Venezuelan protester (cc photo: Andrés E. Azpúrua)
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has an op-ed in the New York Times today (3/26/14). Given that he is currently being held in a military prison, the piece is notable. But the most revealing part might be a correction that appears at the end:
Correction: March 26, 2014
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the more than 30 people killed in the political demonstrations in Venezuela since February 4 were protesters. That number includes security forces and civilians, not only protesters.
So the op-ed currently reads, “Over 30 people, including security forces and civilians, have died in the demonstrations.” In the original, those deaths were all considered to be on the protesters’ side: “More than 1,500 protesters have been detained, more than 30 have been killed.” If you have been relying on US media to follow the Venezuela story, or relying on Venezuelan opposition sources, you’d probably have the mistaken idea that the violence was basically all happening on one side—which might explain how this error got into the Times.
Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR) has been keeping track of the deaths attributed to the protests (“Venezuela: Who Are They and How Did They Die?“), and a similar effort by Ewan Roberston can be found at Venezuelanalysis.com. The latter finds pro-government and anti-government deaths about equal (nine on both sides), with a dozen deaths of civilians with no apparent political affiliation—numbers that basically line up with Johnston’s.
Street barricade, Merida, Venezuela (cc photo: Pedro Moreno)
The presence of the protest barricades appears to be the most common cause of deaths: individuals shot while attempting to clear the opposition street blockades, automobile accidents caused by the presence of the barricades, and several incidents attributed to the opposition stringing razor wire across streets near the barricades. The most recent reported death was a pregnant woman who was shot while walking towards a barricade (AP, 3/24/14). She was not participating in the protest on either side.
Some analysts have pointed out the most recent protests reveal a fundamental split within the Venezuelan opposition, between those who believe in defeating Maduro and his party by democratic means and those—like Lopez—who favor street confrontations with the goal removing Maduro from office. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that he would want to conceal the fact that the protests have been responsible for many of the deaths he would prefer to blame on the government.
A statement signed by numerous Venezuelan human rights activists makes the point that
“…The barricades have affected the main and secondary roads in middle
and upper income sectors in 8 of the country’s 335 municipalities, all
governed by opposition mayors.Cables, barbed wire, felled trees, rocks,
and spilt grease oil on asphalt mix with disused furniture, tires and
rubbish that are lit on fire. The covers of public drains are lifted,
leaving holes in which at least two motorcyclists have died. Messages
exchanged in social networks and testimonies in mainstream media reveal
that those who participate in this type of protest are under the
perception of being in a kind of state of war. Since the beginning of
the protests local authorities of these municipalities have not made
pronouncements condemning the deaths occurred on barricades, and
neither have opposition spokespeople or student leaders. The exception
is the case of Valencia, one of the cities with the greatest level of
confrontation. On 17 March the pro-opposition mayor of the city of
Valencia, Miguel Cocchiola, rejected the violent acts, and without
referring to concrete responsibility in terms of the victims, said: “I
don’t believe that violence is the way. People must understand that
there is no way that the country will progress that isn’t through
dialogue [with the government]. The barricades haven’t produced
results, what they have done it pit neighbours against neighbours.
There are places where there isn’t cooking gas, and ambulances cannot
enter. this can’t be allowed”. Following the declarations, Cocchiola
was expelled from his political party, Voluntad Popular (Popular Will).
The silence of local authorities in the municipalities where the
barricades are produced is contrary to the exercise of their authority
and can be interpreted as collusion with violent protest tactics of an
unconstitutional nature.”
So there is violence on both sides. There is plenty of lying to go around too. But the truth is that Venezuela is quickly becoming a failed state. When an opposition to this ongoing failure has no other avenues to challenge the state then they take to the streets and violence occurs. As longer of the leader of Venezuela continues to name call (Chucky) and falsely accuse peaceful protestors of sedition; and no one can call false the thousand of peaceful demonstrators seen in many photos since this began; the street violence will continue to escalate. In a true democracy there will always be a vocal minority in the legislature to call out the leaders(See Republican v. Obama). How come no voices are heard from inside the government that sympathize with the opposition? The answer is simple. They don’t have the courage to join Leopoldo Lopez in prison.
@Joe – I’d like to point out a couple of things regarding your comments.
It is a fact that the government has armed wings in their political party – militias – who perform the duties that any uniformed officer would find very difficult to explain if caught on video – such as directly shooting at protesters with live ammunition. Their existence has been known for years. Diosdado Cabello and Maduro himself have publicly admitted their existence in the media and often verbally use them as a threat – the two most well known are the UBCH and the Tupac Amaru movement. I invite you to research about them.
