The marches continued today, including one in remembrance of the people who have died so far during the protests:
And this one in Barquisimeto. Bonus points for the extra effort!
This picture is form a place we haven’t seen before on this blog: Porlamar, in the island of Margarita. The writing on the cars read, “Yes, Peace…”, “There is no carnaval” and “He who tires, loses”, which is the phrase now attached to the protests thanks to Leopoldo Lopez.
And here is a picture of a different kind of protest, also from Margarita. Cyclists got together and staged a bike sit-in:
Tomorrow is March 5, which is the one year anniversary of Chavez’s death. The day is going to be marked by a civil and military parade down Paseo Los Proceres in Caracas at 10:00 AM, and then at 4:25 PM there will be a ceremony at the Cuartel de la Montaña (where Chavez is buried). The day is going to be capped off with a showing of the Oliver Stone documentary “My Friend Hugo” starting at 9:00 PM. The movie – along with the rest of the day’s events, I suspect – will be broadcast through state-owned television.
Here is a flyer for the events tomorrow, sent out by Maduro through Twitter:
And here is another picture Maduro tweeted earlier, with the text “Tomorrow March 5 at 10:00 AM the Civil/Military parade in honour of the Supreme Commander of the Revolution. Be there! [Asiste!]”:
It’s a bit strange to see the cult of personality Chavez developed in his lifetime carried on beyond his death. While he was alive, Chavez was… well, he was Chavez. He had his mannerisms, his fiery way of speaking, and he was the guy in charge.
I hadn’t really thought about him at all since his death one year ago. Now that I’m seeing these images, I realize that his cult of personality is alive and well. Except that he’s not in control of it anymore, because he’s dead. While alive, Chavez could shape his own cult image. Now that he’s dead, he has absolutely no control over that. Other people are deciding what to do with his image and his memory. And this is a dangerous thing.
Chavez’s death was a traumatic event for many. His name still holds power. His image still holds power. This is the kind of power that moves the hearts of men and women to action, because it plays on their most primal emotions. Filial piety, the eagerness to please the father figure at all costs – even beyond their death – and the drive to see a cause “greater than myself” through to the end are human desires that have made and destroyed nations. In other words, those who control Chavez’s image can control these emotions. It’s possible that Chavez himself might have approved of his successors manipulating his images in this way, but we’ll never be sure of that.
Tomorrow is looking like it will be a tense day. The opposition is unlikely to take the day off. If anything, given the increased presence of security forces and media spotlight in Caracas, the protests might intensify there. The opposition might decide to take advantage of the importance of the day to make as much noise as possible. On the other hand, the government is going to go to all lengths to keep portraying the image of “normality”, that the protests aren’t wide spread, and that the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans aren’t in on them.
These are contradictory goals, which means that one side is going to come out the loser tomorrow.
In Venezuela 