“The Protest Over Maduro’s Fraud Descended from the Hills”
in the aftermath of Venezuela’s presidential elections
Foro Penal: In the first week of protest and repression, there are at least 11 dead and 939 arbitrary detentions, including 90 minors.
By Carlos F. Chamorro (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Despite widespread repression, which targets young people especially, Venezuelan voters are keeping up the pressure on Nicolas Maduro’s government demanding the National Electoral Council show the voting results broken down by precinct, voting center and municipality, to clarify who the real winner of the July 28 elections was.
In the process, this repression has cost the lives of at least eleven people and the detention of almost a thousand more, including 90 minors and six people with different disabilities.
In a conversation on the program Esta Semana, human rights defender Gonzalo Himiob, director of Foro Penal, and Xabier Coscojuela, journalist and member of the Editorial Board of Diario Tal Cual, said that “people will not demobilize.”
“In 2017, the protest in Caracas was mainly from middle-class sectors. But this time, the protest came down from the hills, from north to south, and from east to west,” noted journalist Xabier Coscojuela.
What information has Foro Penal gathered about the consequences of the repression in these seven days? Fatalities, detainees, disappeared, human rights violations.
Gonzalo Himiob: Our count as of August 3 at 3:00 in the afternoon confirms 939 arbitrary detentions distributed throughout the country. The use of public force to try to neutralize the people who have come out to protest after the electoral process has been widespread. The data is corroborated.
Regarding the deceased, Foro Penal has confirmed 11 deaths in the context of the protests. This does not mean there are not more deaths, but because our verification protocols are very strict, we are very careful about disseminating data or figures that we have not been able to verify directly.
Foro Penal has volunteer lawyers throughout the country, and we have given them the task not only of providing free assistance to the victims of these arbitrary institutions but also of confirming beyond any doubt the events that may involve deaths or murders.
Within this overall figure, unfortunately, there are six people who are disabled: blind, deaf, people with Down Syndrome… there are even two confirmed cases of autistic young people, one of them a teenager.
Regarding disappearances, that term must be handled very carefully because, as the use of force has been massive, many relatives and many friends of young people —since the repression has focused primarily on very young people— report them as missing. But it is up to us to verify whether they are indeed missing or if they were arrested and can be located in any of the detention centers.
The governing party has threatened opposition leaders such as Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez with prison. However, on Saturday, we saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets to protest, both in Caracas and in different cities across Venezuela, in defense of the validity of their vote. Does the State recognize the right to civic protest?
Xabier Coscojuela: Relatively. So far, the State has not decreed a suspension of the right to demonstrate, but in some parts of Venezuela, there was repression against people who wanted to protest. In Caracas, they did not do it openly because there were so many people, and repressing so many people has a great cost. But in the City of La Victoria in Aragua State (just 100 kilometers from Caracas), people wanted to gather at the point where they had gathered on previous days, and it was taken by the public force to prevent it. In Caguas —another town in Aragua State— tear gas bombs were launched at those attempting to gather.
In any case, people continued trying to express their discontent with the announcements of the National Electoral Council and another by Nicolas Maduro’s government because they are defending their vote. They are not only defending the election of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia but also defending the decision they exercised. In 2002, during the coup against Hugo Chavez, there were people who said their vote had to be respected because they had decided to vote for Chavez. Well, the same thing is happening now.
What happens is that now the coup plotters are Nicolas Maduro and those who accompany him in power. I think it surprised them a lot —and I include myself among those surprised— when, especially on Monday, the protagonists of the protests were people from the barrios of Caracas. In Venezuela, when you say ‘barrio,’ it refers to humble people. Those people came from different parts of Caracas and got very close to the Miraflores Palace, where they were repressed by the infamous paramilitary “colectivos”, who were seen shooting openly at people not only who were a few meters from the Miraflores Palace but they did so alongside members of the National Guard and the Police, who did absolutely nothing to prevent them from firing.
I believe that the general state of the people, faced with repression that has been massive and throughout the country, is one of fear, and it generates some type of containment in some. Still, the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans’ spirit is to continue fighting for what was decided on July 28 to be respected.
Someone might say that Venezuela has already lived this story in 2014. Then, in 2017, there was an attempt at a very sustained civic protest and also a repression that ultimately ended up quelling, capturing, and sending many leaders into exile. Is there any difference today, in the protest and repression?
Gonzalo Himiob: One of the things that started to happen very strongly since the end of last year, but not with this intensity, is that none of the people arrested during the protests are being allowed to be represented by their lawyers, whether from NGOs, volunteer attorneys who work for free, or even by their private lawyers. A government public defender has been imposed on all of them, absolutely against their will.
This is something that, while it had happened in very specific cases, at this moment can be described as a State policy. There is no way for any lawyer, not even a privately paid lawyer, for any of the victims of these arrests, to provide assistance and exercise a defense in any of these cases.
Another peculiarity we have begun to see is that lawyers from both NGOs and private lawyers who have demanded that the authorities and the security forces allow them to do their work, have been arrested.
