of Venezuelans, the economic
crisis, the repression and criminalization of citizens' protests cause
us to raise our voices. We want reconciliation and respect for
democratic principles and the Constitution.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">(...) We dream of a Venezuela
where inclusion, peace and prosperity are possible.</p>
<p>No more talk of “Cuban communists” that have taken over the
government and army or of the need to remove the “usurper” Nicolás
Maduro. Instead, we see a series of demands that, while based at times
on highly questionable premises, appear to be more reasonable, e.g.,
“liberty for all of the detained young people, (…) the disarming of
violent groups, (…) the end of media censorship [regarding the claim of
censorship, I recommend reading Mark Weisbrot’s latest <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/does-venezuelan-television-provide-coverage-that-opposes-the-government">post</a>
on the Venezuelan media].”</p>
<p>However, one demand from the re-worked release is similar to
the main demand of the original release: the second release calls for
“the renovation and re-legitimizing of public powers.” Though this
language may seem innocuous at full glance, the basic meaning is clear:
those in power are not legitimate and should be removed. In the most
charitable interpretation, this can be read as a call for immediate
elections, despite the fact that Maduro was elected less than a year
ago and that his popular legitimacy was reaffirmed in municipal
elections last December in which pro-government parties won the total
vote by a ten-point margin.</p>
<p>It is also interesting to note that, unlike most recent youth
protest movements like the 2011-2013 Chilean movement, the 2012 Quebec
student protests or even the U.S. Occupy Wall Street movement, the
demands of the Venezuelan students who have taken to the streets focus
neither on social justice issues nor on the government’s education
policies. It is telling that the University of Chile Student Federation
which was instrumental in ending the Pinochet dictatorship and played a
key role in the 2011-2013 protests, released a statement which had <a
class="blank" target="_blank"
href="http://fech.cl/declaracion-fech-ante-la-situacion-en-venezuela/">the
following to say</a> about the Venezuelan student movement:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;">We reject any attempt at
destabilization, hoarding of food and of coup-mongering that aims to
bypass the sovereign decisions of the people of Venezuela (…)
Similarly, we don’t feel represented by the actions of Venezuelan
student sectors that have taken the side of the defense of the old
order and are opposed to the path that the people have defined. </p>
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