Merida, 17th March 2014 – On the
weekend civilians marched with National Bolivarian Guard (GNB) soldiers,
and today the government declared part of Caracas “free” from violent
protests. The march came as private media heightened its false
statements about GNB actions.
GNB march
On Saturday in Caracas there was a large civic-military march in support of “peace and life” and the GNB soldiers.
In his speech to those present President Nicolas Maduro accused the
“government of the United States” of trying to “implement a plan to
assassinate [him]”. He said in such a case, “the people should stay in
the streets, making the revolution, united with the armed forces”.
Since 12 February, he said, over 20,000 GNB soldiers have been in the
street, carrying out “some 16,000 operations to re-establish order and
avoid confrontations, on average almost 500 operations per day. However,
of the 29 deaths [since 12 February], there is only one under
investigation attributed to a GNB soldier, [but] the opposition has
carried out a campaign...writing them [the GNB] off as killers”.
The majority of deaths have been caused by violent barricades, two of
them were allegedly caused by SEBIN (the national intelligence service)
agents, and one by the Chacao police. Chacao police take orders from
the opposition Chacao mayor.
Maduro himself is Commander in Chief of the National Bolivarian Armed
Forces. He stressed that there had never been any orders to repress.
“If the national guard or the national police had gone out in a
repressive blind rage or with a an order to repress, in the face of
[almost 500] violent actions per day [by the opposition], the death
statistics would be different,” he said.
According to a recent survey
by private firm, Hinterlaces, of 1200 Venezuelans, 87% reject the
violent barricades “as an instrument of protest”, and 11% support their
continuation. 79% express “doubt” that the violence could improve the
situation in the country.
GNB death, Chacao operation
Sunday night, Aragua governor Tareck El Aissami reported that a GNB
captain was injured in Maracay by “criminal groups”. El Aissami said the
captain was shot in the head. He explained that when a “violent group”
tried to close Avenue Jose Casanova Godoy and the GNB arrived, the GNB
were shot at.
Yesterday Maracay also held a Peace Conference, as part of a national
government initiative being held in various states around the country.
This morning El Aissami reported that Captain Jose Guillen Araque had
died from the injury. This is the second GNB captain killed in less
than a week. Captain Ramzor Bracho, was killed last Wednesday in
Valencia, allegedly by opposition groups.
Meanwhile, the government announced today that the upper class area
of Chacao had been made a “peace zone”. Over the last five weeks the
area has been one of many zones around the country subject to constant
road blockades, rubbish burning, destruction of public property,
harassment, aggression, and vandalism, by violent groups calling for
Maduro’s resignation.
Last Monday GNB soldiers dismantled a clandestine storage area in
Chacao used by the violent groups. They confiscated guns, knives, C4
explosives, drugs, and fuel.
In his speech on Saturday, Maduro said the government was willing to
use “force” to “restore peace” to Chacao. “We’ll capture all the violent
people, the terrorists, the murderers, we’ll do it...respecting all
human rights. The first human right we’ll respect is the right to free
transit, the right of the children to go to school,” he said.
That night, VTV reported that the violent groups “voluntarily withdrew” from Altamira plaza in Chacao.
Early this morning the minister for internal affairs, Miguel
Rodriguez Torres announced the “liberation and pacifying” of the area, a
few hours after 661 GNB soldiers were deployed there. He said the
guards will patrol 24 hours a day “in order to guarantee citizen
safety”.
Rodriguez Torres said that authorities were waiting on the mayor of
the area, Ramon Muchacho, in order to “hand over control and that he
take charge of maintaining the area”.
Resident of Chacao, Susana Saavedra told Correo del Orinoco that she
congratulated the GNB, “for taking this initiative, because it was
lawless here”. She accused local opposition authorities of
“collaborating with the barricaders... we couldn’t leave our houses or
send our children to school”.
While the number of violent barricades around the country has been
reduced, both voluntarily and because of the GNB, in Merida this morning
the science museum was attacked for a second time, high school Fray
Juan Ramos de Lora was attacked, and a main city intersection was
blocked by a burning truck.
Manipulation by Venezuelan private media
Venezuelan private media however, have blamed much of the violence on the GNB. El Nacional headlined on 15 March, “GNB and collectives attack universities around the country”. Though colectivos
is a term used in Venezuela for a range of social and productive
organisations, the private media in February began using it to denote
supposedly armed, pro-government groups. The El Nacional article accused
the GNB and “collectives” of “repressing student protests”.
In Carora, Lara state on Friday, the media reported
“repression by GNB and collectives”. Opposition state governor, Henri
Falcon said “anarchic groups supported by the GNB caused damage, panic,
and commotion” in the National Poli-technical Experimental University
(Unexpo).
Video footage
of the event however shows the violence by the opposition groups, the
GNB cleaning up the area, verbal abuse by groups towards the GNB, and
the GNB responding politely. The GNB then sat the groups down and gave
them a workshop on human rights, then let them all go, the footage
shows.
Further, today El Nacional quoted opposition leader Maria Corina Machado accusing the GNB of “creating the chaos in Altamira to justify militarisation”.
Machado also called for a march against so called “Cuban interference” on Sunday. According to AFP,
only “hundreds” turned up to the march. The AFP article stated that
“protests...against the government of Nicolas Maduro... have seen a
total of 28 deaths”, implying that the deaths were all opposition
“protestors”.
La Patilla and social networks have also circulated a photo,
which they claim was GNB soldiers “repressing, beating, and arresting a
special youth”. However, on Saturday, Alejandro Cegarra, an AP
photographer who has been critical of the government claimed
to have taken the photo and stated the “GN official was helping the
protestor to breathe...the guy started to faint and was choking”.
Further, the AP caption
for the photo described the National Guard helping the man to breathe,
but according to Cegarra, those who reposted the photo “decided to
ignore the caption”. A video
by photographer, Cristian Dubo also makes it clear the GNB were trying
to help the man. While he was not beaten, it does appear he was taken to
hospital, and also detained and is awaiting trial, after being involved
in confrontations in Altamira.
Other press
went further, using a different photo to claim the man had Down
syndrome, and he was “brutally beaten by the GNB”. However the man in
this second photo, according to RT, was beaten by Miami police last year. The man photographed by Dubo did not have Down syndrome.
The GNB forms part of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces. It is
responsible for public order. President Hugo Chavez, over his three
terms, aimed to transform the GNB from what was previously a repressive
institution into one geared towards promoting development. He increased
the role of the GNB in civil affairs, including involving soldiers in
implementing social programs such as the Mercal food program. The
majority of GNB soldiers come from the poorer sectors of Venezuela, and
Chavez often referred to the Armed Forces as “the people in arms”.
Source: Venezuela Analysis
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