Today Multitudes of Venezuelans took to the streets for freedom and independence

" At four months of unjust imprisonment, I affirm that we have to be United to get out of a corrupt, inefficient and undemocratic regime." - Leopoldo López Mendoza, from Ramo Verde Prison, June 18, 2014

Today, a multitude of Venezuelan citizens took to the streets across their country to demand their freedom and independence. The images can be found on social media. Students who organized today's demonstrations called it the March for Independence.

Opposiiton leader Maria Corina Machado tweeted the above image today

You wouldn't know it from the mainstream media but there is a mass democratic movement in Venezuela that has maintained itself since February turning hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to the street and its shaking the foundations of the Maduro Regime. Today across Venezuela students mobilized and took to the streets. They were met by security forces firing tear gas and rubber bullets in order to break up the nonviolent demonstrations.

The death toll during these protests by agents of the Maduro regime has reached 43. Josue Farias died in Maracaibo on June 21, 2014. The 18 year old student was injured by a  bullet during protests at URBE on May 29, 2014. 

Repression and tear gas in Carabobo, Venezuela

Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been unjustly imprisoned since February 18, 2014 when marching alongside a multitude of Venezuelans he turned himself  in to the Venezuelan authorities knowing that justice was not guaranteed.



Meanwhile as an innocent man is imprisoned and kept away from his wife and children the killers of young Venezuelans remain free. on March 23, 2014 Adriana Urquiola was shot twice and killed. She was 5 months pregnant. Three months later and her killer remains free. Seven of the eight accused of murdering Bassil da Costa will be judged in freedom. Considering that the judiciary is completely politicized and subject to the whims of the executive branch and the Cubans the hope of justice is at best naive. Remember Venezuela is a country were a judge following the law both national and international was arrested and raped while in detention for freeing an individual who was arbitrarily detained.

Alvaro Vargas Llosa outlines the crisis that the Maduro regime is facing and it is one of legtimiacy:

Every serious poll confirms, for the first time, that a solid majority of the public opposes the government. Even pro-“chavista” polling companies, such as Instituto Venezolano de Análisis de Datos, agree: In its most recent survey, 55 percent of Venezuelans considered Maduro a dictator. Key opposition figures are all more popular than Maduro, including Machado and López—who is now even ahead of Capriles.

Four months later following a trumped up hearing and now awaiting a political show trial in August that will be orchestrated from Havana, Cuba with the assistance of President Maduro, Leopoldo Lopez released the audio of his defense before the Court which was an indictment of the regime highlighting the ridiculousness of the charges.


Venezuelan students abroad just last week addressed a forum at the United Nations Human Rights Council to denounce the human rights situation in their home country alongside Cuban dissidents, and a survivor in the incident that claimed the lives of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante on July 22, 2012. The students discussed protester deaths at the United Nations.

The struggle for the future of Venezuela continues. As long as the opposition is able to nonviolently resist the Maduro regime while articulating a coherent strategy and maintaining nonviolent discipline they have an excellent change of achieving a democratic change that will usher in a new and better Venezuela.

Remembering Neda Agha Soltan 5 years later

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. - Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963

Parents mark anniversary of their daughter Neda Agha-Soltan's death

 A young woman's last moments in Tehran are captured on June 20, 2009 on a camera phone and uploaded to the internet and seen by tens of millions. The cries of desperation in Farsi by their tone and sadness transcend language and place, in this case Iran. Five have passed and her killers have not been brought to justice and the regime responsible for her death continues to rule in her homeland. Her name was Neda Agha Soltan and she never got to see her 27th birthday.


Nine months later at the 2010 Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy I gave the welcome address on behalf of the summit organizers and placed the situation of Iran in context while introducing her fiancé who would later address the Summit:

In Iran, the contested June election sparked an unprecedented wave of state-sponsored violence and repression. Thousands of peaceful protesters were beaten, arrested, tortured, and killed. One of them Neda Agha-Soltan, age 26, was shot and killed on June 20, 2009 during the protests denouncing election fraud. Her fiancé, Caspian Makan, is with us here today, and will address the Summit tomorrow. Neda’s death was captured on video and in those terrible moments reflected the great crime committed by the Iranian government against the people of Iran. Official numbers place the number of killed at 36 during the protests but the opposition places the dead at 72. In 2009 at least 270 people were hanged and in 2010 at least 12 so far. 4,000 have been arrested including journalists and reformist politicians.

