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<h1 class="title">Demonising the "Colectivos": Demonising the Grassroots</h1>
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<p class="byline"> By <span class="author">Tamara Pearson -
Venezuelanalysis.com</span>, <span class="date">April 2nd 2014</span></p>
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<p>As it is prone to do, the private media has invented a new thing. In
both English and Spanish they are calling it <em>colectivos</em>, and
these collectives are meant to be irrational, cruel, grotesque armed
motorbike riders who “enforce” the revolution and are responsible for
most of the current violence. The opposition barricaders are the
innocent victims of these collectives, who apparently work with the
National Guard and have the support of the government.</p>
<p>The private media is using the concept to demonise the real
collectives in Venezuela; the social organisations – feminist
collectives, community organisations, environment and education
collectives, cultural groups, mural painters and so on; which with
Chavismo have grown, multiplied, and united around general support for
the Bolivarian revolution.</p>
<p>Here is a sample of headlines and content coming out in the English
language media, Venezuelan and Spanish language media, and on social
networks:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Medium: “<a
href="https://medium.com/war-is-boring/a9375607c800">Pro-government
motorcycle militias terrorize Venezuela; widely feared ‘colectivos’ are
the regime’s plausibly deniable strike force</a>”.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">USA today: “<a
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/26/venezuela-peace-conference/5852719/">Aveledo
said the government must rein in its armed paramilitaries, or
colectivos, and end violence against protestors.”</a></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Latin Post: “<a
href="http://www.latinpost.com/articles/9798/20140331/venezuelan-colectivos-continue-violent-rampage-nation-against-opposition-groups.htm">Venezuelan
‘colectivos’ continue violent riot across the nation</a>... In the past
the colectivos were responsible for organizing community and cultural
events in the poorer neighborhoods of Venezuela during the late
President Hugo Chávez's 14-year reign. Despite their acts of service to
the community, they rode motorcycles while armed with guns and
threatened peaceful protestors who opposed the government.”</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Huffington Post: <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/venezuela-motorcycle-gangs-vidoes-colectivos_n_4855640.html">“Pro-Maduro
motorcycle gangs terrorise Venezuelans</a> ...”Colectivos" re-emerged
under late President Hugo Chavez as ideological henchmen... well-armed
colectivos ...enforc[e] the will of the ... Bolivarian
government...have harassed opposition demonstrators and corralled votes
for the Socialist Party at elections”.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Reuters: “<a
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/us-venezuela-protests-colectivos-idUSBREA1C1YW20140213">[M]ilitant
grassroots groups called "colectivos</a>" which view themselves as the
defenders of revolutionary socialism but are denounced by opponents as
thugs”.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The Guardian: The “<a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/venezuela-violent-clashes-chavistas-opposition">pro-government
Chavista militias known as colectivos</a>... the colectivos ...enforce
the lefist ruler’s [Chavez’s] government programs”. The article then
quotes coup participator Leopoldo Lopez as an authority, "Maduro, you
are well aware that what happened today was part of your plan. The
wounded and the dead are your responsibility," López tweeted. "The
truth is in photos and videos that people took. The colectivos and the
police were the ones who shot."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">El Universal: “<a
href="http://www.eluniversal.com/caracas/140331/denuncian-que-colectivos-hacen-presencia-en-colinas-de-bello-monte">Collectives
denounced for being present in Colinas de Bello Monte</a> ...motorbike
riders belonging to collectives and PDVSA jeeps circulated in the area
in order to intimidate protestors”.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">El Nacional: “<a
href="http://www.el-nacional.com/regiones/vehiculos-destruidos-colectivos-edificio-Maracay_0_380962004.html">50
vehicles destroyed by ...collectives</a>” and “<a
href="http://www.el-nacional.com/politica/Colectivos-involucrados-homicidios_0_378562363.html">Collectives
could be involved in 12 homicides</a>”</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Venezuela Al Dia, “<a
href="http://www.venezuelaaldia.com/2014/03/colectivos-en-palaima-tomaron-mujeres-como-escudos-para-escapar-videos/">Collectives