If we remember the beginning of the protests, they were peaceful demonstrations against yet another rape at a university. As the movement grew, and these militias were deployed as a tactic to disuade the protests from gaining traction. These militias move in motorcycles, as do most criminals in the country – a fact admitted by the Justice Minister himself.
The militas are not uniformed, and act with absolute impunity. I invite you to spend a week in the streets of Caracas, and I guarantee that by the 3rd day you will learn to associate the sound of a motorcycle with imminent danger. If you haven’t spent any time in the streets of Caracas, walking out of a restaurant at 9pm, or to buy bread in the morning, you will not understand this simple fact. Bad things are likely to happen when you hear that sound, whether you are in El Paraiso or Chacao.
The barbed wire, felled trees, and grease in asphalt – you forgot to mention the “miguelitos” or small pieces of hose with nails driven through it to inflict a flat tire – are barbaric in description.
But it must be pointed out that they are defensive by nature – they protect a perimeter from people who are out to kill the people inside it.
The protesters aren’t angels. They are angry. They have the right to be, they have reasons to be, and I support them.
As a last note, I would also like to point out that Mr. Cocchiola was ousted from VP not because of those comments, but because he attended the Peace Conference sponsored by the government. Google his name and VP. This peace conference was mediated by the government itself. How can a mediation occur without a mediator?
The opposition is under the unified umbrella of the MUD, and it was decided that they would not participate in an unmediated, private discussion with the government just for a photo op and to be surely insulted moments after. The last meeting that occurred, in December, ended with the president two days later describing Capriles’ entry into the room as a “… little doggie with his tail between his legs” and stating that Ledezma (the mayor of Caracas) was “… trembling when he shook my hand”. Is that the way to respectful dialogue?
VP and the MUD demand a publicly televised debate. Anything else would be falling into a trap. And Mr. Cocchiola broke the ranks by walking into it.
I “invite” Michael Finn and Abe to research the 2002 coup in which Henrique Capriles, Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo Lopez all participated. That was not simply a coup attempt, it should be noted, but a briefly successful coup that abolished all Venezuela’s democratic institutions under the short lived dictatorship of Pedro Carmona. Thankfully, Venezuela’s poor, and a loyalist sector of the military restored democratic government. The leadership of today’s violent, and deeply unpopular protests, draw prominent leaders from the same discredited segment that led the coup in 2002. The folks claiming there is no democratic alternative for them never believed in one – and the claim is especially absurd when elected officials like Machado, Caballos and Capriles (a state governor) are among the leaders. Capriles at least tried hard to give himself a makeover in the years following the coup and is clearly uneasy about violent protests, but dare not alienate his far right base by denouncing them. Lopez, who never served a day in jail for his role in the 2002 coup, would have seen decades in jail had he done what he did in the USA – if he were lucky. Just ask Chelsea Manning who has been jailed for years and sentenced to decades more simply for embarrassing the US government by exposing its barbarism in Iraq.
BTW has anyone ever seen an op-ed published in the NYT that was written by Chelsea Manning.
Joe, do you know that Chavez the father of “Revolucion Bolivariana” led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup d’état against the Democratic Action government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992. Of course you know that. After that he won democratic elections, Hitler also did that. The difference between a democratic government and a facist one is the relation with the oposition, the independence of control institutions, the compliance with the constitution and of course not create a paramilitar army.
I’m not Venezuelan and have no dog in this fight, but I have personally seen the “National Guard” ESCORT gangs of armed motorcycle thugs through the opposition neighborhoods while shooting wildy and randomly into houses, cars, and everything else including people. I have witnessed people later identified, after being caught, as Venezuelan intelligence employees (SEBIN) literally kidnap a person off the street in front of me. (They were later chased down by municipal police who shot and killed one of kidnappers who were later identified as SEBIN agents.) The Venezuela government is nothing more than a mafia. They terrorize their own people and silence opposition political campaigns and arrest effective opposition politicians. There is NOTHING legitimate about them except their legitimate mimicking of mafias around the world. The poor are far too scared to deal with the government thugs or loss of their job or house should they be caught saying anything against the government. Anyone who attempts to legitimize Maduro or push propaganda that the violence is 50/50 should simply view the videos of Tupamaro thug enforcers shooting and killing opposition protesters while the Tupamaros are escorted by the National Guard into protest zones. Your article would seem to legitimize the arrests of opposition politicins who have committed no other offense than to speak out loudly against the communists. Like the communists in power, such propaganda could never withstand anything more than scant surface scrutiny if ever entered into an objective forum for critiquing.
