March 15: Airport Mob

Here are a couple of pictures from some of the demonstrations that took place today in Venezuela:

Ciudad Ojeda, Zulia:

Valencia, Carabobo:

Porlamar, Margarita:

Today, there was a big rally in Caracas held by the government to honour the Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolviariana – the National Bolivarian Armed Forces. Maduro gave a talk there, and these are some of the things he said:

• “We will give those people in Altamira a few more hours to get out of there. If they don’t, we will go liberate [Altamira] with our public [security] forces!”
• “We go [on that mission] with the constitution in our hearts, defending human rights, and the first we will defend is the freedom of movement.”
• “Like John Lennon said, ‘Give peace a chance!'”

Altamira has become the epicentre of the movement. On a nightly basis, demonstrators clash with National Guard forces there, and it looks like Maduro’s patience is starting to run thin. This website has a lot of really high quality pictures showing the confrontation between the National Guard and demonstrators in Altamira last night.

My cousin’s friend took this video on Friday in Altamira. In the video, my cousin’s friend is counting the number of motorcycles that are driving by with arrested demonstrators. Towards the end of the video, the National Guard approaches her and asks her to get away (he’s saying, “Quitate! Quitate!”, which means, “Move!” or “Get out of here!”). She keeps replying, “Why? Why?”, and then one of the guards tries to grab her or her camera. Warning: The video gets extremely loud towards the end.

And here is a picture of Altamira from this afternoon. The big white sign reads in part, “Democracy [and] liberty… are not negotiable!”:

El Nacional is reporting that eight universities were the sites of confrontations between the National Guard and demonstrators over the last four days. The article says that Anzoategui state police, along with a colectivo armado, attacked the Universidad Santa Maria in Barcelona, which resulted in one professor injured with buckshot, 14 damaged vehicles, property damage, and six robberies. Also, in the Universidad Central de Venezuela, 16 armed men entered the Faculty of Sciences building and “beat up students”, according to the head of the university, Cecilia Garcia Arocha. She also said, “We demand that the government disarm the armed groups, we don’t want more attacks against our university”. The university is currently running on a “flexible” schedule at least until Wednesday. Graduate studies night programs are suspended because the university can’t guarantee the safety of the students.
The article quotes Francisco Virtuoso, the head of the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, as saying that since the students are the spearhead of the protests, they’re being targeted specifically by the government.

Yesterday, Henrique Capriles told Maduro, “Pick a time and a date, in cadena through television and radio” for the two to have a head-to-head debate. One of the criticisms Maduro has levelled against the opposition is that they’re not interested in talking at all, so Capriles has gone ahead and put the ball in Maduro’s court. Capriles also got a little personal and said, “The country is tired of all the stupid things you [Maduro] say.”

Yesterday, Maria Corina Machado (a leading opposition figure) was in Bolivar state to attend some opposition demonstrations there along with two other National Assembly deputies. She went to the airport in Puerto Ordaz to leave, when she was met by a large, hostile crowd of pro-government supporters. The government supporters were blocking her and her party’s entry into the airport. A video of the event just popped up, and I’ve translated it below. Here is the video:

The scene was really chaotic, but I’ve broken it down below – the parts I could make out, anyway. Maria Corina Machado is on the bottom right corner of the screen at the beginning of the video. She is wearing a white shirt. Here is the transcript:

• 0:25: The blue sign in the middle of the screen reads “Maria Corina Machado, Ambassador of Hate and Death”
• 0:30: The crowd chants “Que se vaya! Que se vaya!(“Get out! Get out!”)
• 0:53: A scuffle breaks out
• 1:10: Someone says, “Fuck! Calm down!”
• 1:20: Crowd chants, “Que se vaya!” and “Fuera! Fuera!” (“Get out!” and “Out! Out!”)
• 1:50: A man approaches a National Guard soldier and says, “Are you in charge here? I am [National Assembly] deputy Luis Barragan. How is it possible that this is going on?”
• 2:05: A man (who I think is Maria Corina’s body guard) says, “Can we put her in the car?” Maria Corina responds, “No way! The National Guard have a duty to…”, and then tells the National Guard soldier, “In the flight that is already boarding [and that we should be on], we are two deputies, and the National Guard has a duty to protect us.”
• 2:27: Crowd chants, “Fuera! Fuera!”
• 2:36: Someone yells, “The airport belongs to everyone! We are all Venezuelan!”
• 3:09: Pro-government woman yells, “… guarimbero! Get out of here! We don’t want you! Get out of here!” The crowd joins with, “Fuera! Fuera!”
• 4:26: The National Guard begin to escort Maria Corina and her party into the airport. Chaos ensues as the crowd rushes in behind them.
• 5:15: A man in a red shirt grabs Maria Corina and pulls her away. Scuffles continue, as government supporters fight with National Guard and others escorting Maria Corina through the airport.

The video is six minutes long, but if you don’t have the patience, skip to 4:26 and watch from there.

Maria Corina has called for, and will be present at, a demonstration tomorrow in Caracas starting at 10:00 AM from Plaza el Indio in Chacao.