#SOSVenezuela: Non-violent National Student Movement versus Maduro, the Castros and their security apparatus

Students in Venezuela practicing the power of nonviolence defending truth and love of country confront a government that uses brute violence, lies and instigation to hatred to preserve their power.

Student nonviolently faces off with a security vehicle holding up a flag

On February 12, 2014 Venezuela's National Youth Day millions of young students took to the streets to nonviolently protest "the social and economic crisis caused by the illegitimate government that Venezuela has today."  Young Venezuelans inside and outside of the country have mobilized in a coherent and sustained effort to expose the anti-democratic nature of the government. A full and brief explanation is offered by Andreina Nash in the video titled: What's going on in Venezuela in a nutshell.


These students are facing a government that over the past fourteen years has been stripping Venezuela's democracy of all its constitutional and institutional democratic safeguards in order to consolidate power into the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and in the presidency. At the same time the presence of both Cuban state security and military officials in the country who have presided over the building of a totalitarian apparatus is cause for great concern. They have used technological tools to censor images over twitter. Over the past 14 years independent television press outlets have been taken over or shutdown by the government. Only the social media remain and outside media sources. Both have been blocked by the Maduro government during these demonstrations.

Students marching in Venezuela for their freedom

In Venezuela nonviolent public protests are being criminalized and government agents directing armed pro-government groups known as "colectivos", or what are known in Cuba as "rapid response brigades", have been set up to terrorize public demonstrators critical of the government. On February 11, 2014 Roderick Navarro and Guido Mercado reported over twitter the names of a few of the students wounded by gunshots that same day who had been identified: Jorge Monsalve 20 years old, Franco Perez 15 years old (Thorax), Pedro Alison 24 years old (Left arm), Anny Paredes 36 years old (Abdomen).  A day later on February 12, 2014, National Youth Day in Venezuela, the repression escalated and Robert Redman, Neyder Arellano Sierra y Bassil Alejandro Da Costa were all shot in the head and killed. All extra-judicially executed by collectives and officials of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) against the nonviolent student marches. Sebin agents are trained by the Cubans.Their is an effort underway by the Maduro government to criminalize nonviolent dissent in Venezuela.

Brutal repression against students in Venezuela

Cuban state security thrives on the creative use of lies and violence to sow division in opposition movements and discredit them with the use of infiltrators into the movement. This can be seen now by provocateurs engaging in violent acts that are seized on by the Maduro government to portray the student movement as violent. Wisely, the student movement in Venezuela is nonviolent and condemns violence and has called on its members to record and document any acts of violence and for members of the movement to expel anyone engaged in violence. This is an example of what is known as nonviolent discipline and is a demonstration of maturity and strategic vision by the student movement.

Their best chance of success in achieving their goals is maintaining the nonviolent character of their movement along with coherent tactics and an overall strategy that will take them to where they want to go. Gene Sharp, a scholar of nonviolent resistance asserts that nonviolence is not an unarmed struggle but one that relies on different tools than those used in violence:

"I say nonviolent struggle is armed struggle. And we have to take back that term from those advocates of violence who seek to justify with pretty words that kind of combat. Only with this type of struggle one fights with psychological weapons, social weapons, economic weapons and political weapons. And that this is ultimately more powerful against oppression, injustice and tyranny then violence."

Sharp also observes that "using violence is a stupid decision." This is because paradoxically the more brutal the regime the more successful nonviolent movements are in confronting them when compared to violent movements. Furthermore nonviolent movements can succeed without the aide of outside powers, states or interests but violent movements depend on outside support to succeed. When comparing rates of success over the past century nonviolence comes out on top.

My prayers, solidarity, thoughts and best wishes are with the student movement in Venezuela.

#SOSAntunez Cuban hunger striker Antúnez's conversation with the Castros

 

Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez on hunger strike

Historically, the Castro regime has offered three doors to political opposition: prison, exile, or death. Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez was imprisoned for 17 years and 38 days between 1990 and 2007 for standing up in a public square and declaring that communism was a utopian error and that Cuba needed to undergo reforms as were then taking place in Eastern Europe. When he was released from prison, and was granted a humanitarian visa to the United States to address health issues, the Cuban government offered to let him travel there but only if he did not return. He refused to leave Cuba rejecting the option of exile. In 2013 both Antúnez and Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, his wife and an opposition leader in her own right, traveled across the world to denounce the human rights situation on the island and then returned to Cuba on December 31, 2013. They rejected exile.

The response of the Cuban government was one of escalation. Beginning on January 24, 2014 their home was placed under a security cordon restricting access in anticipation of the CELAC Summit in Havana and it has remained there until the present day.