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99.999% of the lies come from Maduro et al. This piece is not a correction, it is a whitewash job. I think you will find hte author is someone who has been on VIO’s feedbag directly or indirectly. IT chagrins me to realize I hd supported VIO in better times. Guess it’s OK for Progressives to suffer outside the US under tyrants who spout socialist rhetoric to justify mafia like corruption and self-service and crimes against humanity like the Generalsin Argentina as long as they are brown skinned folks!
Correction It chagrins me to realize I had supported FAIR in better times. It is obvious this author carries water for Maduro;s regime, and was supported by VIO directly or indirectly, since the piece reads like a mimeograph of one of Eva Golinger’s feverish screeds, or one of Rush Limbaugh;s less inflammatory rants, just with a cut and paste of pertinent details. Guess it is OK for brown skinned progressives to suffer under tyrrany as ling as these tyrants spread the butter on the right side of the bread? If our Progressives or others whose views lie further out on the spectrum here in the USA started being jailed, tortured, kidnapped for their non-violent non-confrontational dissent far beyond what Bush II ever dared to do, guess the shoe wouldbeon the other foot.
I love what Julia Buxton sarcastically tweeted about Lopez’s NYT op-ed
“Venezuelan dictatorship forces prisoners to write NYT op-eds protesting
detainment and calling for its overthrow”
Some may remember that the USA bitterly objected to Russia giving Edward Snowden a “propaganda platform”. Snowden never led violent protests or participated in the violent overthrow of the US government. Incredibly obvious to anyone not blinded by ideological fanaticism that Venezuela is drastically more tolerant of dissent than the USA.
Worth noting that Lopez mentioned Utimas Noticias, Venezuela’s largest circulating newspaper, in his op-ed. Ultimas Noticias routinely gives voice to vehement government critics and, by Lopez’s own account, also does hard hitting and timely investigative reporting. If the USA had a newspaper like that, most people would how appropriate it is to ridicule anyone who calls Venezuela a dictatorship.
To reinforce my previous comment, an op-ed in Ultimas Noticias (3/20/2014), Venezuela’s largest circulating newspaper, stated that “One can’t keep playing around with Maduro’s assassin government and its insincere calls for peace”.
The op-ed goes on to state that Maduro’s government will go down in history as one of the most murderous and dictatorial ever, and makes a thinly veiled call for its unconstitutional ouster.
Headlines of other recent Ultimas Noticias op-eds below, far from exhaustive sample of extremely aggressive anti-government opinion that regularly appears:
Another op-ed 3/24/2014
“Critical Situation: The so called President has decided to establish himself as a fourth rate dictator “
Another one 3/24/2014
“Not One More Death:The deaths have been occurring daily, the most noteworthy caused by armed groups operating outside the law but with the apparent consent of the Government”
And another one from today:
“Solution to the crisis: As we can see we are living at the margins of the Consitution under a military dictatorship in which a military–civic clique perpetautes itself by force”
The people who write all this are, like their foreign backers, oblivious to the contradiction of using the country’s largest newspaper as a daily platform to cry “dictatorship” and complain that don’t have “free expression”. It really is too bad most people outside Venezuela don’t access the Venezuelan media directly. They’d quickly see how scandalously dishonest foreign reporting has been about the country, not just by int’l newspapers but by NGOs like RSF and Human Rights Watch.
a few of these commenters might apply for a pressitute job at the new York times or at the rightwing Venezuelan big money press.
“pressitute” is the term Paul craig Roberts calls the press. in one of his last essays, “how much war does Washington want?” Roberts is addressing the coup in Ukraine and the u.s. stance against putin and Russia, and he asks some very obvious questions that the MSM does not.
and we realize there’s also very serious trouble in Venezuela at the same time, and it hasn’t received the same attention. is this lucky for the coup makers and bad for maduro and his ELECTED government?
Roberts writes about the Ukraine and says “Washington has won the propaganda war…” are they winning regarding Venezuela , too?
will we let them win?
maybe FAIR should call themselves UNFAIR if all the study is going to be of the newyork times, etc. we need more coverage of the decent press, I think.
besides Robert’s articles, there are so many sites and true journalists giving us better news than the MSM ever does.
