June 14th., 2007

The Youth Rebellion

“The Empire wants the world to believe that the students are against the revolution, it is a manipulation, a media show”, affirmed Chávez making reference to the massive presence of youth in the streets, demanding respect for liberty of expression and human rights.  He qualified it as being “the limit”, the fact that the University students were being used to serve as “puppies of the Empire”.  It was the first reaction, during a national concentration of his party men, accompanied by Daniel Ortega.  In as much as students and professors of both public and private universities intensified the demonstrations, to the point that it became very highlighted news by national and international media, the harsh Presidential language also increased.  As usual, he chained radio and TV to denounce that this was all about a conspiracy, he made a call to the people living in popular slums to confront the students within the streets and threatened Globovisión and written press of complicity with the destabilization project against the regime, for giving importance to the demonstrations. He developed his conspiracy thesis while on a press conference for a filtered group of foreign correspondents:  “it is a soft coup d´etat, of slow burning, a strategy upon which, George Bush resides”.  He stated that there is no University Rector that is innocent to the Imperial game and that they are trying to use the students as bait.

The Presidential annoyance towards the University Rectors was evident, who, on Wednesday, June 6, headed “one of the biggest mass mobilization remembered in the history of the student movement”, as quoted by El Nacional.   The students´ unpleasantness was also explicable, whose leaders requested the right to speak at the National Assembly, comprised entirely by pro Chávez followers.  The notification that they were to be received served as an alert to the students, who presented themselves at such National Assembly all dressed in red shirts.  One of them, Douglas Barrios, went up to the tribune, repudiated the closing of RCTV, the criminalization of their protest, and the insults they have been granted by the members of the Assembly.  He pleaded for liberty to his mate, Nixon Moreno (a refugee for several months now at the Nunciature) and for the 200 students that were arrested during the demonstrations.  He said he will not accept any foreign intromission, coming either from the US or from Cuba.  “We belong to a generation that will always fight to be free.  We dream with a country wherein we may be taken into account, regardless of having to wear this uniform”.  He took off the red shirt and remained with a white shirt, in which one could read the word “FREEDOM”.  He announced that they were exiting, because “the agenda of the student movement is only defined by the student movement”.  Upon the exit of the Capitolio (Congress), hordes of angry Chávez pro followers awaited for the students, with a will to violently harm them.  They were able to get in the police tanks that surrounded the building.  The Officers in charge were instructed to evacuate them all the way to the Universidad Central.  It was the event of the most emotional impact undergone by the student leadership.  A President, confused and choleric, made his appearance for several hours in the usual TV chains, to try to offset the message, but the only effect was to show that he assimilated the media blow and that the younger ones were able to place him on the defensive side.

 THE REASONS OF THE REVOLUTION

“The President may not be in agreement with us, he may say that we are not right, he may orient his followers to a determined solution, but what he may not do is use the Presidency of the Republic to insult us”.  These were the words of Jon Goicochea, who emerges as one the leaders of this new generation that confronts Chávez.  A student of the Universidad Católica, 22 years of age, in a press conference with foreign correspondents, expressed that the student movement, in order to be heard, has exhausted the formal channels of power, such as the Assembly, the Supreme Court, the District Attorney’s Office, the Defendant of the People.  “The Executive remains, and we are willing to express our opinions to the Executive power.  He revealed that he has had contact with the Vice President Jorge Rodríguez.  “When the Universities are ready for such reunion, we will meet”.  Goicochea considered as irresponsible,  Chávez plea to the people in the slums to confront the University students.  Upon questioning him over the student movement’s response to Chávez critics, he stated:  “To go on forward is our line, a strong defense of liberty of expression and civil rights.  With symbolic and peaceful activities, we will continue to denounce before the national and international community, the truth of what is going on in Venezuela”.