 On February 5, 2014 a raid on his home followed by his arrest, following a beating, ending in the vandalizing and ransacking of his home. State security agents painted the front of his home blue to cover up anti-government slogans. Antúnez 's wife was not there having left early in the morning to attend a vigil. When she learned of her husband's arrest Yris changed course and was heading to state security headquarters to inquire about him when she too was beaten up and arrested. In addition to that she was touched inappropriately by the political police who arrested her and were making inappropriate comments of a sexual nature. 

On February 10, 2014 at 8:00am Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez initiated a hunger and thirst strike to protest the escalating State Security provocations and announced it over twitter.





It did not immediately have the desired effect. 

Following the start of the hunger and thirst strike, state security further escalated its repression raiding the home, arresting both Antúnez and Yris, and repeatedly ransacking the house on February 11, February 13 and today February 15th.  Antúnez is in bad shape. His sister, Bertha Antúnez, over twitter reports: "Today vomited bile several times with blood traces." 

Thankfully, after several international calls from friends pleading with him to at least drink water to give them more time to mobilize international solidarity Antúnez broke the thirst strike but is maintaining the hunger strike.

The response by state security was today's raid, ransacking and detention.  Within Cuba the response by other activists has been to start their own hunger strike in solidarity and in the diaspora there are those engaged in a rotating fast to demonstrate theirs.

What is taking place right now is a dialogue in which the opposition on the island, the government and the diaspora are all engaged. Its painful and at stakes are human lives.
  
Nonviolence scholar, Michael Nagler in an Introduction to Nonviolence filmed at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 2006 offered the following analysis on hunger strikes within a nonviolent context: 

What you are doing is putting your life into the hands of another person. ... You are not killing yourself but you are saying to the person that: "Your behavior is so unacceptable that if you continue it its going to kill me." It is an extreme case of taking on the suffering that is in a situation. ...This is different from a threat because what you are saying to the person is "I am going to exhibit to you, mirror back to you, the ultimate consequences of what you are doing." ... This is an act of truth. "You are killing us - you are killing our people and I'm going to show you that you are doing it to awaken your conscience."...Thats why you have to be carrying on a conversation on a nonverbal level.

Antúnez is engaged in a potentially deadly conversation with the Castro brothers and their state security apparatus when he tells them to cease and desist from surrounding his home with a security cordon, raiding his home, stealing his property and mistreating his wife. Now if this dialogue were merely limited to the Cuban government it would be suicide. This is a government that murders opposition leaders and then tries to make it look like a car accident, as in the case of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante on July 22, 2012 demonstrates.

However, this is not a two way conversation. There are other participants in the conversation: the international community, civil society (both in and out of Cuba), the democratic opposition, the general populace and the diaspora. They are all impacted to greater or lesser degrees by this hunger strike. There is a national conversation underway in the United States around the question of sanctions on Cuba. The European Union is looking to re-examine its relationship with Cuba on terms that would benefit the current regime.

The Cuban dictatorship does pay attention to how this can affect their plans and interests. Unfortunately, the greater they perceive Antúnez's threat as an opposition leader the higher a price that they will be willing to pay to "let him die" or as seen over the past week to heighten the repression in order to accelerate his death.  
 
It is important to note that after the vandalism of his home with blue paint on February 5th that Antúnez took white paint and sent state security a message: "Down with the Castros. Nor will I shut up or leave Cuba."

There are profound questions surrounding the decision to undertake a hunger strike, but at the end of the day it is a matter of conscience and an individual decision. However, one thing is clear if it were up to the Castro dictatorship's state security service Antúnez would die on the hunger strike removing an obstacle to their plans.

It is up to the other participants in this conversation to change the regime's cost-benefit calculation in order to save the life of  Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez. His life is not only in the Castros hands but ours as well.

CELAC bears fruit in Cuba and Venezuela

^"16 You will know them by their fruits. ... A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So then, you will know them by their fruits." - Matthew 7:16-20 NAS Bible

Less than a month following the gathering in Havana of members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in attendance were also the Secretary Generals of the United Nations and the Organization of American States. One can already see some of the many fruits borne out of the Second CELAC Summit held January 28 - 29, 2014. Days prior to the Summit, and in the case of Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez and Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera beginning on January 24, 2014, state security laid siege to the homes of scores of activists effectively placing them under house arrest. At the same time many more who had wanted to organize activities parallel to CELAC Summit were arbitrarily detained and an Argentine national detained upon arrival at the airport in Cuba was declared persona non grata and sent back. 