I really suggest this essay which is very pertinent! it pertains to the “protesters” NATO TRAINED, CIA and u.s. state dept instructions and their tact in both Ukraine and Venezuela and everywhere else nato and the us state dept desires to “assist toward democracy”. ( rubbish, rubbish!)
http://www.voltairenet.org/article30032.html written in 2005, reposted this month. is a MUST READ, I’d say. about the albert Einstein institute and u.s. institute for peace, NED, etc since 1990.
This is funny: If Peter Hart (or Fair, for that matter) is interested in an unbiased account of the deaths occurred during the protests in Venezuela, why not contact the very HR activists and organizations that are reporting this from Caracas? I’m not talking about Human Rights Watch BTW, I’m talking about people like PROVEA, Foro Penal, the people from UCAB and Periodico Libertario like @fanzinero. Why using someone so biased and pro-government like Venezuelanalysis.com, or CEPR? As another person commenting above pointed out, for all the talk of “pointing out media’s inaccuracies”, FAIR (when it comes to the Venezuelan case) is more interested in whitewashing the “inaccuracies” of Venezuelan official media (and pro-government sites that just repeat the official version all along) than in being critical of both sides. Apparently, the credo is: Let’s be critical of corporate media, let’s take face value everything the Venezuelan government feed to us through the news. Yes, because they’ve never lie. Sure.
I guess Johnny doesn’t know that the statement I posted in the first comment was signed by various VENEZUELAN human rights activists or that CEPR’s list is compiled by scanning int’l corporate press reports by journalists in VENEZUELA:
1. Keymer Avila. Lawyer, researcher and university professor. Area of investigation: judicial systems and human rights.
2. Ana Barrios. Member of the coordinating committee of PROVEA (1990 – 1995), member of Amnesty International Venezuela (2004 – 2009). Associated member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace (2000 – present).
3. María Isabel Bertone. Educator in human rights. Member of the coordinating committee of PROVEA (1996 – 2005).
4. Marieva Caguaripano. Journalist. Member of the coordinating committee of PROVEA (1990 – 1995). Producer of campaigns for prevention and awareness-raising on teenage pregnancy and domestic violence (2010 – 2012).
5. Alba Carosio. Feminist activist for human rights since 1975, professor and researcher at the Central University of Venezuela.
6. Cristobal Cornieles Perret Gentil. Lawyer, member of the assembly of the Support Network for Justice and Peace (2006 – present). [further human rights position given].
7. Luis Díaz. Researcher: Centre for Peace and Human Rights, Central University of Venezuela (1996 – 2009).
8. Michael Adolfo Díaz Mendoza. Lawyer and human rights activist. Member of the Education and Investigation Collective for Social Development, CEIDES (2008 – 2010).
9. Isamar Escalona. Responsible for Groups and Networks in Education, PROVEA (2000 – 2006).
10. Pedro Pablo Fanega. Member of the Centre of Community Organisation and Human Rights in Vargas state (2004 – 2007). Member of the National Police Reform Commission (2006 – 2007).
11. Julio Fermin Salazar. Member of the Training, Information and Publications Team (EFIP), 1980 – present. Member of the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI), 1982 – present.
12. Pablo Fernandez Blanco. Member and Coordinator of the Education of Human Rights Program (1996 – 2005) and General Coordinator (2006 – 2012) of the Support Network for Justice and Peace.
13. Judith Galarza Campos. Affected by the forced disappearance for political motives of her sister Leticia Galarza in Mexico D.F., 5 January 1978. Current Executive Secretary of the Latin American Federation of Family Members of Arrested and Disappeared Persons (FEDEFAM)
14. Jesus Chucho Garcia, Afro-America and the African Diaspora Foundation.
15. Angel Osiel Gonzalez Alvarado. Member of the Regional Coordination of Child and Youth Workers (CORENATs).
16. Ivan Gonzalez Alvarado. Member of the PROVEA Consultative Assembly (1994 – 2013)
17. Antonio J. Gonzalez Plessmann. Associated Member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace (2005 – present).
18. Enrique Gonzalez. Member of PROVEA (1995 – 1999), researcher with CECODAP (2002 – 2003).
19. Martha Lía Grajales Pineda. Member of the Coordinating Team of the Education of Human Rights Program (2008 – 2009) and member of the Assembly of the Support Network for Justice and Peace.
20. Alejandra Guedez. Anthopologist, researcher and audiovisual producer, with experience in community organisations and working with vulnerable groups.
21. Mary Luz Guillen Rodriguez. Internationalist, member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace (1993 – present).