Five years later and the full gravity of not only the killing of an innocent woman who wanted a better future for her country but the extreme lengths that the Iranian government would go to cover up their crime. In George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 the Inner Party member O'Brien explained the logic of rewriting history: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." The Iranian secret service demonstrated this idea in action with Neda Agha Soltan. The Guardian newspaper reported on June 24, 2009:

"The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world. Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

This was because the family refused to lie, as the Iranian secret police wanted, and say that Neda was murdered by anti-government protesters and not say that it was the Iranian government and its militia that killed their daughter. Even a complete stranger had her life turned upside down over a mix up of photos online.

Neda Soltani, a lady whose picture was mistakenly confused by the media with Neda Agha-Soltan explained how the Iranian secret service destroyed her life in Iran because they wanted to take advantage of the mix up: “They wanted to use me to say the whole thing was a fake made up by Western media – ‘see, here is this Neda and she is alive." When this university professor refused to go along with this grotesque fraud she and her family were interrogated by the secret police. “They were threatening me and my brother and my mother. They charged me with treason. They said I was endangering the security of my own country. I knew what that meant: death.” She fled the country and now lives in exile and has written a book My Stolen Face giving an account of what happened.

Others do succumb to regime pressures. Neda's music teacher, Hamid Panahi, who was with her when she died was put under intense pressure by the regime after the video went viral. He was interrogated and threatened for hours and finally succumbed to pressure to appear in a shameful Press TV documentary and say things that the regime wanted him to say. Those close to Panahi say he went into a severe depression after he appeared on the program and never managed to get over it. Panachi died today on the fifth anniversary of Neda's death of a heart attack.

Social media reports that two were arrested at Neda's graveside today on the anniversary of her death. Iran News Update had reported that friends, family and admirers would gather to hold a ceremony on June 20 at 16:30 where she now rests at Behesht Zahra section 257, row 41, number 32 and place flowers on her shrine and pray for her spirit.

Martin Luther King Jr. once observed that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and unfortunately the impunity that the Iranian regime continues to operate under only encourages more killing and not only in Iran. In Venezuela young women engaged in nonviolent protests under circumstances eerily similar to Neda's and it is known that the Iranian regime has close ties to the Venezuelan regime and the Iranian intelligence service has a presence in the South American country. Unfortunately that means that we must now also remember Génesis Carmona, Geraldine Moreno, Adriana Urquiola and many others killed by pro-government forces to instill terror and discourage citizens peacefully assembling to demand change for the better. 

We must continue to pursue justice for all of them and keep them in our memory. Five years later the regime's press crackdown and repression continues in Iran as does repression against those who remember and honor Neda Agha Soltan.

We owe it to Neda and those persecuted for honoring her to remember and let others learn of this injustice. Use the hashtag #NedaSpeaks and spread the word.

Regimes killing civilians in Cuba and Venezuela and how its covered up

 The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense. Through this we can build, we must build, a defense against repetition. - Simon Wiesenthal  

Killed during protests in Venezuela February - March 2014

 The regime in Venezuela in consultation with their Cuban counterparts is consolidating power and increasing its control over the entire society. At the same time it is unleashing brutal repression against a democratic resistance that has sought to address its grievances using nonviolent protests.



Students protesters have been arbitrarily detained, tortured, shot and killed. Now the Maduro regime is claiming that the opposition are fascists and responsible for the fatalities. They have imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, imprisoned opposition mayors and are threatening to imprison María Corina Machado for calling for nonviolent protests and criticizing the government. Alleging that they are responsible for the violence.

