March of Silence for the Fallen: Remembering the Maduro regime's victims

Silent marches and vigils for Maduro's victims in Venezuela

"No more murders in Venezuela"

The Maduro regime is killing young Venezuelans in order to provoke a violent response for the opposition. It is a trap for the opposition as was seen in Syria. A civic movement abandoning nonviolence and fighting the regime militarily is taking the fight to ground where the dictatorship has the advantage. Rather than falling into the trap, nonviolent opposition is organizing a nonviolent silent march later today to remember those killed and demand justice.

"Silent march in honor of our fallen"

 Mobilizing millions of Venezuelans to nonviolently resist the Maduro dictatorship has a better chance of forcing a democratic transition and the ouster of the regime. The alternative would be civil war and the odds are it would lead to the permanence of the Maduro regime with the aide of Cuban soldiers and intelligence assets.

Paola Ramírez and Carlos Moreno both shot in the head on April 19, 2017 in Venezuela.

Shooting young Venezuelans in the head to terrorize demonstrators and provoke a response has been a Maduro regime tactic since at least February 2014.

Beginning on February 12, 2014 regime agents shot Bassil Alejandro Dacosta, age 24 in the head.  One of the young students who carried Bassil off  after he was shot was Robert Redman, age 28, who reported later that day over twitter: "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?" That same day he was also gunned down by Maduro's colectivos, working in concert with his security forces, and murdered. The killings continued.

Some of the young Venezuelans shot in the head by Maduro's agents

 A high profile killing that shocked the world was the murder of a local beauty queen. Génesis Carmona was marching at approximately 4:00 pm on Tuesday February 18, 2014, near Cedeño Avenue and the intersection of Carabobo, when  a group of masked gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on the demonstrators. Génesis was shot in the head in the left occipital region. She was a model who had won the Miss Tourism Carabobo beauty pageant in 2013.There have been dozens more executed by Maduro regime agents in an effort to terrorize and either silence or provoke nonviolent protesters.

March of silence for the fallen on Saturday, April 22nd at 10am

Families of the victims have pursued justice and had some successes, but much remains to be done to end impunity and hold those responsible accountable. This morning beginning at 9:00am silent marches and rosaries will be held in Acarigua and Araure while an hour later marches will begin in other parts of Venezuela. Demonstrators are asked to dress in white.

March of silence in honor of the fallen. Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 10am

Those of us who advocate for nonviolence in Venezuela have an obligation to speak out and denounce the violence visited on non-violent opponents by the Maduro regime and their Cuban handlers. Those engaged in violence need to understand that sooner or later they will have to answer for their crimes in a court of law.

"They did not die. They murdered them."

Please use the hashtags #MarchaDelSilencio and #SilentMarch along with #Venezuela and share pictures of those killed by Maduro. Tragically, there are many to choose from. They must be not be forgotten.

Vigil for the fallen in Anzoategui, Venezuela last night

 

Tiananmen Square Crackdown & June 4, 1989 Beijing Massacre: It was 25 years ago today

In memory of those who stood up for their rights, lost their lives and for those still unjustly imprisoned today in China.

Students peacefully demonstrating

Twenty five years ago today the Communist leadership of China opened fire on the Chinese people. The Pro-Democracy Movement that had taken to the streets in April of 1989 was violently crushed by the Chinese communist dictatorship beginning on the evening of June 3, 1989. By dawn on June 4, 1989 scores of demonstrators had been shot and killed or run over and crushed by tanks of the so-called People's Liberation Army. and the blood of students and workers splattered and flowed in the streets of Beijing. The Chinese Red Cross had initially counted 2,600 dead when they were pressured to stop by Chinese officials and silenced on this matter. Following the massacre an additional 1,000 were sentenced to death and executed. Scores of Chinese who participated in the Tiananmen protests would spend years and decades in prison. The British Broadcast Corporation reporter Julia Hatton identified Miao Deshun, a humble worker, as possibly being Tiananmen's last prisoner.

Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace laureate, who is also a prisoner of conscience currently imprisoned for his continued non-violent activism had already served a prison sentence for his participation in the Tiananmen student protest in 1989. He was again jailed in 2008 for his human rights activism and sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, 2009.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger persuaded the Bush Administration in the immediate aftermath to downplay the human rights considerations surrounding the Beijing Massacre and to focus on the economic and strategic relationship.  Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) published a October 1, 1989 article revealing Kissinger's direct business ties to Communist China and his defense of the regime and justification of the massacre. FAIR reported how on August 1, 1989 this business consultant who also heads "China Ventures" [that engages China's state bank in joint ventures] wrote a column that appeared in a Washington Post/L.A. Times ("The Caricature of Deng as a Tyrant Is Unfair", 8/1/89). In it Kissinger argued against sanctions: "China remains too important for America's national security to risk the relationship on the emotions of the moment." He asserted: "No government in the world would have tolerated having the main square of its capital occupied for eight weeks by tens of thousands of demonstrators." Kissinger's reputation according to Umair Khan who reviewed his 2011 book, On China, describes him as a man whose "reputation is based on his career as a diplomat turned business consultant." This business relationship was not mentioned back in 1989 by those publishing the former Secretary of State's case against sanctions on China.

Incidentally over the course of six weeks in 1989 beginning on November 17, the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia although engaging in acts of repression did not commit a huge massacre against tens of thousands of demonstrators in the main square of its capital. The demonstrations grew to Tiananmen Square levels of 200,000 and 500,000 demonstrators in Prague.  The end result was the Velvet Revolution and 25 years of peace and prosperity. Kissinger's argument did not hold up under the light of events.

Unfortunately, the downplaying of the human rights situation in China has had consequences over the long term. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dictum "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" has special resonance.

In 2011 Muammar Gaddafi believed that he could get away with mass murder because the world looked the other way in June of 1989 in Beijing and said it plainly: "The unity of China was more important than those people on Tiananmen Square." Its not the first time impunity in one bloody deed has encouraged another. Between 1915 and 1917 the Ottoman Turks murdered more than 1.5 million Armenians and like the Chinese communists in 1989 got away with it. This inspired Adolph Hitler to carry out his own holocaust stating in 1939: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel has denounced indifference and silence before injustice stating that: "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."

Unfortunately, the United States government and much of the Western world failed sacrificing human rights and decency for the sake of economic interests. Leaving it to civil society, the press and non-governmental organizations to take up the slack. The outcome has been a steady deterioration of human rights and freedoms around the world. China is now a rising superpower with a regime that has blood on its hands and refuses to recognize, apologize or repent for its past crimes. The Chinese diplomat in London who shoved two women to the ground as they tried to leave red roses in memory of the June 4, 1989 Beijing Massacre victims demonstrates the regime's violent contempt for human rights. The regime has also sought to censor communication detaining activists prior to the anniversary and blocking Google and messaging apps.


Twenty five years later in 2,000 free Chinese in Senado Square in Macau, another 2,000 free Chinese in Taipei's Liberty Square and over a 180,000 Chinese in Hong Kong  held vigils in memory of their compatriots massacred in Beijing on June 4, 1989. Around the world Chinese diasporas, human rights groups, and members of civil society organized events to remember and continue the call for justice, repentance and reconciliation.   

Prayer vigil at Florida International University in 2014

In Miami at Florida International University members of the university community gathered for a prayer and candlelight vigil taking part in a call to action by Initiatives for China and read their recommended prayer. Below is an excerpt:

Let us give thanks for the courage of the young people of Tiananmen Square who 25 years ago showed the world that the Chinese people desire freedom and justice above all earthly goods, and who were willing to give their lives in their brave witness. May all be strengthened by their bravery. May all be blessed by their memory.

All: Let us remember with gratitude the martyrs of Tiananmen Square.

In this anniversary of China’s young martyrs let us pray that the Chinese leaders of today would turn their hearts away from fear and defensiveness, that they would reach out to the victims and victims’ families, and repent of the massacre of China’s youth. May repentance be the first step toward reconciliation and be a promise to history to never again turn on their own people in murder.