22. Erick Gutiérrez García. Lawyer, volunteer in judicial clinics. Researcher for PROVEA. Executive secretary of the Venezuelan chapter of the Interamerican Platform of Human Rights, Democracy and Development.
23. María Lucrecia Hernández. Lawyer and human rights activist.
24. María Paula Herrero. Area of communication and information, PROVEA (1989 – 1996).
25. Elba Martinez Vargas. Internationalist. Head of the Education in Human Rights Project of the Venezuelan Section of Amnesty International (1992 – 1993).
26. Africa Matute. Lawyer and human rights activist. Member of the comprehensive attention to victims project, Support Network for Justice and Peace (2010 – 2013).
27. Lilian Montero, Assembly Member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace [previous human rights roles mentioned].
28. Vicmar Morillo Gil. Area of Information and Investigation, PROVEA (2000 – 2004), Assembly Member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace.
29. Gioconda Mota Gutiérrez. Educator, member of the “Feminist Spider” network. Activist for women’s human rights.
30. Maureen Riveros. Journalist. Member of the committee against forgetting, PROVEA (1999 – 2006).
31. María Elena Rodríguez. Member of the PROVEA team (1995 – 2007). Associated member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace (2009 – present).
32. José Ángel Rodríguez Reyes. Former PROVEA worker, member of Amnesty International 1984 – 1999.
33. Ileana Ruiz. Journalist. Member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace since 1987. Educator in human rights, grassroots communication, alternative use of law and the rehabilitation of torture victims.
34. Marvelys Sifontes Cerrada. Lawyer, social worker, human rights activist and defender of child and youth rights.
35. Belkis Urdaneta Jayaro. Associated member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace (1994 – present).
36. Wilman Verdú Canache. Human rights activist, member of the Support Network for Justice and Peace, facilitator of human rights in police bodies.
Mr. Joe Emersberger:
What we have down here in Venezuela is a hybrid state evolving to a dictatorship. Perhaps you should look up the concept.
(Now, whether we have left the hybrid state stage, and are now in a dictatorship, that’s a matter of another discussion. Illegal detentions where people are tortured and held isolated without any right whatsoever certainly doesn’t look any good).
Mr. Joe Emersberger:
Regarding the HR activists issue, I’m talking about Mr. Hart’s lack of any insight or reporting coming from HR activists in his article. Your comments, as far as I know, are not part or the article.
the killers identified by the investigations so far until today are:
1. an officer of the state intelligence agency “sebin” who murdered bassil dacosta (a protester) and juan montoya (a government supporter)
2. an officer of the guardia nacional who murdered geraldine moreno (a protester)
3. an employee of the public electricity company “corpoelec” who murdered adriana urquiola (a passer by)
so far not a single pro government militia man or protester has been singled out. cheers.
Blimey, this article sure is bringing some out of the woodwork, or out from under their rocks.
About whhat is really going on, I obviously go along with Peter Hart. But there is some important information that he and others seem to be unaware of.
What is the link between the Venezuelan rioting and the so-called Egyptian ‘Arab Spring’ and the Ukraine rioting? Answer – CANVAS (previously OTPOR), a Serbian US front organisation that trains people from around the world for just these sorts of mass protests and violent disorder. It trains youths and others, but also controls ‘Gladio’ Neo-Nazi elements who provide sniper backup and street thugs to assist in the various target countrues.
See ‘Documented: US Coup Plan for Venezuela 2013: ‘Plan Estratégico Venezuela’ by Axis of Logic.
Also note that identical CANVAS leaflets were found in both Egypt and Ukraine, absolutely identical except for one was in Egyptian, one in Ukrainian, giving tactics and even what clothes to wear such as coats with big pockets (for Molotov Cocktails).
And ppray tell, what would be the response of the US, British, French, Canadian etc. police and media to burning road blocks, fatal wire stringing across roads that have decapitated at least two Venezuelan motorcyclists, firng on police & ciiivilians, arson and other damage to Government property, including clinics?
For God’s sake, look what was done in Boston, America’s 20th largest city, which was in ‘Lockdown’, with all kinds of para-military police and armoured vehicles breaking into homes, forcing people to either stay in their homes, or to evacuate their homes, and all for the stated reason of capturing or killing a solitary young Chechen who was claimed to have been involved with a bombing.
To paraphrase Jesus: ‘By their comments you shall know them’!