Unfortunately, observers of the regime in Cuba find these tactics all too familiar. The Castro dictatorship has killed thousands and committed acts of state terrorism such as using MiGs to shoot down civilian aircraft in international airspace with air to air missiles on February 24, 1996 and attempted to manufacture evidence to turn the victims, engaged in search and rescue in the Florida Straits for rafters into terrorists. Castro failed in controlling the narrative in the Brothers to the Rescue because one of the three planes made it back with recordings and witnesses. Nevertheless the spies that provided that infiltrated the organization and contributed to the murders were declared heroes by Fidel Castro and the Cuban propaganda machinery.

Murdered by Castro Regime on February 24, 1996

Another incident in which 37 were massacred by government agents occurred on July 13, 1994. Cuban families seeking a better life outside of Cuba fled aboard the tugboat "13 de Marzo". The "13 de Marzo" tugboat was surrounded by other tugs and with Cuban coastguards in the vicinity bearing witness rammed repeatedly and sunk.  There would have not been any survivors if not for a passing Greek trawler that witnessed the attack. Fidel Castro addressing Cubans on the only mass media permitted in Cuba, that of the dictatorship, declared the men who committed the massacre heroes and the victims responsible for having stolen the tug.

Murdered by Castro Regime on July 13, 1994

 This atrocity was investigated by international human rights bodies but justice has still not been done 20 years later.  There have been others in 1993 eyewitness accounts from the Guantanamo Naval Base led to a formal protest by the United States that defenseless Cuban swimmers were being shot at by snipers, having grenades lobbed and their remained removed with gaff hooks.

Prisoners of conscience such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo are repeatedly tortured and driven into  hunger strikes as a recourse to defend their dignity, sadistic guards take their water away contributing to their deaths.
Tourists and students not involved in anything political have been killed by government agents in Cuba and the shooters have never been identified or brought to justice. In Cuba when a hungry child is shot and killed by a retired state security officer for trying to steal fruit from a tree it is only news in dissident and exile blogs.

The latest example of regime rewriting history is with the Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante July 22, 2012 killings and the subsequent show trial of Angel Carromero where the  Payá family was barred from attending.

The victims continue to be slandered and libeled not only while alive but after they have been killed and families who speak out in defense of their loved ones are also targeted by state security and the propaganda organs slandered and attacked. This serves as an example for many others to remain silent in order not to suffer the same fate.

This diabolical practice is now being carried out in Venezuela where the Maduro regime engages in double speak demonizing the opposition calling it fascist in Venezuela (as in the above tweets) while abroad using more measured language when addressing an international audience. On March 19, 2014 Maduro tweeted:  Our Victory will be Peace consolidated with Justice, the Fascists will pay for their crimes against our People and our Country!!! The original tweets copied and linked together are reproduced above. This practice predates the February 12, 2014 protests. For example on December 7, 2013 Maduro tweeted: "Let us continue to stand together to fight speculators that price gouge and rob those who work now backed by fascist gangs Let us continue Winning!" The president of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello tweeted on March 19, 2014: "The fascist murderer capriles shows himself, threatens war for the arrest of the terrorist Daniel Ceballos, hatred defines them both."  They speak of peace abroad but demonize their opponents at home. This is not a recipe for one who is seeking genuine peace.

One should not forget that the Capriles referred to by Cabello is the candidate who narrowly lost to Maduro in a national election with irregularities and did not contest the election to avoid the violence being threatened by the Chavistas at the time. Capriles called off a peaceful march out of fear that Chavistas would infiltrate and carry out violent acts. 

Armed infiltrator ID'd by students and turned over to authorities

 This is something that has been seen during the current round of protests. Protesters have identified military agents masquerading as students carrying firearms as in the case of Fernando Quezada who was identified on February 27, 2014 who have infiltrated their ranks and turned the infiltrators over to the authorities after having obtained their information such was also the case below with  John Jairo Yudex Reyes C.I 21.039.524 who is a Second Sergeant in the Bolivarian National Guard and a member of Military Intelligence (DIM) on March 16, 2014.