It is in that spirit that this blog post is published today along with the time line below.

Abbreviated Time line of the June 4, 1989 massacre
 
30 May 1989 - Goddess of Democracy is unveiled: During the previous night, students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts assemble the 37-foot-high statue of the Goddess of Democracy, built in two days out of plaster and styrofoam. It stands opposite the giant portrait of Mao Zedong.
 
2 June 1989 - Hunger strike by Capital Joint Liaison Group: The Liaison Group, now composed solely of intellectuals, decides to stage a series of 72-hour hunger strikes to show the students that others too are ready to put their lives at risk. Literary critic Liu Xiaobo, rock star Hou Dejian, and economist Zhou Duo are among the first to start fasting.

- Communist party elders approve plan to put down the protests by force

The Goddess of Democracy

3 June 1989 - Troops are ordered to reclaim Tiananmen Square at all cost. They begin to open fire upon people blocking the advancement of the army and also on people who are just shouting at the troops. Tanks and armored vehicles move towards the center of the city. An unknown number of Beijing citizens die, succumbing to gun shots—sometimes at point blank—or crushed by tanks and armored personnel carriers. In angry retaliation, civilians throw stones at the soldiers, who shoot back. Some soldiers are attacked and beaten up. Buses and cars are set on fire.

Victims of the massacre

4 June 1989 1:00 a.m. The troops have blocked off all approaches to Tiananmen Square. Various people who witnessed the killings of civilians report to the BWAF and to the students’ Command Headquarters, urging them to withdraw.
3:00 a.m. Liu Xiaobo, Hou Dejian, Zhou Duo and a fourth men who began the second hunger strike negotiate with the troops to allow the students to leave the Square.
4:00 a.m. On the square the lights go off. The statue of the Goddess of Democracy is toppled by a tank.
4:30 a.m. The tanks and the troops stationed in the north corner of the Square begin to move forward. Students vote and eventually agree to leave. The soldiers shoot out the students’ loud speakers. Led by the Command Headquarters, the students walk away from the Monument to the People’s Heroes toward the southeast part of the square. A row of armored vehicles moves slowly toward the monument. Other troops arrive from the west, squeezing the crowd. As the students leave, army tanks crush tents on their way. The student guards are the last to leave, with soldiers about 18 feet behind them firing warning shots.
5:00 a.m. As the students pass Qianmen, residents line the streets and applaud. The army throws tear gas and shoots at students and citizens near the square and in other areas of the capital. Some people are crushed under tanks. The number of victims is not known.
6:20 a.m. Tanks crush retreating students.

5 June 1989 - Final act of defiance. An unarmed men blocks a column of tanks as they rolled towards Tiananmen Square. He's taken away by men in plainclothes. 22 years later his identity remains unknown.

Tankman

  

March 24 is the International Day for the Right to the Truth: Help Venezuela

"I have frequently been threatened with death I must tell you that as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people." - Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez

"Truth never damages a cause that is just." - Mohandas Gandhi

13 of the 37 killed in Venezuela since February 12 in protests

 The body count continues to rise in Venezuela along with the charges and counter-charges between the government of Maduro, opposition political parties and a democratic resistance led by university students. The United Nations recognizes March 24 as the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. This day is set aside in rememberance of El Salvador's Archbishop Romero assassinated on March 24, 1980. Today is also an important day to remember victims of political violence such as Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Harold Cepero Escalante murdered in Cuba on July 22, 2012 and the Venezuelans killed since February 12, 2014. According to DeutscheWelle: "Venezuela's national guard has been firing tear gas and live ammunition at demonstrators. Protestors resort to stones and the burning of cars." The national guard has also raided the home of journalists, detaining them and searched through their belongings as was the case with Mildred Manrique. 



The great English writer and poet Samuel Johnson observed that "Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages." There is a fog of war in which rumors take on a life of their own and need to be put down with the slower moving facts, but then there is also propaganda, ( information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view). An extreme example of this was on display in print and in television with Mark Weisbrot, and Oliver Stone in the Boston Globe.

