A deeply divided Venezuela has faced ongoing, violent protests since early February concerning the opposing views in the country of the rights of its people. Protesters continue to demand answers and resolutions to the increasing numbers of homicides across the country in addition to the standing socioeconomic crisis.
The murder of former Miss Venezuela, Monica Spear and family, as well as the rape of a student on a university campus, galvanized students to begin marching on February 12th in order to garner attention from the Venezuelan government.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
On one side of the demonstrations is the Venezuelan government, led by Nicolas Maduro, the successor to Hugo Chavez. Chavez has become a recognizable name in the Western world, known for using the force of the Venezuelan militia to control any sort of uprising against him. In 2002, there were increasing rallies in Venezuela to oust Chavez, but those opposed to him were met by the National Guard of Venezuela and pro-Chavez gunmen. While his methods were seen as unnecessarily strict, he was able to improve the condition of Venezuela by vastly reducing its poverty rates by about 20%.
On the other side is the opposition group, led by Leopoldo Lopez. In an Op-Ed for the New York Times, Lopez said that he “urged Venezuelans to exercise their legal rights to protest and free speech – but to do so peacefully and without violence,” in response to the “government’s criminalization of dissent.”
In order to gather support to overthrow Maduro’s reign, Lopez and other anti- government individuals have taken to popular social media outlets from Twitter to YouTube in order to spread the word about the injustices occurring in their country. Additional coverage has been provided by both local and international television news anchors. Unfortunately, the Venezuelan government did not take kindly to the accusations of its corrupt system. In order to limit propaganda, various news stations,
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
including international stations such as Colombia’s NTN24, have been taken off the air and shut down by the Venezuelan government. Many Venezuelans have taken this as further incentive to actively rally against the government. They demand their basic right to freedom of speech, which they are wrongly being denied.
This denial of the right to free speech reached the streets in forms of demonstrations and protests, where the people have been faced with the same military that swore to defend the Venezuelan people. Now fighting against them, the military forbids all protests and marches that speak against Maduro.
The significance of the events taking place in Venezuela might not immediately feel important to our own lives in the United States. Understandably, it can be challenging empathize with the situations that we have never found ourselves in. Fortunately, one of Hewitt’s own students, Emi Santandreu ‘15, is a native Venezuelan. Emi was kind enough to give us insight on the matter in an exclusive interview:
Hewitt Times: In your own words, could you give us a rundown of what’s going on in Venezuela? Why are these protests occurring now, and not before?
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Emi: It’s a difficult question to answer. There are many things going on right now in the country, but the climactic chaos and seemingly perpetual struggle [are] rooted in the history of the country. To understand what is going on today, one must understand what was going on 20 years ago in Venezuela. There was a time when the country was succeeding financially, but not socially. There was a very present and profiting upper class, yet many were finding themselves in extremely poor condition and financially unstable. As a result, Chavez’s claim for a growing and socialist society came at the exact right moment. Chavez’s charisma caused him to grow increasingly popular among the people; however, throughout his 14 year reign, the country began to see a decline in the economy, a huge increase in crime, lack of focus on education, a growing need for everyday products (such as toilet paper, toothpaste, flour, sugar, and milk), and a lack of police and government presence. However, the very prolific uneducated portion of the government would only see the rewards being given to them, like government housing and government position job offers, but they were unable to understand the cost of such donations. Chavez was turning the country into a profitless, socialist regime by cutting all ties to other nations, and engaging in corrupt activity.
Even though elections were held, it became evident that he was cheating by bribing government workers, limiting the amount of “free speech” allotted to the citizens, and allowing corrupt government officials to remain in office. Then, after his death, his less charismatic and less popular vice president was sworn into office (by which they completely disregarded the Constitution). Since his successor is much less popular, yet his socialist stance was the same as Chavez’s, the people saw this as a opportunity to go to the streets and protest the insecurity, the empty pharmacies and supermarkets, the inflation, and the dangerous conditions at universities and public schools.
Everyday people, under the guidance of the opposing party took to the streets to protest peacefully. Unfortunately, they were greeted by heavy machinery, weapons, and violence from the supporters of the Chavez/Maduro regime. Many deaths have occurred since the protests started on February 12th, which has further fueled people and the cause. The government began to blame the leader of the opposing party, Leopoldo Lopez, and unlawfully jailed him without putting him through trial. Maduro has been increasingly blaming the protestors for the violence, when photographic and video evidence has shown that most of the violence has been instigated by his followers. Even though the country has been completely denied of their constitutional right to free speech, the people are using Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to stay informed of what is going on in the country. (There are no non-government run TV stations running anymore; they have all been disbanded, which means that all the deaths, and the negative opinions of the government are not being heard by the everyday people).
HT: Which politics are the opposition against the most and why?
Emi: The opposition is against the use of government/state money to bestow upon other countries, as the government is giving money to many small islands and countries (most importantly to Cuba) instead of spending it within the country and for the citizens of Venezuela. They are against the lack of police presence in general (last year, Venezuela reached a death toll of over 25,000 people, which is greater than that of Iran), and the moral corruption of many of the leading government officials.
HT: Can the United States and/or other nations do anything? Should they?
Emi: From when Chavez was president, he had a disparaging opposition to the United States (heavily influence by the then-president of Cuba, Fidel Castro). I feel as though if the United States government were to interfere, the Venezuelan government would try to devalue and completely nullify the efforts made by the Venezuelan people, and make it look as though all the negative things occurring in the country are [happening] because of the interference of external countries. I feel as though the countries should pay more attention to what is going on in the country, and allow the voices of the Venezuelan people to be heard, but to allow this to be a movement for the people, of the people, and by the people, I think it is better if the Venezuelan citizens were to fight this battle on their own…for now, at least.
HT: What would the changes to the country be (both immediate and long term; small and drastic) if the opposition gained power and control?
Emi: I think the changes would be extremely positive for everyone. I think more attention would be paid to educating the masses, the police presence would be greatly improved, relations and negotiations with other countries, such as the United States, would allow Venezuela to prosper and grow, and there would be an important growth of in-house manufacturing, and exporting that would allow the economy to thrive.