in Palaima use women as shields in order to escape”</a></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Marti Noticias, “<a
href="http://www.martinoticias.com/content/el-saldo-de-los-colectivos/33529.html">The
balance [of deaths] by the collectives</a>”</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">La Verdad “<a
href="http://www.laverdad.com/politica/49231-colectivos-golpean-a-padre-e-hijo-y-luego-los-entregaron-a-la-gnb.html">Collectives
beat up father and son and later hand them over to the GNB</a>”</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Reportero24 “<a
href="http://www.reportero24.com/2014/01/violencia-los-colectivos-orden-y-terror-chavista-en-venezuela/">Violence:
the collectives, order, and Chavista terror in Venezuela</a>”</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Reporte Ya “<a
href="https://twitter.com/ReporteYa/status/449395573956050944">Collectives
kidnap Belinda Alvarado in La Trinidad, threaten to rape her</a>” </p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Leopoldo Lopez, “<a
href="https://twitter.com/leopoldolopez/status/450091155569393666">How
to have dialogue if the collectives and some soldiers... attack housing
with elderly women and children [inside]”</a></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">There’s even a new wiki <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colectivo_%28Venezuela%29">article</a>
on the <em>colectivos</em> which defines them as “militant groups”
that support the government and the revolution, and attack the
Venezuelan opposition. All of the articles sources come from this
year, yet the writers claim the term has been used since the 1960s.<span
style="font-size: 0.8em;"> </span></p>
<p>The aim behind inventing this idea and demonising Venezuela’s social
organisations is to dehumanise activists, delegitimise the revolution
(faults and all), and justify any current or future violence or
repression towards us. Further, demonising the victims humanises or
legitimises the aggressors: the far right, violent sectors of the
opposition. Demonising creates an enemy, simplifies it, eliminating any
need for complexity, context, analysis, or comprehension.</p>
<p>The <em>colectivos</em> term has infiltrated opposition discourse
to the point where most committed supporters blame anything bad or
violent on “the collectives”, even using “the collectives” to justify
the violence perpetrated from the opposition barricades as “self
defence”.</p>
<p>Where previously everything, even the drought or the actions of big
business, were Chavez’s fault, now it must be “the collectives”. Now
that Chavez is gone and the opposition still hasn’t got its electoral
victory, they have realised its not enough to call the current
president a “dictator” and belittle him because of his lack of formal
university education, they need to demonise the active and organising
people too. Because they aren’t going away.</p>
<p>The demonisation of Cuba and the racism directed at Cubans by
opposition leaders and supporters is part of this, though it goes back
further in time than the last two months of aggression.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the violent opposition groups attack and destroy the
symbols of the Bolivarian revolution: community televisions, the
housing mission (yesterday), the environment ministry, ambulances
(today in Merida), public transport, PDVSA trucks (today), blocking
roads from farming areas to urban to prevent goods from being
transported (in Bailadores), burning food trucks, and much more. Their
aim is not just to intimidate, but to stop government institutions and
social organisations on a practical level from getting on with other
things. The violent opposition sectors are not farmers, bus drivers,
teachers, producers of anything, builders, etc, so they can’t strike in
order to bring things to a halt, they can only use violent barricades
to stop others from working. </p>
<p><strong>Interview: Fabricio Martorelli, Tatuy TV collective</strong></p>
<p><strong>VA: What does <em>colectivos </em></strong><strong>actually
mean in Venezuela, and how have collectives evolved over the last
decade?</strong></p>
<p>Martorelli: The word ‘collective’ has different uses, but basically
it’s any gathering of people that wants to resolve certain conditions
that they have in common. There are big and small collectives, there
are left wing ones and right wing ones, they can fight for a single
issue or for a political project, and there are currently many which
aim to challenge the capitalist model. A <em>colectivo</em> is also a
bus- a collective form of public transport.</p>
<p>While collectives have always existed- here, and in other countries
– ever since people started to meet in order to struggle together, they
have often been invisible and their proposals ignored. Over the last