Manuel Cuesta Morua, a social democrat ,who was the chief organizer of a planned parallel summit with a human rights focus was arbitrarily detained on the eve of the CELAC Summit and held for five days and has now been charged with "disseminating false news against international peace," and is no longer allowed to travel.

While all of this was taking place the Secretary Generals of the OAS and the United Nations refused to publicly criticize the nationwide crackdown and wholesale human rights violations occurring during their visit to the island. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised how the Cuban government treat women in Cuba ignoring the documented evidence that the dictatorship organizes mobs to physically assault and terrorize women who dissent. Add to that the hypocrisy of Raul Castro heading a regional body that claims to be democratic when he is the continuation of a 55 year old dictatorship inherited from his older brother. 

Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez on Hunger and Thirst Strike

 CUBA

The Castro regime felt emboldened by the CELAC Summit and on January 27, 2014 Gorki Águila, received a summons to attend his own summary trial where he faced a 10 year prison sentence for "possession of illicit drugs" in reality he is a dissident musician who is also an epileptic with a prescription for the "drugs" they want to use to imprison him.

On February 5, 2014 at 9:00am state security agents and members of the political police arrived with fire trucks, six patrol cars , five trucks , approximately four skid trailers arrived at the home of Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” in Placetas knocked on the door and automatically detained and handcuffed Antúnez and took him away whe he opened the door. The agents then entered the house and took whatever they wanted including: laptops, television, a compact disc player, cell phones, down to pots and pans and painted the front of the house blue to cover up slogans. Later that same day Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera was also arrested and beaten up while on her way to State Security headquarters to learn of her husband's plight and sexually harassed and molested by the state security agents who touched her inappropriately. When she got home in the evening Yris made the following statement:

"I was arrested with violence. I was beaten, I have my mouth busted. They put a rag bathed in gasoline, with grease in my mouth. They squeezed it into my face. The officer wearing the badge 115025 touched my face, breasts, would get on top of me. They had me handcuffed with my arms behind my back."

 On February 10, 2014 at  8:00am Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" began a hunger and thirst strike demanding that the security cordon erected around his house be withdrawn and the properties taken by state security and the political police returned.

The regime's response to the hunger strike came a day later on February 11, 2014 when they knocked down the front door without knocking, beat up and detained both "Antúnez" and his wife Yris. Once again the house was ransacked. No warrant or confiscation order was presented.  The agents of the dictatorship have toughened up the security cordon around the home and even Yris is unable to obtain food.

This has led the human rights defender to maintain the hunger and thirst strike through its fourth day. Some articles online indicate that a healthy human being can die within 8 days of starting that kind of strike and most if not all are expected to pass away by the 14th day others place it as few as 5 to 6 days.  On February 13, the fourth day of the strike, the political police and state security agents again, for the third time since February 5th, invaded Antúnez's home, detaining him nd his wife Yris then ransacked his home again. It has also been reported that all this is taking place with the possibility that his wife is pregnant.

On Valentine's Day the human rights defender will be beginning his fifth day on a hunger and thirst strike and his life is in mortal danger. The public silence of democrats and of men who supposedly represent organizations that defend international human rights standards have emboldened the dictatorship and repression and violence are on the rise.

Let me be clear I do not generally approve of hunger strikes unless it is an extreme situation and under particular circumstances. However the mistreatment, violations of human rights are outrageous and the demands made by the Cuban activist are just and can and should be campaigned for by people of good will.

Basil Alejandro Da Costa Frías, 24, (shot in the head)

VENEZUELA 

In Venezuela, where the Cuban government has been training defense and state security as well as taking over a number of security functions over the last two days have witnessed students shot, wounded and killed. Images have appeared of government agents using brass knuckles to beat down students. Mass arrests and disappearances to crush nonviolent protests and parents burying their children is becoming all too common in Venezuela. Terror and death as tools of state control to subdue and control a population. The Cuban general in charge of implementing this is named Ramiro Valdez and is also the same man who imposed totalitarianism in Cuba 55 years ago on Fidel and Raul Castro's orders.

In Venezuela nonviolent public protests are being criminalized and government agents directing armed pro-government groups known as "colectivos" or what are known in Cuba as "rapid response brigades" have been set up to terrorize public demonstrators critical of the government. On February 11, 2014 Roderick Navarro and Guido Mercado reported over twitter the names of a few of the students wounded by gunshots that same day who had been identified: Jorge Monsalve 20 years old, Franco Perez 15 years old (Thorax), Pedro Alison 24 years old (Left arm), Anny Paredes 36 years old (Abdomen).

