At an event in Ottawa tonight, Maria Corina made several important points which I have paraphrased below:
- The common goal of all Venezuelans, regardless of political affiliation, must be to defend democracy.
- When a regime acts in the way in which this one has acted, it means two things: that it is afraid, and that its days are numbered.
- We must overcome the divisiveness which has torn us apart. We must appeal to our common values and principles. We must appeal to the dignity we all share.
- A government may come to power transparently and democratically. That alone does not make it a democratic government. The moment a democratically elected government acts in ways that undermine democracy – by suppressing peaceful protests, torturing dissenters, and arbitrarily arresting people – that government ceases to be a democratic one.
- The protests must continue, and they must be “civil and peaceful”.
A particularly tender moment came in the form of a statement by Sebastian Chavez, a 14 year old boy who jokingly clarified that he was not a relation of Hugo Chavez. Sebastian explained that he moved to Canada with his family at the age of 10, and – choking back tears – continued:
“I want to go back to my country one day and read in a history book that Venezuela gained its independence not once, but twice.“
Maria Corina took approximately 21 questions from the crowd. Out of the 21, approximately four of the questions came from people who were critical of Maria Corina and the opposition project in Venezuela. One woman in particular drew the ire of the crowd, who needed a minute to be reminded that the right to free speech is fundamental. All those who explicitly expressed their opposition to the view points voiced by Maria Corina were allowed to speak without incident.
Maria Corina met with several members of the Canadian government, including Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. She is expected to speak at the University of Toronto tomorrow night. I plan to attend the event, and will have a summary of it in the coming days.
In Other News
An alleged leader of the group that burned a building at the Universidad Fermin Toro in Barquisimeto was arrested yesterday afternoon. According to Lara state police, 25 year old Cristian Rafael Sanchez Padilla was identified using photographic and video evidence as “one of the leaders of the armed group and motorcyclists who acted against students and installations of the Universidad Fermin Toro this Monday”. At the time of his arrest, Padilla was allegedly found in possession of molotov cocktails. The governor of Lara, Henri Falcon, classified Padilla and his cohorts as “terrorists”.
It was revealed today that Diosdado Cabello’s United States visa was suspended. Diosdado explained that “a man who deserted here from Venezuela, from the Air Force, told the U.S. government about an alleged money transfer in India to Osama bin Laden”, which apparently resulted in the decision of the U.S. government regarding Diosdado’s visa.
A couple of videos from around Venezuela from the last few days:
A confrontation between demonstrators and security forces somewhere in Tachira:
From the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, Guayana campus. The video shows a security guard injured during the demonstrations receiving care:
This one shows SEBIN agents raiding a building in Altamira. At the beginning, the crowd is yelling, “Fuera! Fuera!”, which means, “Leave!” and “Pa’ los barrios!” which means, roughly, “Go to the barrios [to fight crime, instead of raiding this apartment building]”:
In Venezuela 