fourteen years in Venezuela social organisations have been recognised,
and their power to solve things in a collective rather than individual
way has taken off.</p>
<p>The historical enemy has realised that beyond the government and the
PSUV and the public institutions, the legacy of Chavez is active
struggle and the logic of popular (people’s) organisation. With Chavez,
social collectives started to have a common identity, to form links
with each other, and their struggles too – the rights of indigenous
peoples, of communities – became more visible. Once they achieved some
demands, they would go on to fight for other aims. They have become
stronger, and that’s why the right wants to criminalise them. The
violent groups have a message of hate, terror, fear, and they are
violent against anyone who threatens their dreams of a comfortable life.</p>
<p><strong>VA: What does your collective do, and what has been the
impact of the current situation on its work and organising?</strong></p>
<p>Martorelli: Tatuy is a community television station in Merida. It is
a collective of <em>compañeros</em> who have chosen the media war as
their area. The private media has made us stupid, dominated us, and we
think that through communication we can educate ourselves and free
ourselves. Tatuy contributes to this together with other collectives,
and we are linked to many of those through ALBA TV, a network of
community and alternative media. We show what the private media won’t,
what CNN doesn’t.</p>
<p>For years our work has been devalued, even by the public or official
media. But in the current situation we have managed to inform the
country, and even the world, about what is happening in Merida. We’ve
received a lot of support, we’ve been called by a radio in Mexico,
movements in Uruguay, and there’s been recognition of our work. But
even if in the future the current situation goes away, we still want
to be taken into account, taken as seriously as we are now.</p>
<p>One <em>compañera </em>of ours can’t get here [to the Tatuy
offices] because of the barricades, still. She’s been threatened and
her violent neighbours know who she is, so she is working at home and
under a lot of tension. Another time, one of our camera people was
attacked by opposition protestors while filming. However, we can’t stop
working, our responsibility to society is to communicate what is
happening.</p>
<p>At the start of this year we thought it would be an important year
because without any upcoming elections, we would be able to have an
internal struggle against the reformist tendencies and to deepen many
of the revolution’s achievements. But the reality has changed, we’ve
united to reject the fascism, and it’s become a year of struggling
against fascism.</p>
<p>If the fascists were in power we wouldn’t be talking about the
dozens of deaths we’ve had so far, we’d be talking thousands. And
that’s not paranoia, that’s a historic reality – we’ve seen examples in
Chile, in Argentina under that dictatorship. The aim then, of this
demonisation is to justify our elimination if these violent groups
came into power.</p>
<p><strong>VA: Nevertheless, some armed groups who claim to support
Chavismo do exist; who are they, what do they do, and how big are they</strong>?</p>
<p>Martorelli: There are a very small number of people organised into
collectives who are trying to confront this situation [of barricades,
violence, destruction etc], sometimes using force. People are tired of
having road blocks. Right here in this building there are primary
school classes because the children can’t get to their school. But the
force used by this small number of people, the actions they take to
remove barricades, could never be compared to the violation of human
rights committed by the violent opposition groups. Those groups have
taken a few photos of this [the force used against the barricades] and
they publish those photos and try to create the impression that all
collectives who support Chavismo are violent. But in reality, our ideas
and our organisation are our weapons.</p>
<p>There’s been an open debate and a historical debate among the left
here, and sometimes there’s been a fetishising of armed struggle. There
have been many experiences, many legitimate struggles against
dictatorships in Latin America, at times when social struggle wasn’t
allowed [making armed struggle necessary]. But there are a few people
here who don’t represent the workers, farmers, more the lumpen sectors,
as Marx would say, who try to take justice into their own hands, on
their own. These people are isolated, and we reject such behaviour, in
our context where the state isn’t repressive. But the media tries to
make out that we are all like them.</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
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415 863.9977
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