A day later the repressive apparatus escalated and two students had been shot to death: Basil Alejandro Da Costa Frías, 24, (shot in the head) and Juan Montoya, 40, (shot in the head and chest). Both extra-judicially executed by shooting produced by collectives and officials of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) against the student march which arrived at the Attorney General Office. Sebin agents are trained by the Cubans. Roberto Redman, 31, was shot at his head in another location, also in government clashes. Not as clear who was the shooter.

These are the fruits of the 2014 CELAC Summit and of the silence of the OAS and UN Secretary Generals. The lesson is clear one cannot rely on this regional institutions and citizens need to organize, be vigilant and scrutinize what their government is doing. Thanks to the international mobilization around the Gorki show trial it has been delayed for the time being. Their is little time to save Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" but we have to try. There also needs to be mobilization on behalf of the Venezuelan students nonviolently protesting for their freedom in their homeland.

SOS From Venezuela: Nonviolent Protests Criminalized, Students taken prisoner, others shot

February 11, 2014 Update via twitter from Roderick Navarro and Guido Mercado: wounded by bullets today: Jorge Monsalve 20 years old, Franco Perez 15 years old (Thorax), Pedro Alison 24 years old (Left arm), Anny Paredes 36 years old (Abdomen) 

Photo tweeted by Maria Corina Machado of students demanding release of compatriots

 Venezuelan civil society issues call to the international community : VENEZUELA SOS . Criminalization of Protest. Prisoners and wounded. Táchira and Mérida

February 9, 2014

To national public opinion and the international community:Yesterday, Saturday February 8th were presented before a Court that was established suddenly and irregularly in the Regional Command No. 1 of the National Guard ( Military Command CORE 1 ) the detainees from the student protests that occurred in the state of Táchira specifically those held on Thursday, February 6 at the Residence of the Governor when a few in hoods protested outside the residence throwing stones and causing damage to the protection grid.Two minors were detained on the same Thursday as Reinaldo Manrique Leonardo Manrique and Jesús Gómez were arrested on Friday the 7th when they went to the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN ) to inquire about their peers without the existence of an arrest warrant against them. They weren't arrested during any protest. Their crime was to appear before the authority to inquire about the fate of their companions.

The minors were presented before Courts and it is expected that they be  granted alternative precautionary measures where the requirements of the Law are met All were charged with alleged offenses of theft, destruction of public property, minor injuries and conspiracy the latter referred to in the Organic Law Against Organized Crime and Terrorist Financing.We want to denounce not only the criminalization of protest but also the arbitrary arrests, the irregularity in the constitution of a Criminal Court within military installations to present a group of students and also the designation of a detention center that remains more than 800km away from the Natural Judge and the site where the incident occurred.

We call on all Venezuelan opinion and the international community to echo the voices of youth across the country who are at this moment demonstrating nonviolently exercising their constitutional rights to nonviolent protest rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denouncing the violence and abuse from the government being committed against students and youth leaders who have turned to the streets and have been repelled brutally and violently leaving two young gunshot victims in the State Mérida, three political prisoners in Táchira, two detained in Mérida yesterday whose names are: Alcides Márquez and Javier Dugarte and others right now with illegal arrest warrants against them.

By la Federación de Abogados de Venezuela: Norma Delgado.
By Foro Penal Venezolano: Gonzalo Himiob, Lilia Camejo.
By Nueva Conciencia Nacional: Tamara Sujú, Alba Caballero.
By Fundepro: Jackeline Sandoval.
By Damas de Blanco: Rosa Blanca Mármol de León, Haydée Deutsch.
By Fundeci: Elenis Rodríguez, Sonia Guanipa, Carlos Aponte.
By Una Ventana a La Libertad: Carlos Nieto Palma.
By Mujeres de Negro: Sonia Camacho, Katherina Andreoli.
By Espacio Civil: Alejandro Armas.
By Mujer y Ciudadanía: Aixa Armas.

Original statement in Spanish taken from the Christian Liberation website and translated here to English.

Status Update from Gorki on Show Trial and need for Solidarity in Cuba

The importance of solidarity and international attention

Rodolfo Ramirez, rapping name El Primario

  Yesterday the news arrived first as rumor that the trial had been suspended then at 3:27pm over Facebook Gorki Águila gave the following status update:

At 2:00pm I was informed that the oral presentation of the trial scheduled for Tuesday, February 11 was suspended due to health reasons of my lawyer ... At no time did an official notice arrive to me so right now I am heading to the Marianao Summary Court 100 & 33 to make known my concerns with regards to this news and that they not be given any argument for accusing me of not appearing ... I ask the people who have joined the solidarity campaign not to abandon denouncing this because the authorities may take advantage of a break to attack with impunity. Any other information I will try to make available. Thanks to all friends. 