They have created an electronic portal (www.generacion28.com) that allows to appreciate the lucidity and density of the new leaders that appear in the scenery.  It is a political movement, as acknowledged by them, since they are citizens, but not professional politicians, and the majority of us do not wish to become so.  We are identified by values that we can share from different ideologies:  liberty, and above all, liberty to express ourselves and liberty to be informed.  The closing of RCTV mobilized us, a TV channel that exercised the right to inform.  We are identified with human rights, indispensable in a civilized society.  Our demonstrations are peaceful, because we aspire that Venezuelans may live side by side with one another, free of hate and of the violence that is preached by the President.  We reject the pretension of dividing us between good and bad.  We have ideas, but we respect the ideas of others.  We are in the streets defending our right to think, and also defending the right of those who think different from us.  We have taken the flag of the University´s  autonomy, since only in Universities not subdued to arbitrary power, lies the possibility of critical though, access to scientific diversity and all contemporary technological possibilities.  We confront Chávez because he pretends to impose an official ideology, which argument is rifles that threaten, gifts that corrupt and armed bands that produce terror.    We reject the militarization of the society intended by Chávez.  With the closing of RCTV, and the self censure imposed to the other media, an inadmissible media monopoly is pretended.  We believe in democracy, pure and simple, with no qualifications, and the government has to respect the rules that the civilized world has granted in order to give legitimacy to a democratic system.  We will remain in the street, against a sole train of thought that wants to be imposed to us, declared the spokes person for the University Center Federation of the Universidad Central.  His declaration is backed by all the student leaders of public, not intervened universities, as well as private universities.  Intellectuals also support them, who coincide in affirming that the youth is demonstrating that the national ideology  pretended by the regime is no longer possible, that there is sufficient conscience to resist the totalitarian threat.  “That gesture, to take off the red shirt, will become the symbol of plurality and the liberty character of Venezuelans.  “These kids have returned our hopes”, as written by Ruth Capriles. 

REAL THREATS AGAINST CHÁVEZ

“The Opposition’s  offensive will fail”, affirmed Chávez, before the traveled to Cuba to meet with the Castro brothers and Daniel Ortega.  No one doubts that in Havana, an examination of what is happening in Venezuela will take place. The students´ rebellion was certainly in the agenda.  As well as the public opinion problems.  Two of the main polls were temporarily closed when they were going to inform that the President’s  popularity had fallen to the lowest historic levels.  It would be of extreme ingenuousness to think that the Central Bank report was ignored, according to which Venezuela’s oil activity continues to descend.  The so called “Chávez Phenomena”, the geo strategy signed by Chávez and Fidel on April 28, 2005, for the development of the Bolivarian Alternative (ALBA in Spanish), and the buying of the South American debt rely on the Venezuelan oil.  Petrocaribe, Petrosur, Petroamérica and other projects of political influence in the region, have, as an engine, the Venezuelan energy potential.  Efficient for Evo Morale´s  victory in Bolivia, of Ortega´s  in Nicaragua and of Correa´s  in Ecuador, but also the cause of conflict of the Brazilian oil company with Morales, and in the background, of growing suspicion from Brazil regarding Chávez.  Recently, Le Monde made a report on the strangeness of the Venezuelan oil politics.  “The traditional oil wells lack investment and the international companies are not encouraged to explore new projects…as strange as it sounds, Venezuela imports gasoline due to its refining problems… PDVSA states that it produces 3,1 Million barrels per day, and the OPEC and the International Energy Agency coincide that the real number is one Million less than PDVSA´s  figure”.  The uncertainty over the conclusion of the businesses at the Orinoco Basin produced a migration of investments towards other oil countries.  Accordingly, the hypothesis of including, in the reflection at Havana, the departure from Chávez that has taken place in the last few weeks by the governments and Socialist parties of Europe and Latin America, as well as Chávez difficulty to integrate to MERCOSUR, was a must.

Chávez promises that inflation will reduce in one digit upon the monetary reconversion (the taking away of three zeros to the Bolivar). The Minister of Finances affirms that the inflation rate is 12%.  The National Assembly threatens to penalize alarming information regarding inflation.  Notwithstanding, the rate corresponding to May, supplied by the Central Bank, was of 19,5% in the last twelve months and the price increase in food was of 30,2%.  The Venezuelan inflation is one of the highest in the world.  All other Latin American countries have reduced such inflation in one digit.  The financial analysts warn that the forecast for 2006 is 22% and the tendency is 25%.  All, including Chávez sympathizers, seem alarmed over the “important decrease in the Payment Balance in the first trimester of the year” (US$ 2,325 Million) and for the fact that 85% of the US$ 50,000 Million announced as public expense in 2007 is inelastic, and also for the accentuated fall of the international reserves.  Chávez punishers producers and merchants for the disappearance of essentials (such as meat, milk, sugar, edible oils), and experts sustain that “the lack of provisions has a “structural” character.  The offensive against Chávez is headed by the students, but the real threats are the oil problems, inflation, lack of provisions, insecurity and the inability of the President to understand it.