I stumbled upon a couple of interesting videos on YouTube today. They show a demonstration that took place in the barrio Las Minitas in the Baruta municipality of Caracas.
One of the questions looming over these protests is, “Why aren’t the poor protesting?” I’ve argued before that the poor are protesting, though perhaps not in the way we might expect. The protest in Las Minitas yesterday, however, is a raw example of the poorest of the poor taking to the streets against the Maduro government.
I generally do not like these kinds of stylized videos that make heavy use of dramatic music and lots of slowed-down footage, partially because I think it really editorializes the video and because raw images and sounds are often much more powerful on their own. In any case, what is said in both videos is important and interesting, so I have included them both below.
The first video, seen below, begins with a woman describing why her neighbourhood is protesting:
The woman says:
… they came and did a Plan de Vivienda [affordable housing] project here in Las Minitas, and then they took the land and sold it to some Russians, and now they want to evict, just like that, the barrio Las Minitas. That’s the protest we have against the government.
And here is the second video:
At the begining of this second video, we hear testimony from what appears to be a different woman, and shows some new footage of the event. At the beginning of the video, the woman speaking says:
Do you want to know why we’re protesting? Because the land was supposed to be used for houses and now it’s being sold to the Russians. That’s what motivates us to protest, because they lied to us in December about that land.
[Man in the crowd yells, “And because of insecurity too!“]
That’s why, and because of the land. We’re people from the barrio and they lied to us in December with these houses. They promised us homes and now they sold the land to some Russians.
In Other News
Today, the Defensora del Pueblo, Gabriela Ramirez, spoke on the issue of the number of arrests that have been made since the protests began. Ramirez said that no one has been arrested during peaceful protests. It is likely that Ramirez was deliberately trying to choose her words carefully, since saying that no one has been arrested during peaceful protests is not the same as saying that “no one arrested peacefully has been arrested”.
Ramirez also spoke on the colectivos armados, which Venezuelan NGOs and observers, along with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have identified as sources of violence:
Here, no one can organize themselves to carry out violence. In the case of the colectivos, we’ve actually received complaints about a campaign of discrimination that seriously limits their social and cultural organization, as well as the works that they do.
Finally, a picture of a neighbours from the La Ruesga neighbourhood in Barquisimeto drawing water from what appears to be some kind of creek, due to water shortages in the city:
Commentary
On the issue of the colectivos, while Ramirez was talking apples, the interviewer was talking oranges. The PSUV maintains that the colectivos are grass-roots organizations aimed at helping citizens improve their communities, which is a fine project to undertake. However, when the opposition talks about colectivos armados, they mean the pro-government armed groups on motorcycles that have been documented carrying out acts of violence against protesters and bystanders alike.
Here are members of a colectivo armado throwing molotov cocktails into a residential area in Caracas:
Members of a colectivo armado breaking through a gate, also in Caracas:
Members of a colectivo armado breaking in to cars in a residential area in Merida:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzBlPlbheck
And finally, members of a colectivo armado breaking in to a residential building in Caracas:
While Ramirez might be right in saying that some colectivos are being discriminated against, she was successful in avoiding the real issue: the colectivos armados.
In Venezuela 