Opposition Violence at Venezuelan University - What Really Happened

[Joanne98]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2818

According to eyewitness reports from Hands Off Venezuela members, violence broke out yesterday in Caracas when opposition students arrived back from a peaceful demonstration against the proposed constitutional reforms. Apparently frustrated by the lack of violence, a group of about 250 of the opposition students (many from other universities) went straight to the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) to the School of Social Work which is a stronghold of revolutionary students inside UCV.

There, a group of revolutionary students was campaigning for a yes vote in the referendum. They had an assembly for students/teachers/non-teaching staff in the morning and were putting up posters and giving out leaflets.

They were then attacked by the opposition students who surrounded the School. Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown, the toilets were destroyed, the door of the Students Centre (Bolivarian dominated) was burned down, and around 150 people (students, teachers and non-teaching staff) were trapped inside the building for several hours, with the violent opposition students trying to force their way into the building to lynch them.

Some of the students inside the Faculty are nationally known Bolivarian student leaders (including Andreina Taranzon who spoke in the debate with opposition students at the National Assembly earlier this year at the time of the RCTV protests). They managed to call the state TV and reported live on what was happening.

The police are not allowed to enter University premises owing to a law on University autonomy. The Mayor of Caracas offered the possibility of the Metropolitan Police going in to contain violence and allow people in the School to come out, but the rector of the University, a member of the opposition, refused the offer. The University authorities are responsible for security on their own premises and did nothing to prevent violence from escalating.





Violent oppositon supporters at the UCV- picture Reuters


Meanwhile, opposition TV stations were full of reports that masked Chavista supporters had fired on opposition students and that one person had been killed (this was then proven to be false, nine students were injured, most of them from inhaling fumes from the fires started by opposition students).

Finally, the head of emergency and fire-fighting services was allowed by the rector to go into the university and negotiate the safe exit of the people who were trapped inside the School of Social Work by a violent mob of opposition students.



The School of Social Work trashed by opposition students (ABN)

The international media has been "reporting" about these clashes as if "armed Chavista gunmen" had fired on peaceful opposition students. A member of Hands Off Venezuela was present at the University when the violence broke out. He reports that the gunmen who originally opened fire stopped him on his way through the UCV to the Bolivarian University nearby. He reports that the two gunmen on the motorbike did not look like students, but were more likely thugs hired for the occasion and that they were shouting anti-Chavez slogans and boasting of having shot at Chavistas.

Even news agencies now are reporting that Bolivarian armed men arrived at the UCV after the opposition students had sieged 150 people inside the building of the School of Social Work to help those sieged gain safe passage out:

Later, armed men riding motorcycles arrived, scaring off students and standing at the doorway - one of them firing a handgun in the air - as people fled the building. (The Guardian )
What Hands Off Venezuela eyewitness report is that, faced with the inaction of the University authorities, hundreds of students, University workers and people from nearby neighbourhoods finally went into the University to help the people at the School of Social Work escape from the violent mob of opposition students. Some of them were carrying guns, which was only normal considering the extremely violent nature of the situation.

Bolivarian students, teachers and non-teaching staff have now held a joint meeting at the UCV and called for a demonstration against fascist aggressions to take place in the UCV on November 15.

Videos of the violent attack by opposition students can be seen here:

http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?988

http://www.radiomundial.com.ve /yvke/noticia.php?990

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2818

[fasttense]

1. Thanks Joanne98 for posting the rest of the story....

No doubt the US government had their hands in it. I mean the School of Social Work really? It is a dead giveaway who was attacking. Why didn't they attack the school of economics and fiance? Because the US likes those schools.

[Joanne98]

2. You're welcome!

[Peace Patriot]

3. I think we're all getting a bit better at reading disinformation from

our war profiteering corporate news monopolies. When I say I don't trust one word of AP (and also Reuters) news stories about the Latin American left, and especially about Hugo Chavez, Venezuela and the Bolivarian countries (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Nicaragua), I really mean it. You cannot trust even simple facts, like what happened and when and where--as these stories about Venezuelan student protests are making very clear.

Here's another report, direct from the scene, that contradicts corporate media reports, and helps clarify events:

Pro-Chavez Students Blame Opposition Students for Violence at University
November 9th 2007, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2814

There are a couple of things that these stories by AP, Reuters and some other malefactors may be seeking to accomplish. To paint a false picture of Venezuela as unstable, and violent, is, of course, one of them. They really don't want us to get any ideas about holding transparent elections here, or sharing the wealth, here. They may be prepping for violent intervention--so that U.S. readers will think nothing of it, when it happens--just another ho-hum day in Banana Republic Land (rather than inexplicable violence, instigated by the Bush Junta, and paid for by U.S. tax dollars--in one of South America's strongest, most stable democracies)--but the Bush Junta has been so unsuccessful at their typical brutal tactics, in the face an increasingly savvy voting populations in Latin America, and its devotion to democracy and to Constitutional government--that I think they may be aiming at something else (besides trying to make us stupid about these issues), possibly financial sabotage.