Now, as their Cuban counterparts are so adept at doing, the Maduro regime is contesting the responsibility for the rising body count and charging the opposition with terrorism and violence. At the same time the opposition has mobilized tens of thousands of demonstrators in mass nonviolent demonstrations in which it has been Maduro that has unleashed the military, the national guard and para-paramilitaries to terrorize the large crowds and brake up the demonstrations. Opposition leaders such as Leopoldo Lopez and the opposition members have peacefully turned themselves over to the authorities knowing that the judiciary is no longer independent, but an arm of the executive, and that they cannot expect justice. Nevertheless, they have maintained their nonviolent posture because they know it is their best chance to achieve victory over the government that has behaved in an increasingly despotic fashion. 

The Venezuelan opposition has rightfully focused its attention on the Castro regime's presence in Venezuela and their tactics of repression and control, but should also look at another ally of the Maduro regime, the Iranians who used terror to quell student protests in 2009 using snipers.  

Here is a partial list of people shot in the head during the protests in Venezuela since February 12, 2014:

Bassil Alejandro Dacosta

 Bassil Alejandro Dacosta was shot in the head in Caracas on February 12, 2014 from shots fired by a group of police men and his killing was captured from different angles on three different cameras. He was 24 years old.

Robert Redman, circled wearing a cap

Robert Redman, in the picture above carrying shooting victim, Bassil Alejandro Dacosta on February 12, 2014 was himself shot in the head and killed later that same day in Caracas but not before tweeting: "Today I was hit with a rock in the back, a helmet in my nose. I swallowed tear-gas, Carried the kid who died, and what did you do?" He was 31 years old.

 Génesis Carmona (on the right holding poster)

 Génesis Carmona was shot in the head in the city of Valencia in the state of Carabobo on February 18, 2014 and died a day later from her injuries. In the last picture taken of her before being shot she is holding up a poster with two other women that reads:  "God's time is perfect but if we don't go out into the streets, the time of Maduro will be ETERNAL." She was 22 years old.

Geraldine Moreno

Geraldine Moreno was shot in the head with buckshot on February 19, 2014 in Tazajal, located in Naguanagua, in the state of Carabobo while taking part in a protest and in one of her last tweets on February 17th explained what motivated her to take part in the demonstrations: "No one sends me I go because I want to defend my Venezuela." She died from her injuries on Saturday, February 22, 2014. She was 23 years old.

Anthony Rojas

 In the evening hours of March 18, 2014 Anthony Rojas died of a gunshot wound to the face. He was a second semester student of mechanical engineering at the University of Tachira (UNET). He died in a presumed shootout near a shop in the Diamante sector of Táriba. It was learned that Rojas was in the commercial establishment buying drinks with other youth when motorized units passed by and fired into the place while shooting at protesters in a nearby barricade. He was eighteen years old.
 

Wilfredo Rey

 Bus driver Wilfredo Rey, 31, died on March 21, 2014 after being shot in the head during a confrontation between demonstrators and hooded gunmen in the western city of San Cristobal in Tachira. He was not involved in the protests. Married, father of three small children. He was 32 years old.

Adriana Urquiola

On March 23, 2014 Adriana Urquiola was shot twice, once in the head in Nuevos Teques. She was five months pregnant and worked as an interpreter on Venevisión News. She was 28 years old. She and her husband got off a bus due to a barricade and were going to catch a taxi when the shooting occurred.

Filippo Sevillano, president of the Student Center at the University of Margarita (Unimar), was shot in the head on the night of April 1, 2014 during a protest on Jóvito Villalba Avenue, in front of the Rattan Plaza commercial center.  He has been operated on and is currently hospitalized. He is 27 years old.

Out of the eight shot in the head, five were young people openly in opposition to the Maduro government and protesting when they were shot. The other three were not participating in the protests but were in the vicinity and happened to fit the profile: two were young and gainfully employed and the third a university student. Is it just a coincidence? Who benefits from targeting young protesters and creating a climate of terror where people fear to go out and exercise their right to peaceful protest? Is it just a coincidence that an ally of the Maduro regime, Iran, used a similar tactic against student demonstrators in the Green Movement in 2009?