At this point, there are a number of reasons why to participate in protests in Venezuela: water shortage, food shortage, electricity shortage, medicines shortage, censorship, dictatorship, political prisoners and even torture. But a month ago, the people had enough when a strike against the opposition-majority-National Assembly was perpetuated. Ever since, there has been pacific protests every day. Well, pacific from our side at least. Not from theirs.
Back in 2014, there were protests just like these. Coincidentally, around 50 teenagers also were killed on that occasion. Now, there are around 50 more. This means that the Venezuelan Government has the blood of at least 100 on their hands. Why teenagers? Well, most protesters are college students. Therefore, most of the victims age from 17 to 20 years old — 30 tops. One of them was actually 14 years old.
Nevertheless, it’s not the killings and the violence that keep me up at night. The cruelty of the GNB (National Guard of Venezuela, Police) and their great abuse of authority does, though.
On May 14, Hecder Lugo, 22 years old, after being forced down to the ground, begged the police to cease fire. Instead, a GNB approached him and shot him once more. There’s a saying: don’t kick a man when he’s down. Well, they shot him instead. And there’s a video to prove it.
The day before this, Pedro Yammine, 22 years old, got ran over by a small tank. The worst part? His parents, a scientist and a doctor, had to collect money for his medical expenses because in Venezuela, it doesn’t matter how hard you work and how many titles you have, you can be starving just as everyone else.
There have also been many cases where GNBs are stealing items away from citizens: cars, bags, among others. For instance, there’s Fernando Caballero, who got his cell phone, wallet, card passwords, and all his money taken away. Daniel Alvarez was threatened with a tear gas bomb into giving his equipment. Not only protesters get a brutal beat, but also people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I asked the GNBs to kill me, so they wouldn’t torture me anymore.” -Anonymous Protester
GNBs have no compassion. They attack women, and they do not mind about kids. There is a very moving video that went viral of improvised first aid doctors carrying away the kids so that they wouldn’t suffocate. Actually, a few days ago there was “The protest of the Grandparents” and they got as much gas and repression as any other protester. They even tried to stop them from marching.
It’s important to say that GNB’s are just generally unnecessarily rude and aggressive:
I never really understood how brain-washed they were until I heard them singing “I wish I had an iron fist, so I could decapitate the damn protester, I wish I had an iron fist, so I could transverse it to the damn right.”
Often, protesters are shot at point blank range. Like in the case of Juan Pernalette, who died because of a tear-gas shot to the chest.
#3Mayo Efectivos de la #GNB dispara a quemarropa contra manifestantes en #Altamira. pic.twitter.com/HblhmsQGAm
— CaraotaDigital (@CaraotaDigital) May 3, 2017
Venezuela needs humanitarian help. And no organization is doing so. The UN and the OAE have been discussing for over 2 years a measure that is not even helpful at all. Media, please talk about Venezuela.
