March 20: Downward Spiral

To recap: The mayors of San Cristobal, Tachira and San Diego, Carabobo (Daniel Ceballos and Enzo Scarano, respectively) are currently imprisoned at the Ramo Verde military facility alongside Leopoldo Lopez. Scarano was handed a 10 month and 15 day prison sentence by the Supreme Court last night, and Ceballos was arrested by SEBIN agents yesterday afternoon. The official charges, broadly speaking, are “failing to do something about the protests”.

Earlier today, the municipal council of San Diego refused to name an interim mayor. The municipal council’s argument was this: “Scarano’s arrest is not grounded in law. We refuse to accept his forced removal from office through incarceration. As far as we are concerned, Scarano is still the mayor of San Diego.” However, just before noon today, the situation became apparent to the council and they ended up naming Pablo Antonio Dominguez as mayor of the city. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court said that they were working on a schedule for mayoral elections in San Diego for sometime later this year.

On the arrests of Ceballos and Scarano, Maduro said:

[Scarano] cried all the way [to jail] on the Panamericana [the name of a highway to Ramo Verde]. [At the same time], he cursed in Italian at Leopoldo Lopez for having gotten him into this mess.
(…)
[Scarano and Ceballos] thought they were untouchable. There they are, the untouchables, then.
(…)
Standing behind this murderer [Daniel Ceballos] who we’ve put in jail today is Alvaro Uribe [and his paramilitary]. We could underestimate him because he is insane. In San Cristobal, no one liked him. This personajillo [pejorative term roughly meaning “little fish”] now passes into the garbage can of history.

On “No one in San Cristobal” liking Daniel Ceballos: Correcting my previous claim that he won with 82.794% of the vote, that is actually the total number of votes he received. Ceballos won the mayoralty race with 67.67% of the vote, which totalled 82,794 votes. During that election, the PSUV candidate – Jose Zambrano – received 29.42% of the vote.

There are indications that these kinds of political arrests/attacks on opposition elected officials will continue. Earlier today, Maduro threatened Ramon Muchaho, the mayor of the Chacao municipality in Caracas (in which Altamira is located) with these words:

Pongase las pilas [roughly, “smarten up” or “stay on your feet”], because if the Supreme Court takes action on this evidence, you will leave that municipality, do you hear me? We would launch an election, so that the people of Chacao can have a mayor… that truly represents them.
(…)
I imagine that he has narcissistic ambitions to end up in Miraflores [the President’s office]. But be careful, [or] he’ll up a little bit further up the road, in Ramo Verde [military prison].

Maduro also ordered the Ministry of the Interior and Justice to take control of the San Diego police department to deal with the unrest there. Maduro also said:

A mayor that makes a mistake, well, there’s the law. Wherever the Supreme Court finds contempt [of law] and imprisons a mayor, a mayor of the fascist right, then there will be elections [in those municipalities]. Didn’t you want elections? Well, there you have them.

Maria Corina Machado said today that “We need to talk about important reforms in a peaceful manner”. She’s in Washington, D.C. for a meeting of the Organization of American States, where she is expected to speak tomorrow on the situation in Venezuela.

The Fiscal General [Attorney General], Luisa Ortega Diaz, said today that the freedom of speech “has to have a limit, like all other rights”. Apparently referencing a past event where something was reported on T.V. that turned out to be false, she said:

It turns out it wasn’t the truth, but [“ya dejo en el aire“. I think she means, “it wasn’t true, but it still went on air on T.V.”]… the state has to regulate the situation [regarding] information that contains little truth. The Constitution says that there is freedom of expression, but that has a limit like all other rights. Information has to contain truth, it has to be accurate. All of the Constitution has to be developed through law, and there must be a law the address that article [on freedom of speech], to regulate information [coming from] mass media, and for it to be impartial, objective. [So that] everyone can draw their own conclusion

This discussion on whether or not the state has the responsibility to regulate the “truth and accuracy” made over mass media is timely, because I just stumbled upon this video this morning.