Sorry for the typos in my previous post – i do get a bit ‘hot under the collar’ reading some of the BS comments. I’ve been involved with Human Rights campaigns since the ’70’s, mainly South and Central America, but also East Timor. I have a very good idea of what the US and other countries get up to (I am obviously aware that the Russians and Chinese have also been guilty of horrific Human Rights abuses, and at least in the case of China, continue to this day).
A point I meant to make in my previous post: a guy called Aaron Russo was befriended by Nick Rockefeller, who tried to recruit him into the Council on Foreighn Relations (CFR). Russo was standing for Governor of one of the States, I think Nevada. Rockefeller told Russo many things; one of the things he told him, in 2000, was that ‘there was going to be an incident, and because of it the US was going to go into Afghanistan and Iraq, he would see US troops searching through caves for Arabs, there would be a ‘War on Terror’, and after that the US would go after Venezuela’. There is an excellent, one hour video interview on the web, ‘Aaron Russo – Historic Interview’. Russo dropped his friendship with Rockefeller, concluding that he and his ilk were evil, and in 2001, when he saw the 9/11 attack on the TV whilst on holiday in Hawaii, he realised what Rockefeller had been talking about. He started to speak out, ‘contracted’ cancer and died in 2007.
Well worth watching that interview. RIP, Aaron – a real American Patriot.
Agreed, Paul. Whenever FAIR covers Venezuela, the opposition groups, quite predictably, come crawling out of the woodwork like the Koch-roaches they are. This phenomenon, which was once considered suspicious, has happened often enough now, that it has become CLEAR that these are merely (futile) attempts by the pro-fascist, anti-democracy Western forces’ well-oiled propaganda machine to spread their usual lies and misinformation.
Those of us who know the truth will not be swayed.
I pretty much figure all the anti-Venezuelan government remarks made on this site are coming from those toting water for the NSA, CIA, etc. They are clearly paying people to google Venezuela, Edward Snowden, etc, hoping that some readers will be swayed by their grotesque and obvious propaganda. Many thanks to Joe Emersberger for his comments and notations.
Can’t IMAGINE why anti-Venezuelan Government commenters haven’t ‘torn me apart’ if they disagree with my previous comment.
OK, FAIR (sorry for the pun!) enough, I’ll give the poor s*ds ‘una otra oportunidad’ (please forgive my Spanish, if it lacks ‘je ne sais quoi’).
In my head, I hear the Great & the Good people of Venezuela calling out: ‘Pablo, una vez más, por favor. Pero ‘it seems the Yanqui puppets didn’t hear you’.
Who am I to deny such a request? As a Human Rights campaigner since the ’70’s, I am FULLY aware of the diabolical (literally) influence of the US upon South & Central America and the Carribean (to say nothing of the rest of the world). So, sorry, you can’t ‘snow’ this hombre with your paid for and/or misinformed lying disinfo.
Respecting the clamour from the decent, Bolivarian majority of Venezuelans, I will accede to their request, and give my previous comment ‘one more time’: hopefully, some of the ‘comment mercenaries’ will rise to the bait:
‘Blimey, this article sure is bringing some out of the woodwork, or out from under their rocks.
About what is really going on, I obviously go along with Peter Hart. But there is some important information that he and others seem to be unaware of.
What is the link between the Venezuelan rioting and the so-called Egyptian ‘Arab Spring’ and the Ukraine rioting? Answer – CANVAS (previously OTPOR), a Serbian US front organisation that trains people from around the world for just these sorts of mass protests and violent disorder. It trains youths and others, but also controls ‘Gladio’ Neo-Nazi elements who provide sniper backup and street thugs to assist in the various target countrues.
See ‘Documented: US Coup Plan for Venezuela 2013: ‘Plan Estratégico Venezuela’ by Axis of Logic.
Also note that identical CANVAS leaflets were found in both Egypt and Ukraine, absolutely identical except for one was in Egyptian, one in Ukrainian, giving tactics and even what clothes to wear such as coats with big pockets (for Molotov Cocktails).
And ppray tell, what would be the response of the US, British, French, Canadian etc. police and media to burning road blocks, fatal wire stringing across roads that have decapitated at least two Venezuelan motorcyclists, firng on police & ciiivilians, arson and other damage to Government property, including clinics?
For God’s sake, look what was done in Boston, America’s 20th largest city, which was in ‘Lockdown’, with all kinds of para-military police and armoured vehicles breaking into homes, forcing people to either stay in their homes, or to evacuate their homes, and all for the stated reason of capturing or killing a solitary young Chechen who was claimed to have been involved with a bombing.
To paraphrase Jesus: ‘By their comments you shall know them’!
Fire away!!!