Gaby Arellano, an opposition student leader, won a hotly contested election today for the leadership of the Federacion de Centros Universitarios – Universidad de Los Andes (FCU-ULA). Below, a picture of Gaby voting today:
According to Freddy Guevara, the national coordinator of the Voluntad Popular party, Gaby won with 609 votes, while the PSUV candidate, Inder Romero, managed 348 votes.
Earlier in the day, Gaby dedicated the electoral process to those arrested throughout the year for protesting:
This vote today, this process, this happiness we can all breathe in our university, is in honour of those who are unjustly imprisoned. My fellow students imprisoned in the SEBIN dungeons, to those who were forced underground like my brother Villca Fernandez, and Jose Aguilar, who cannot be with us because the regime of Nicolas Maduro does not allow it.
The victory appears to have taken the university by surprise. Almost immediately after the results were announced, reports started to appear on Twitter claiming that PSUV supporters – upset by the defeat – were burning ballot boxes and discharging weapons into the air.
At least one picture, reportedly from the ULA campus, appears to show a fire:
Gaby also tweeted the following approximately 20 minutes ago:
I denounce that at this time in the #ULA Trujillo the PSUV is burning the votes [proving] the historic victory of resistance and student dignity…
In March of this year, Gaby’s apartment was raided by SEBIN officers, presumably due to her role as a prominent opposition student leader. In June, Gaby was detained briefly and interrogated by the same agency.
Barbies Fly Off Shelves
Following last week’s government-mandated decrease in the price of Barbie dolls, toy stores around Caracas are finding it difficult to maintain their shelves stocked. The dolls, which are now selling for as low as Bs. 250 (or $2.50 at the black market rate), are flying off the shelves.
The Venezuelan government exercises strict control over the price of goods through the Ley Organica de Precios Justos [Fair Prices Law], which says that no one may earn a profit of more than 30% by selling goods. Organizations representing several industries have long blamed these price controls for deterring businesses from importing goods, and that this in turns fuels the current scarcity crisis.
While Chavez himself once decried Barbie dolls as “stupid”, Maduro’s government appears to have no problem mandating price reductions to help Venezuelans buy as many of the dolls as they can.
Andrea Alberto, a lucky shopper, managed to pick up a few of the dolls from a store in Caracas. He expressed mixed feelings about the situation, saying:
It’s his fault [Chavez’s] that we’re in this mess. But I suppose that, this time, I have to accept that I’m benefiting from chavismo.
In Venezuela 