Opinion: The Violent Elephant in the Room

Ever since Hugo Chavez came to power and transformed Venezuelan politics forever in 1997, views on the country have been polarized. Both in and outside the country, there are essentially two camps:

1) Camp #1: Pro-government/Chavez/Maduro/PSUV. This camp is generally made up of left-leaning individuals – both from within Venezuela and abroad – and sympathizers from other socio-economic levels. Inside the country, they’re the core of the PSUV. They’re the urban and rural poor. Outside of the country, they are people who identify as leftists within the political landscape of their own country, who then express solidarity with a fellow leftist government.

2) Camp #2: Anti-Chavez/PSUV. This camp is made up of “everyone who does not support the PSUV.” This means that this side of the fence is made up of centrists, folks slightly-less leftist than the PSUV, and anyone who just plain does not like the PSUV. This is partially the reason why the opposition has historically had a difficult time creating unity amongst its ranks. If you don’t like the PSUV, regardless of what your actual political/philosophical stance is, you’re in this camp.

When this latest round of protests started about a month ago, the pro-government camp started to blame the usual suspects for the unrest: The United States, Colombia, fascists at home and abroad,  and a coalition of anti-Venezuelan governments in Latin America. For the most part, this is the story the pro-government side believes. The protests are organized (either directly or with the consent of) the United States, whom we know has a history of getting involved in the affairs of other countries, specially in Latin America.

The opposition, on the other hand, has been arguing that the protests were a spontaneous, mass demonstration against the problems of insecurity, inflation and scarcity. The opposition denies that it is being funded/operated by external entities, and it insists that the protests are being undertaken by members from all social strata – rich and poor alike.

My point so far is this: What you believe the cause of the protests is depends largely on whether you belong to Camp #1 or Camp #2. Chances are you’ve already made up your mind. You either support the protesters, or you don’t.

What I’m suggesting to you now is that a huge, violent elephant has been in the room for a while now, and he’s here to complicated things. That elephant is called “Human Rights Abuses“, and if you belong to Camp #1, he’s here to make you second guess your stance on the protests.

Since the protests started, there have been a number of well-documented human rights abuses, including the two below:

Marvinia Jimenez being brutalized by security forces in La Isabelica, Valencia, on February 24:

A man being pistol whipped and beaten with batons and a baseball bat in Los Ruices, Caracas, on March 6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lAxWUFU6-0

Yesterday, the Defensora del Pueblo (The People’s Defender, the person to whom you take your complaints that your rights have been abused) said that so far, her office has received 44 human rights abuse complaints from protesters.

But she also said this:

Look, torture has one meaning. That’s why we have to be really careful with the use of terms. Torture is used to obtain, a person is made to suffer physically to obtain a confession. And, we have to differentiate that from excessive treatment or a disproportionate use of force.

Now, Venezuelan law is quite clear that this is not true. According to Venezuelan law, torture is defined as:

“Torture: acts which intentionally inflict pain or suffering upon a person, whether they be physical or mental, with the aim of obtaining from them or someone connected to them a confession, to punish them for an act they have committed, or to intimidate or coerce that person or others, or for any reason based on discrimination, when said suffering is inflicted by a public official or a person in the exercise of public duties, by their order or with their consent.“

That leaves us in a Venezuela where National Guard and other security forces have been documented committing human rights abuses (including beating protesters), and the person in charge of overseeing those complaints is objectively wrong on whether or not those acts constitute torture.

And that’s just on the issue of torture, because Venezuelans – as do all humans – have a right to peaceful protest, a right the Venezuelan government has been trying to suppress through violence.

You might disagree on how the protests started, or who is behind them and for what purpose. But it is becoming increasingly evident that a fourth reason why people have been taking to the streets is to protest against the human rights violations security forces have committed in the course of violently repressing the demonstrations.

If you were originally against the protests, the violent elephant in the room would like to have a word with you.