Ali Rodriguez Araque, the Secretary General of UNASUR, made some comments today regarding the state the country finds itself in, saying:
We must define what the role of the state is, and what the role of private industry is, because there is no doubt that for a long time, it will have an important role.
Araque is Venezuelan, and held a number of government posts during the Chavez years. He also echoed the PSUV line that the opposition movement is fundamentally flawed, saying:
They [the opposition] do not have policies around which they can unite. That’s not good for democracy.
Students Recount Prison Experiences
Since February 4 of this year, 3238 people have been arrested for protesting against the Maduro government. Jennifer Jamarillo, Robert Pumar and Félix Ortuño were all arrested, sent to prison, and subsequently released for their alleged involvement in the protests.
Today, El Nacional printed their accounts of their experiences in prison. Below are excerpts from their testimony.
Félix Ortuño
Félix is 36 years old. He has a degree in administration. He was arrested by the National Bolivarian police on June 3 in Plaza Altamira, Caracas. He spent 54 days in a cell measuring 3 x 2 meters alongside other prisoners. A plastic bag served as their common toilet.
Upon arrival [at the detention centre], every prisoner suffers through a beating session.
(…)
The prisoners punished each other with stabbings. They have shivs they’ve made from bones, spoons and scissors. We once saw two people get stabbed, and everyone had to participate. We refused because we were not criminals.
Félix said that guarimberos [people who set up barricades in protest] were punished another way: they were tied and gagged, while the prison guards did nothing.
Robert Pumar
Robert is 21 years old and studies social communication. He cannot recall when he was arrested, but he spent seven days in the notorious Rodeo II prison. He was arrested around May 26 when he and a group of protesters attempted to barricade a highway near the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas.
They [the guards] told me that I had a meeting with “human rights”. They put me in a room and when I went in, [I saw that] “human rights” was a 2 metre long wooden plank.
Robert says that while in Rodeo II, he received support from some of the other inmates:
They told us that if they students could not count on the barrios, nothing could happen.
Jennifer Jamarillo
Jennifer, a 21 year old administration student, was arrested on April 25 while she was taking a taxi to meet up some friends at a protest camp in Caracas. She was taken to the Instituto Nacional de Orientacion Femenina, a woman’s prison, and lived through a riot that shook the prison on May 14.
Jennifer spent most of her time in a special area of the jail along with 51 other women. She says that once the riot was quelled, the reprisal from the government was severe:
The regime of the new warden was very strong. We could hear how the women [prisoners] were beaten.
She also talks about of the psychological and sexual humiliation her and the other prisoners had to endure:
They forced us to kneel and they looked at our vaginas with flashlights. They made us open [our vaginas] to see if we had hidden drugs or cellphones.
(…)
They made some people sing ‘Patria Querida‘ [a song popularized by Chavez] but I refused. I was there because I was protesting against the government.
Finally, a picture of a student being detained in Maturin, Monagas state:
In Venezuela 