The video is a propaganda piece that aired on VTV (Venezolana de Television, a state-owned channel) yesterday. The video claims that the hashtag of the protest movement, “SOS” (as in the international Morse code distress signal meaning “help!”] is actually is Neo-Nazi rune used by the people organizing the protests – Nazis! – to manipulate an unknowing populace. I desperately wish I was lying and a part of me died while writing that last sentence

The piece is short, and I implore all of you to watch it. My translation is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzO9Z_g28Zc

My translation:

The symbols used by certain movements allows them to promote their ideology and to generate filial sentiments amongst their followers.
In Germany, in 1925, a group called the S.S. was created. Initially, they operated as Hitler’s personal guard, and would later become a paramilitary army under orders from the Fuhrer, and is remembered as one of the cruelest, most murderous forces in history.
In the beginning, they used two S-shaped lighting bolts to identify [the group]. But in order to identify more closely with the people, they adopted a symbol that had appeared many times before in history. [It comes from] India, where it is beautifully located in its mythology and religion: the swastika, or “Sun Cross”. It appears as a tattoo on Vishnu, god of goodness, energy, and replenishment. Unfortunately, for Western Culture, this symbol only brings the worst memories of the Holocaust, when millions of Jews lost their lives.
Once the ridiculous pretensions of Hitler were defeated, years later, Neo-Nazi groups came about, [who] took up the monster’s ideas, like the ethnic superiority of the white race and the contempt for religion, life, women, the disabled, the poor – pretending to be superior.
These Neo-Nazis did the same thing. They took, amongst others, this religious symbol, the Celtic Cross, to identify themselves. There are various cells of [the Neo-Nazi movement] in Venezuela. [They’re present in] the political sphere.

 
[At 1:55, a graphic is shown. It shows a Swastika merging with a Celtic Cross. With some creative imaging, the symbols merge to spell “S O S”. Pictures are shown of “SOS Venezuela” posters]

 
As in the paramilitary sphere, they camouflage themselves and mix in with other groups that do not know their true intentions. Even then, they use their symbols. People in the opposition think that they are making legitimate claims, and show the sign “S.O.S.”, thinking that they are asking for help, when in reality what they are doing is promoting dark intentions and the [supporting] the energy of these terror groups. Black flags, and even worse, the [damaged] Venezuelan flag.
Don’t [join the protests]. Venezuela is a country free or racism, [I can’t understand this word], and autonomous from any foreign influence. Any differences between us can be fixed between Venezuelans through dialogue. Viva Venezuela!

 
[The closing graphic reads “Don’t let yourself be fooled”]

The piece is almost unremarkable, if only because we’ve seen things like this before. A claim so absurd, so wilfully and blissfully disconnected from reality, that it is hard to imagine anyone falling for it. The ominous music; the juxtaposition of images of humanity’s most brutal crime and its perpetrators with those of Venezuelan demonstrators. None of this is new. This is exactly what propaganda is. It is an attempt by power – usually, state power – to shackle the mind of the audience. Propaganda feeds on ignorance and gullibility. It cannot live without them. It exploits the loyalties of followers and their weaknesses to, in essence, rob them of their connection to reality.

I wonder, having heard the statements made by Luisa Ortega Diaz, if this piece would fall under the category of “information that is truthful and accurate”.

And finally, some pictures from the unrest today:

A National Guard barricade in Los Chaguaramos, Caracas:

Student demonstrators in Caracas:

More students. These one are on their way to join the ones in the demonstration above:

A line of National Guard troops in Altamira. Taken at 7:40 PM local time:

Another view of the National Guard in Altamira. Note the Neo-Nazi runes on the wall in the right corner of the picture, preceded by the message “I want for my mom to be able to sleep”:

A meeting of a student assembly in Barquisimeto:

An assembly of neighbours of San Jacinto, in Maracay, from 8:16 PM local time:

An interesting piece of political graffiti. It reads, “There is no milk. There are bullets”:

An a poster put out by the Voluntad Popular party for this Saturday’s marches. The poster reads: “The people are nearing victory! National Concentration Against Dictatorship and for Freedom. Saturday, March 22, 10:00 AM. Teofilo Dominguez Plaza. We demand respect for popular sovereignty”:

Having paid very close attention to the events in Venezuela over the past several weeks, I feel like today was somehow different from any other day, as if we’re entering a new face of the protests. Maduro’s tone today was much more vicious and threatening than normal. I think that the government is making an incredibly costly mistake by thinking that by arresting opposition political figures the protests will somehow be controlled. The root causes of the demonstrations – scarcity, insecurity, inflation and now blatant attacks on Venezuelan democracy – are still present. The demonstrators claim that as long as that is the case, they, too, will be present on the street.

The only thing the government accomplishes by arresting opposition political figures is confirming the worst fears of the demonstrators: that what’s at stake here is nothing less than the future of democracy in Venezuela.