More of the same today. Protests, demonstrations, tear gas, and barricades.
Here’s a shot from a demonstration in Valencia. Their route was blocked by a National Guard detachment:
And here’s one from Chacao, from just about two hours ago:
The burning “box” in the background appears to be a ticket booth belonging to Metro Caracas.
And finally, a picture from Merida, which I’ve included because of how eerie it is:
While going through some pictures of the the protests today in Caracas (titled “Apoyo a Los Ruice” [Support Los Ruices]), I noticed something in the two pictures below:
Both pictures (taken in roughly the same location of the same demonstration) show a billboard with “Los Ojos de Chavez” (The Eyes of Chavez) on the left side of the pictures. Since I haven’t been in Venezuela in years, I’d never seen this image before.
The first time I saw it was during the ceremony commemorating Chavez’s death on Wednesday, when the image was superimposed during some sections of the military parade. Apparently, the image is fairly prevalent throughout Venezuela. Here is a BBC gallery showing the image in different locations in Venezuela. Apparently, the image was created as part of Chavez’s last presidential campaign. A year after his death, the image appears to enjoy continued popularity with supporters of Chavez.
The Orwellian overtones here are too obvious to ignore. Elia Uzcategui, a Chavez supporter, was present at the military parade commemorating the one year anniversary of Chave’s death this past Wednesday. Of the image, she commented, “With that stare, Chavez is observing his sons… the stare is that of a guardian [watching] his legacy in Venezuela and Latin America”. What’s he looking at? Why is Chavez looking on, even after his death? What’s there for him to see? Why are Venezuelans submitted to his gaze even after his passing? The image accomplishes two important goals simultaneously: it immediately reminds the viewer of the Supreme and Eternal Commander of the Revolution, and it invites self-regulation of thought and action by playing on the emotions of Chavez supporters to please their beloved friend and leader.
El Nacional has an article today titled “Colectivos frenan las protestas en sectors populares” (Colectivos hallt protests in popular zones [barrios]). It’s a long article and I don’t know how much justice Google Translate will do to it, but here are the first two paragraphs:
“If you protest, we will kill you’. That was the warning given by the colectivos of the Simon Rodriguez neighbourhood to a resident, after he an a group [of residents] mounted a protest between blocks 9 and 10 of the known popular zone of the El Recreo parish (Libertador municipality).They made [that threat] shortly after February 12, when protests began in Caracas, during which 22 people have died, 1,200 have been arrested and more than 30 allegations of torture have been made.
‘We do it at 8:00 PM, after the colectivos start to get ready to leave. We put up a guarimba (barricade) and then we hide on the ground floor of a building. Two [of us] go out two every corner to keep watch. If the motorizados [colectivos] come by and remove the barricade, we wait for them to leave and we go out with flash lights and then we signal one another to go out again and out up the barricades again’, says Wendy Liendo, one of the promoters of the idea.”
This is interesting because it seems to corroborate the words of Yeiker Guerra, the young man from Petare (a barrio in Caracas) who two weeks ago said this:
“Why don’t you see marches in Petare? Catia?… Simply because that’s where the colectivos are present the most. We feel safer going to marches where there are more people, because we think there’ll be less chance of us being attacked.”
Tomorrow is “Dia Del Medico” (Doctor’s Day) in Venezuela, and the opposition has called on that to be the focus of the day’s demonstrations. The government appears to be trying to nip this in the bud, however, since the Ministry of Health has ordered doctors on state payrolls to stay away from the protests. The order comes in the form of a document from Oscar Jesus Feo Isturiz, national coordinator of “Integral Medicine”:
“In the face of calls from right-wing doctors to mobilize [tomorrow] to take advantage of Doctor’s Day, this ministry instructs and informs all integral community doctors from the different hospital centres, who are currently [working?], undertaking post-graduate studies or residence, that March 10 2014, by order of the Minister of Popular Power for Health [The Minister of Health], no doctor [working directly for the ministry] should participate in march or protest activities. Everyone should remain at work in whichever hospital you work at, since our work is to guarantee the operation of health centres.”
In Venezuela 