I was asked to be the speaker at the #SOSVenezuela rally in support of Venezuelan students. Below, what I said:
Good
afternoon,
Thanks to the
student organizations and to all the students who organized this event.
Special
thanks to all of you for being here.
We’ve seen
the pictures of the repression in the streets of Venezuela, we’ve watched the
videos. We’re here because we’re troubled by so much violence. And Venezuela’s
everyday life is now marked by that terrible word: violence.
It is
important, however, to remember other aspects that have been manifest in
Venezuela’s everyday life for a while now and that are at the root of the current
protests:
1. The state of the economy.
a. In the year 2013, Venezuela’s
international reserves dropped 25%.
b. The country’s annualized inflation rate
was 56%, one of the highest in the world.
c. Food inflation was 74%
d. Health care inflation was also 74%
e. The Scarcity index is now 28%
f. Economic policies and the foreign
exchange system have curtailed or, literally, stopped several industries. One
example: the automotive industry, which used to employ 80,000 Venezuelans. It
must be pointed out that there are also shortages of spare parts.
g. The government owes international
airlines 3 billion dollars; hence, some airlines have stopped flying to
Venezuela, others have suspended ticket sales in the country.
h. There are also shortages of medicines,
particularly those necessary for cancer treatment.
i. The government is trapped in its own
failed economic policies and hasn't shown, so far, that it has the political
will to correct them. Instead, it continues a strategy of creating scapegoats.
In this way, it unloads its own responsibility on others (the business class,
the private sector and the U.S.), and distracts attention.
2. Crime
a. According to the World Health Organization
you can speak of a violence epidemic when there are more than 10 violent deaths
per 100,000 people. The government says there were 39 murders per 100,000
people in 2013 in Venezuela.
b. NGO Violence Observatory says the
rate was much higher: 79 murders per 100,000 people. According to this organization, in 2013
there were 24,763 violent deaths in Venezuela.
c. Stickups and kidnappings (express
and long-term) are also the stuff of everyday life. You will be hard pressed to
find a Venezuelan whose life hasn’t been touched by some sort of crime in the
last decade.
These are
two of the most important aspects of the context of the protests. How different
opposition leaders have channeled (or not) Venezuelans’ dissatisfaction is a
point of discussion. But, I want to focus our attention on the government’s
response to the students’ protest. And that has been repression and intimidation
by security forces and by paramilitary groups that are encouraged and defended
in the government’s discourse.
According
to yesterday’s report of the Foro Penal
Venezolano, an NGO that gives legal and human rights assistance to
detainees, there have been 506 confirmed detentions. Courts have decided that
23 of them are to stay in prison. Others wait for their day in court. The ones
that have been let go, have court ordered restrictions on their freedoms:
prohibition to protest or manifest publicly, prohibition to speak to the media
or to express themselves in social media, prohibition to leave their city and
the country, etc. Many of them are reporting to human rights NGOs that they
were victims of tortures. To protest, which is a constitutional right, is being
criminalized.
We have a
human rights crisis in Venezuela.
But,
violence isn’t only what we see in the streets or in the courts of a justice
system in a country in which the government party controls all branches:
executive, legislative and judicial. The government’s discourse of demonizing
and intimidating dissidence is also violence. And that discourse didn’t start last week. For
years the government has assigned demeaning labels to those who think
differently: escuálidos, apátridas,
golpistas. The latest one: "the fascist right." Half of the country is "the
fascist right." Under that label there are people who locate themselves in every
point of the left-right continuum. A critical scholar like me is also "the fascist right." All of you for being here in support of
Venezuelan students are, by the government’s definition, also "the fascist
right."
This isn’t
the only violence in the government’s discourse. I encourage you to read
government officers tweets. You will find a lot of violence in their 140-character strings. Furthermore, the president threatens on national
television. Not only does he threaten opposition leaders like Henrique Capriles, María Corina
Machado, and Leopoldo López who’s now in jail; but also opinion leaders who
aren’t politicians. Writers, artists and journalists who oppose the government
have endured the hacking of their Twitter and email accounts and continuous phone
threats for several years.
The
president also threatens the media, whose situation in Venezuela is dire too. The
government’s non-renewal of the broadcast license of oppositional TV and radio
outlets, censorship, self-censorship and media buyouts by economic groups with
close ties to the government, have all reduced to a minimum the window for
dissident opinions.
Media is my
expertise. I’ve been studying the Venezuelan telenovela industry for more than
15 years. I’ve seen how the straight jacket has been placed on the country’s media
and how it has been steadily tightened. These recent events evidenced this.
But, the silencing has been in the making since 2004. And, after having
domestic media totally under control, the government now goes after international
media outlets. The government ordered Venezuelan cable companies to take out of
their grids NTN24, a Colombian news network. Why? Because it was
broadcasting from the streets of Caracas on February 12th, while
Venezuelan networks were showing cartoons and cooking shows. This week, the
government threatened to do the same to CNN en español. And it has
already revoked the press credentials in Venezuela of several CNN
reporters and producers. These actions speak volumes about the government’s real colors. They were executed after CNN en español broadcast a conversation between
pro- and anti-government students moderated by Patricia Janiot, whose
credential was also revoked and who was harassed by immigration and customs
officers at the airport. CNN en español organized a dialogue and these
were the consequences. This is what the Venezuelan government really thinks of dialogue. Some people believe that the government is overplaying its
hand. After so many years of research, I must say that THIS has always been the
government’s hand: intolerance and repression.
Violence
engenders violence. Violence is the government’s game. This is the reason
behind its actions and discourse. Those who take advantage of the people’s
discontent to create more violence are playing for the government. They’ve
become what they adverse. Venezuela needs peace. This can only happen through true
dialogue. Through the real acknowledgment that there are different political
positions and that dissent is valid. It can only happen through the respect of
the constitutional right to protest peacefully. And I underline the word
peacefully.
I started
my remarks today by saying that we’ve all seen the pictures and videos of the
events in the last two weeks. But, I’d
like to add one more picture:
This is my mom. She’s 83 years old and yesterday
she went to Altamira Square in Caracas, where many of the protesting students
are, and gave out slices of the pound cake she baked for them. I found the
photo in Twitter, I don’t know the person who took it. But, she has given us
a picture of the Venezuela that has been forgotten in the midst of all of this:
the country whose smile is wide, warm and welcoming, the one that is delighted
to cook a feast for others, the one that extends its hand and hospitality every
single time. It’s the Venezuela in my heart, the one I always want to go back
to, and the reason why we’re all here.
Thank you
very much.