Mark Weisbrot in a February 20, 2014 interview with Abby Martin on RT's "Breaking the Set" claimed at 20 minutes and 58 seconds that the protests "started out from the beginning demanding that the president resign." That statement is a lie. The protests initially were not about Maduro. What sparked this round of demonstrations began in Táchira on February 4, 2014 when a student at the University of Los Andes in the Botanical Garden of the University was the victim of an attempted rape. Students protested that "insecurity had taken over the campus." The protest was repressed and a number of students arrested and physically mistreated by the authorities. The news of the abuse by government officials sparked additional protests. 

However, if you read the February 10th open letter tweeted by student leader Juan Requesens, who has more than 528,000 followers the message is one that is open to dialogue with the government on two conditions 1) that students who were arrested exercising their legitimate right to protest be freed and 2) that calling them "coup plotters" or "terrorists" for engaging in nonviolent protests to demand their rights is unacceptable.

February 12 in Venezuela is a national youth day and students across the country organized nonviolent mass demonstrations in response to the earlier repression and were met with violence by regime officials working in coordination with paramilitary groups known as "colectivos." Students were shot in the head and killed. This escalated the protests and as the violence increased the demands expanded and began to focus on Maduro.

March 22, 2014 opposition protests

 The article also presents a false picture of the protests as "small groups of protesters [who] engage in nightly battles with security forces, throwing rocks and firebombs and running from tear gas"and contrasting it with the "... the crowd that showed up for the March 5 ceremonies to mark the anniversary of Chávez’s death, it was a sea of working-class Venezuelans, tens of thousands of them." The opposition to Maduro since February 12th has repeatedly mobilized tens of thousands of protesters from across Venezuela in anti-government protests. In this article there are photos of just three isolated pictures on three different dates with massive numbers of demonstrators.

March 2, 2014 opposition protests

Since February 12, 2014 tens of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets to protest against the Maduro regime and its excesses. The response of the government: escalating violence and the use of snipers to shoot demonstrators in the head has driven the demands from issues of security and  concerns of scarcity into a call for his resignation.

February 12, 2014 opposition protests

Furthermore, the killings by snipers shooting demonstrators and passersby in the head along with the collaboration of the national guard with paramilitary units on motorcycles is reminiscent of the tactics used by the Iranians in crushing mass student protests in 2009. The targeting  and murder of young women by sniper fire was also a practice captured on video with the death of Neda Agha-Soltan that captured international attention in June of 2009 much the same way that  Génesis Carmona's murder did last month.  The role of the Cubans in the Venezuelan military and intelligence apparatus has been much commented on over the past month, but the relationship with Iran and the presence of Iranians in Venezuela has not drawn as much attention, but it should.

Weisbrot, who has collaborated with Chávez on initiatives such as the Bank of the South, in his Boston Globe piece writes about Washington "funding opposition groups" but doesn't touch on charges made by the Panamanian president that the Maduro government is funding the opposition in Panama. Weisbrot also fails to mention that Hugo Chávez engaged in a massive Chavista foreign aid program with ideological considerations for more than a decade:

 "began providing oil assistance to Cuba in 2000. In June 2005, he launched Petrocaribe to offer discounted oil to an expanding list of member nations. Currently, 19 Caribbean and Central American nations benefit from Petrocaribe. Members consume about 300,000 barrels per day, roughly 10 percent of Venezuela's daily output on concessionary terms. While payment terms vary according to rises and falls in the price of oil, the standard Petrocaribe mechanism requires payments of 40 to 50 percent in the first 90 days, and the balance over 20 years at 1 percent interest." 

 Weisbrot has made claims about the success of the Venezuelan government in reducing poverty rates that have been questioned for their veracity. Also not mentioned in Wesibrot's analysis of poverty reduction is that the region as a whole has achieved as much or more poverty reduction, then claimed by the Chavista's without the drastic measures that bode ill for Venezuela in the long run.

The victims and their loved ones have a right to the truth and while many remain silent or worse defend the Maduro regime as it murders unarmed demonstrators, people of good will need to help. Please share the video below in which a Venezuelan student explains the reasons for their protests.