Read this, and tell me the NYT didn't deliberately publish disinformation about Venezuela's oil industry:

NYT's Tina Rosenberg Goes to School on Venezuela's Oil, and Flunks
November 6th 2007, by Oil Wars
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2808

There have been some echoes of this disinformation campaign (which is aimed at portraying the Chavez government as profligate and incompetent at managing Venezuela's oil) in Reuters and other disinformation outlets. Venezuela just landed a big deal with China. That must be getting under the Bush Cartel's skin. And Exxon Mobile is whining to the World Bank that "we was robbed" in Venezuela's buyout of the oil infrastructure. At stake, ultimately, are all the vast oil, gas, mineral, forest and other resources in the Andes region, and who will control them--U.S.-based global corporate predators, or local democratic governments and the people of the countries.

In short, the Bush Cartel, its DLC colluders and their lapdog press want the Chavez government to FAIL, one way or another. They want the region-wide Bolivarian Revolution to fail. They want Evo Morales in Bolivia to fail. They want Rafael Correa in Ecuador to fail. They want all of these peaceful revolutions to fail. They want to return the region to the days of brutal rightwing government for the benefit of the rich. If they can' t do it one way, they will try another. And they certainly don't want to see the Constitutional reforms that all three Bolivarian governments are undertaking, to re-structure their countries along more democratic lines, and to root out entrenched rightwing corruption.

That's what is at issue here. Venezuela is the first of the Bolivarian countries to present the people with Constitutional reforms for a vote of the people. They are the furthest along with the process. Recently, Rafael Correa won 80% of the votes in Ecuador in favor of forming a Constitutional assembly--a huge victory for the people. But they are still hammering out what the proposed provisions will be (which will then be voted on, in a general plebiscite). Evo Morales in Bolivia has his hands full with a rebellion of rich, rightwing landowners, in the rural provinces, where the oil and gas are--they want to split the country up, and deny the majority control of those resources. Rightwing paramilitaries are active in these rural areas.

As the first of these countries to assert full independence from the U.S. and its corporate interests, Venezuela is a target. The Bush Junta and its allies in Venezuela have tried a coup attempt; a crippling oil professionals' strike; a U.S. taxpayer funded recall election against Chavez (which he won handily); and a second coup plot in Dec '06 (with ties to a Washington PR firm, Penn & Schoen, and Colombian rightwing paramilitaries--a plot that was rejected by the entire leadership of Latin America, if I'm reading the entrails correctly--even people like Calderon in Mexico and Uribe in Colombia were offended). And now they're up to something else. Perhaps just giving the Venezuelan people no peace at all. I suspect more.

One of the things that the Bush Junta and its corporate pals hate and fear most is Latin American integration--that is, Latin American countries pulling together to exert collective economic strength. Venezuela and the Chavez government have shown extraordinary leadership in this regard, and, in fact, there are meetings going on right now in Chile (which Condi Rice has tried to strongarm away from the Bolivarians) among high level leaders, including Chavez, on economic and social justice cooperation. The Bank of the South has become a reality. So might also a South American "common market" and common currency. The meetings in Chile are occurring even while these violent incidents are cooked up in Venezuela. Is it to mar these talks, or crowd them out of the news? Possibly.

Among Chavez's statements at the Chile meeting: "Latin America is waking up, he declared, and nothing nor anyone can stop it. 'There is an awakening of millions of people, indigenous, women, campesinos, and this is the most important thing because individually we do not make history, rather it is the people that make history.'" -- http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2816

I tend to share Chavez's optimism. This is a deep movement, coming from the grass roots, and stretching across Latin America. It's not about Chavez and whether or not he runs for a third term. It's about THE PEOPLE. I can't stress this enough. And my firm conviction about this is the basis of my optimism. Say, the Bushites managed to bump off Chavez. This revolution would just get bigger. It's not about one man. The Bushites have to do a lot more than bump him off. They have to slander, disrupt, destabilize and bring down a whole society. They're not going to do that with just a few thugs here and there. Sneaky or open economic sanctions and manipulation may be what the NYT article is harbinger for. Sly lies, cleverer slanders--aimed at the economy, at hurting ordinary people. It hasn't done squat so far. All indicators are up in Venezuela. Doesn't mean they won't try and try again--likely into the next Imperium in the U.S. (Hillary?). Is it any wonder that the Venezuelan people want to keep their strong progressive leader in place for a third term? Their situation is much like ours was half way through the "New Deal."