In all the reports, we have seen that the repression has been so indiscriminate that it has also particularly targeted minors. In the last report, we were talking about 90 minors detained throughout the country. In previous reports, the number of detained minors —and I don’t know if it’s a coincidence— was always about 10%. This is something new. It’s not that minors weren’t arbitrarily detained before, but this proportion of being always and at all times 10% of the general block of detainees hadn’t been seen before.
The Protest in Venezuela Came Down from the Hills
The regime has criminalized protests. They accuse them of being terrorists, of violent actions, and continue capturing leaders of opposition organizations. Are these manifestations of civic resistance, or are there expressions of violence in response to State violence?
Xabier Coscojuela: I think there’s a bit of everything. Initially, and I think the majority have been peaceful demonstrations, but in this type of demonstration, when they are so massive as in the first days, it’s not surprising that someone might go overboard. What is evidently disproportionate is the use of force that the State has made against the demonstrators. The repression has been widespread and brutal, and it has centered mainly on Venezuela’s poorer neighborhoods.
The difference compared to previous years is that this repression is being recorded and transmitted on social media on a massive scale. In 2017, the protest in Caracas was mainly from middle-class sectors. But this time, the protest came down from the hills, from north to south, and from east to west.
The most important thing of all is that there is a concrete fact: people voted last Sunday and did it in one way; they did it in favor of Edmundo Gonzalez, and he won openly. Chavismo doesn’t want to present the vote tally sheets as it did in 2013, when Nicolas Maduro’s victory against Henrique Capriles was in doubt, they started publishing the voting records on social media. Now they don’t.
There is a change in that sense because it’s evident that they were defeated, and that’s why they don’t want to present the evidence, even though it would be very easy to do so because the CNE has the records, and Maduro’s PSUV has an exact copy. Well, so let’s compare the records. They have them, but they refuse to do so.
They are attempting to have the Supreme Court decide. It’s evident that they want to cool everything down. In Venezuela, we all know that this Court responds to Nicolas Maduro’s orders. There is no doubt. What Maduro orders is what those judges will do, and I imagine they will say they received the CNE’s records and from some parties that have copies of the tally sheets —which can’t have many because the majority didn’t have representatives at all polls. Then, after a few days, they will say they reviewed the voting results and will ratify the CNE’s announcement.
In concrete facts, it is evident that it is a fraud against Venezuelans’ will, and that fraud is trying to suffocate the objection with all the force they can. We are seeing people in many cases hooded, without any type of judicial order. There is also talk of extortion of detainees and their families. Some take advantage of the chaos, but ultimately the solution is simple: present the tally sheets, and it will be clear what happened.
At this moment, there is no foreseeable way out of this crisis. Maduro is entrenched in refusing to present the results. He is clinging to the Supreme Court, which he controls. On the other hand, people continue to demonstrate and protest. What do you foresee in the future? Can this situation continue indefinitely? Is there a fear of a greater escalation of violence, or could this lead to some kind of political negotiation?
Gonzalo Himiob: It’s very complicated for us to anticipate and propose possible scenarios, as we are not political analysts. Our issue is the defense of human rights, but if we are guided by previous experiences regarding what repression has been in our country and, especially if we are guided by the repressive performance of those in power over the last year, we don’t see a decrease in repression in the short term, at least. It’s very difficult.
The Government’s orders and policies regarding people expressing themselves against the results announced by the CNE are very clear. We have not seen any willingness in the security forces, the Prosecutor’s Office, or the courts to question those orders. We anticipate that if the political situation continues as it is, the repression will continue and may even intensify due to the govenment’s attempt to dissuade and intimidate large masses of the population.
What I can assure is that the intimidation has not had the desired effect. People are afraid, but that hasn’t stopped them from coming out to protest and follow the political leadership’s guidelines. They continue to protest, and that will mean greater repression.
Even though information flows through social media, we saw an enormous imbalance in access to media during this electoral campaign. In Venezuela, independent media are subject to censorship. Can people access digital platforms of Tal Cual, El Pitazo, Efecto Cocuyo, El Nacional, independent media, or does the State already control part of the Internet?
Xabier Coscojuela: The media you just mentioned are all blocked by the Government. You have to use VPNs to access those media. On the radio, there were two very listened-to programs in Caracas that were suspended this week. A journalist who works at one of those stations told me she couldn’t say anything about the protests.
On Friday, the Government media strategy backfired with what it did at the Supreme Court, where the candidates had been summoned, and one of them, Enrique Marquez, [one of the eight lesser candidates] gave statements questioning everything being done. That statement was broadcast live and direct by Venezolana de Television, the State channel, (because right now, it’s the channel of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela), and by Venevision, the private channel with the most reach in Venezuela.
In general, the media, especially radio and television, are very controlled, and a significant portion of web media is blocked, although they can be seen using a VPN. You should also take into account that Internet connectivity in a large part of Venezuela is not the best. In any case, people circulate information through networks like WhatsApp and others.
Print newspapers almost disappeared some time ago for various reasons. Television and radio are very controlled. Many self-censor, so the web pages are what people have left to inform themselves and disseminate information. However, people know what is happening; they know what happened, they are demonstrating, and they seem willing to continue protesting, demanding their vote be respected, but I don’t know how far the Government will go to try to prevent information from spreading.
The following is the full interview in Spanish:
Originally published by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.