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<h1 class="reader-title">Who Are Venezuela’s Colectivos?</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Federico Fuentes - Green
Left Weekly - April 15, 2019<br>
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<p><em>The media calls them armed thugs and US Senator
Marco Rubio wants them put on the terrorist list,
but who are Venezuela’s colectivos (collectives)?
Green Left Weekly’s <strong>Federico Fuentes</strong>
met with some of them to find out.</em></p>
<p>As we walked around the 23 de Enero<em> barrio</em> in
Caracas, an announcement came through Cucaracho’s
walkie talkie: “We are in a war and the main target of
this offensive is the popular movements, the
colectivos. This is no coincidence: they know the
colectivos are their main obstacle and 23 de Enero is
the tip of the iceberg.”</p>
<p>Cucaracho — “that’s what they call me” — is a member
of the Alexis Vive<em> </em>colectivo, which is active
in this historically militant neighbourhood
strategically located close to the presidential
palace.</p>
<p>Its history and location means 23 de Enero is
regularly referred to as one of the main bases for the
colectivos.</p>
<p>Demonised by the international media and targeted by
the opposition, the colectivos have become a symbol of
scorn for President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents.</p>
<p>They are regularly portrayed in the media as armed
gangs and the last bastion of support for Maduro’s
government. But the reality of the colectivos — like
almost everything in Venezuela — is vastly different.</p>
<p>Many of the groups today labelled as colectivos
predate Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez.
Others, like Alexis Vive, emerged during the Chavez
presidency.</p>
<h2>Origins</h2>
<p>Almost all of them are community organisations that
have flourished under Venezuela’s Bolivarian
Revolution.</p>
<p>“They view the colectivos as similar to the insurgent
groups in the Middle East that resisted invasion”
explains Cucaracho. “That is why they demonise us.
They see us as a barrier, as a final line of defence,
but they don't come to see our reality.”</p>
<p>Alexis Vive was instrumental in establishing the
Panal 2021 commune. Promoted by Chavez, communes have
become the main form of democratic community
organising across the country.</p>
<p>The Panal 2021 commune, which incorporated about 3600
families in a sector of 23 de Enero, has its own
self-managed enterprises such as a bakery and
sugar-packaging plant, its own radio and cable TV
station, its own transport and food distribution
centres, and even its own local currency.</p>
<p>Profits from all of the commune’s enterprises are
deposited in the communal bank and redistributed to
projects decided upon by the community.</p>
<p>“The idea of the commune is to disperse power”,
explains Cucaracho, “so that the people are the ones
who make the decisions.</p>
<p>“Our role is to train cadre and teach people about
the strategic vision of the commune.</p>
<p>“But we are just like everyone else in the community:
we join the same queues as everyone else, we help the
elderly, we are part of the community.”</p>
<p>This does not mean that colectivos limit themselves
solely to community work.</p>
<p>In San Fernando, the capital of Apure state, I spoke
to members of the Union of <em>Motorizados</em> —
motorbike couriers who are regularly labelled as
colectivo members.</p>
<p>“The opposition are the violent ones,” one of them
said. “They loot shops, set houses on fire. So what
happens? We, the motorizados, come out and then they
run away, they don’t come back.</p>
<p>“You won’t find us looting shops or creating chaos.
But we are also not going to let others set people's
houses on fire.”</p>
<p>“The last time they protested,” another said,
referring to the wave of violent opposition protests
that rocked the country in 2017, “they burnt down a
nursery. What sort of protest is that? Those kids have
got nothing to do with what is going on, so why are
they being targeted?”</p>
<p>Junior is a member of the Bolivar and Zamora
Revolutionary Current (CRBZ), another group denounced
in the media as a colectivo, but which has its origins
in a group of campaigners for peasant rights formed in
the ‘90s. He was among those present on the
Venezuela-Colombia border on February 23, when the
United States sought to violate Venezuelan sovereignty
under the pretext of bringing in “humanitarian aid”.</p>
<p>Junior explained that the CRBZ decided to send some
members to the border during those days. “It was an
internal decision. Those of us who are the most
politically clear, the most prepared, were the ones
who went.”</p>
<p>“We didn’t go because the government told us to go.