A LAS 2 PM FUI INFORMADO DE QUE LA VISTA ORAL DEL JUCIO DEL MARTES 11 DE FEBRERO FUE SUSPENDIDA DEBIDO A RAZONES DE SALUD DE MI ABOGADA ..... EN NINGUN MOMENTO ME LLEGO UNA NOTIFICACION OFICIAL POR ESO AHORA MISMO ME DIRIJO HACIA LA SALA SUMARIA DE MARIANAO 100 Y 33 PARA HACER CONSTAR MI PROCUPACION ANTE ESTA NOTICIA Y QUE NO TENGAN POSIBLE ARGUMENTO ALGUNO PARA ACUSARME DE NO PRESENTACION ..... LES PIDO A LAS PERSONAS QUE SE HAN SUMEDO A LA CAMPANA DE SOLIDARIDAD QUE NO ABANDONEN LA DENUNCIA PUESTO QUE LAS AUTORIDADES PUEDEN APROVECHAR DICHA PAUSA PARA ARREMETER DESPUES IMPUNEMENTE . CUALQUIER OTRA INFORMACION TRATARE DE HACRELA LLEGAR .GRACIAS A TODOS LOS AMIGOS


At 9:32am  today Gorki posted the following Facebook status update:

If the alleged justice of the Castros make a mockery of these documents it is proof of its arbitrariness. Their laws mean nothing to them when it comes to achieve their objectives... In my 2008 trial they accused me of pre-criminal social dangerous conduct but the solidarity was so great that they were obliged to change the charge to disobedience and a fine of 600 pesos for the alleged crime. This is only achieved through unity. Lets unite once again and change the laws of the Castros, Viva Liberty. Thanks to all friends

SI LA SUPUESTA JUSTICIA DE LOS CASTRO SE BURLA DE ESTOS DOCUMENTOS ES PRUEVA DE SU ADBITRARIEDAD .. SUS LEYES NO SIGNICAN NADA PARA ELLOS MISMOS A LA HORA DE CUMPLIR SUS PROPOSITOS .... EN EL JUCIO DEL 2008 ME ACUSABAN DE PELIGROCIDAD SOCIAL CONDUCTA PREDELICTIVA PERO LA SOLIDARIDAD FUE TAN GRANDE QUE SE VIERON OBLIGADOS A CAMBIAR EL DELITO POR UNA MULTA DE 600 PESOS EN UN SUPUESTO DELITO DE DESOBEDIENCIA, ESTO UNICAMENTE LO LOGRA LA UNIDAD , UNAMONOS UNA VEZ MAS Y CAMBIEMOS LAS LEYES DE LOS CASTRO, VIVA LA LIBERTAD . GRACIAS A TODOS LOS AMIGOS

 The importance of generating and maintaining attention is critically important for anyone who dissents from the official government line. Rodolfo Ramirez, known by his rapping name as El Primario, member of the hip-hop duo El Primario y Julito,who appears in the above video was so badly beaten by an agent of state security that he is suffering from memory loss, and his face is completely disfigured. Another who is not in the video but is a fellow rapper is Angel Yunier Remón Arzuaga, whose stage name is "el Critico del Arte" (the 'Art Critic') he has also been badly beaten up and jailed since March 26, 2013 and has been so mistreated that it has driven him to hunger strikes that have compounded the deterioration of his health caused by the beatings.

At the same time that the campaign for solidarity has provided much needed protection for Gorki in other parts of Cuba the repression continues. On  the mornings of February 5th and again on February 11th the home of Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" was invaded and ransacked and Antúnez violently arrested and taken out of the city and held for hours. All his belongings seized during the first raid. No search warrant or notice that his property was to be confiscated for some legal reason. Nothing.  His wife, Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, detained, abused and beaten on February 5th as she was going to the offices of State Security to ascertain her husband's plight. This morning, February 11, at 6:00am without warning their home was invaded again and both were detained and beaten. This has led Antúnez to take the extreme measure yesterday to announce a hunger and thirst strike in protest.

We must remain vigilant for Gorki. The show trial has been suspended for the time being and can be reconvened at any moment. The dictatorship hates what he represents, and as we saw with Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas even high visibility is not enough to protect one who lives free in Cuba. We need to continue gathering signatures for the petition demanding his freedom. At the same time there are others who also need our attention.