It was our political consciousness that took us
there.”</p>
<p>The build-up to the events on February 23 meant that
the possibility of violence was ever present. Not
knowing what to expect, Junior explained that they
“psychologically prepared for the worst, for anything
that might come.</p>
<p>“You couldn’t go there thinking about your family,
your children. So you had to go there thinking about
your contribution to the revolution, to defending your
country, the fact that you are going there to fight
for your mum’s future, your dad’s future, the future
of my children and the children of my children.</p>
<p>“We went to defend our sovereignty, the sovereignty
of our country, of our nation. If a military
intervention had occurred, we were there, ready, and
they would have had to go through us, because we are a
people willing to defend our sovereignty, willing to
fight back to defend every centimetre of this
territory.”</p>
<p>In the end, the opposition’s mission failed. Even the
media’s lie that the Venezuelan armed forces had burnt
trucks carrying humanitarian aid was revealed to be
false when videos emerged showing opposition
protesters had cause the fire.</p>
<p>According to that same media, colectivos had attacked
protesters on the Venezuelan side of the border. But
Junior recounted a different version of events.</p>
<p>“The border region of Tachira is very complicated,”
he said. “The Venezuelan opposition there works with
Colombian paramilitaries to increase their strength.”</p>
<p>“On February 23, there were some small protests on
this side of the border in disputed areas, areas where
you have Colombian paramilitaries who are struggling
to gain control of the area because it's a strategic
region for them.</p>
<p>“Their presence provides the opposition with
logistics and force.”</p>
<p>Despite the paramilitary presence, the opposition was
unable to generate the kind of violence they hoped
for, though Junior explained that he, along with
others from the CRBZ had to find alternate means to
get home after opposition protesters set some of their
vehicles on fire.</p>
<h2>Media Bias</h2>
<p>“The media generally does not portray the reality of
events. The reality is that the violence
overwhelmingly comes from the opposition”, Junior
said.</p>
<p>“The opposition always tries to provoke violence
because they know the media will simply say the
government is responsible, that the government
represses the people, and use this as an excuse for
intervention.</p>
<p>“The media always take the side of the opposition;
they don't tell the truth.</p>
<p>“They sell a message to the rest of the world that is
false. They are not balanced in regard to their
information and their reporting on what is happening
here.”</p>
<p>Colectivo members I spoke to acknowledged that, in
some cases, state intelligence agents had either
infiltrated certain colectivos or masqueraded as ones
to attack and intimidate opposition protests. But,
although this was more the exception rather than the
rule, it is these groups the media have focussed on.</p>
<p>Rafael Ramos, a postgraduate student at the Institute
for High Studies in Diplomacy Pedro Gual explained
that the media’s portrayal of the colectivos has a
clear intention.</p>
<p>“This editorial line is pushed to make international
public opinion believe that Chavismo has lost all its
support.</p>
<p>“They are introducing the idea that Venezuela is
supposedly a dictatorship, with no freedom of speech,
and that Chavismo is just limited to a few remaining
supporters who potentially have to be exterminated.</p>
<p>“Because they're just a few people, then violence
against Chavistas, the colectivos, is justified. The
media dehumanises them, portrays them as non-human, so
in the end it doesn't matter if they treat them like
animals or kill them.</p>
<p>“The image they are trying to portray internationally
is an attempt to justify violence.”</p>
<p>The colectivo members I spoke understand this.</p>
<p>“We are human beings, like everyone else” said Robert
Longa, whose voice I had heard through Cucaracho’s
walkie talkie. “We live in the community, participate
in the commune, attend assemblies, study and look for
ways to produce food to deal with the crisis.</p>
<p>“But we are conscious that we are in a war.</p>
<p>“Not against the opposition because opposition
doesn't exist, they cannot overthrow Maduro. We are up
against imperialism.”</p>
<p>“They attack the colectivos because we are willing to
defend our model. The colectivos are organised with
the aim of deepening the Bolivarian Revolution through
popular organisation and the creation of the communal
state.</p>
<p>“We are strongly convinced that this is the correct
way forward: a government of the people based on
participatory democracy.”</p>
<p>“We will resolve our problems within the revolution.
We are Chavista and we will not betray Chavez.”</p>
<p>“There are people that claim to be Chavista but that
are killing Chavismo. There are people who have
infiltrated state institutions and who work against
us.</p>
<p>“The people want the revolution to be deepened. They
want the bureaucrats kicked out once and for all; for
the land to be given to the peasants and the factories
to be taken over by the workers.</p>
<p>“We want a radicalisation of the revolution. We want
all power to the people: that is what we seek.</p>
<p>“But for now our problem is with the gringos. Once we
resolve this issue, then we will deal with our own
internal problems.”</p>
<p><em>[Federico Fuentes visited Venezuela in March as
part of a fact-finding visit by solidarity
activists. The visit was made possible in part by
donations from Green Left supporters. Donate <a
href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/donate"
target="_blank">now </a>to help us continue our
coverage of Venezuela.]</em></p>
<p><em>The views expressed in this article are the
author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of
the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.</em></p>
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