In this picture the pro Chavez students that got trashed in the student body election of today (apparently more than 10 to 1), did not like it, attacked with gunshots and cocktail Molotov to try to seize the ballots and only managed to destroy the voting and counting machines. We are told that ballots are safe and will be counted tomorrow when the situation goes back to "normal". We can anticipate chavismo refusing to recognize the result on any stupid detail that they created themselves tonight in the battle field.
Of course, the "students" that protested and set fire did so with the adequate head gear, not for protection from the flames but to hide their very "democratic" identity. We call that style of "student" encapuchados (the current vice president of Venezuela, Jaua, used to be a noted encapuchado in his student days).
Naked fascism, mask or no mask.
The background is very simple:
No matter how hard chavismo has tried, it has not been able to get the upper hand of the UCV. Even though its professorial section used to vote for the left in its regular election, it has been voting consistently, and with wider margins, against the candidates of the regime who now do not even reach a third fo the vote.
Same thing in the student body where pro Chavez lists are trashed by increasing margins, even when the non chavista students run on separate lists (after all, the students have very specific ideas more or less to the left but all democratic contrary to the increasing fascism on the other side).
The regime has tried other means of pressure to force the surrender of the UCV, from where after all come a large fraction of the new apparatchiks that really, really would love to go back as the masters in the UCV when they get back there at some point (not to mention that they would gladly offer the UCV as a trophy to Chavez, and a validation of their submission to the regime). these means of pressure have included budget freezes for now several years n spite of a galloping inflation (most research is now stopped at the UCV), tricks to try to make service workers votes equal to those of professors in deciding what the curriculum should be, etc, etc... All still mostly contained because the constitution of 1999 guarantees the functional autonomy of certain campus in Venezuela.
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| Kevin and Hugo |
What triggered the assault tonight has been brewing for a few weeks now. A certain chavista student, Kevin Avila, was filmed attacking the rectors of the university during a formal function in campus to commemorate, if memory serves me well, an anniversary of it being declared Worl Heritage. The attack included bodily threats to the rectors, tossing of food around, copious amount of insults, etc... The UCV decided to start an expulsion sanction of one year but the Venezuelan high court promptly stopped that once Chavez himself held high the hand of Avila as a hero.
And so they went to elections that they lost. Which did not stop Avila tonight to promptly declare to the state radio, RNV, that the attack was from a rival opposition list that was defeated. Forgetting of course to mention that his own list was duly trashed, arguing that the school were he was running, the most "chavista" one in the UCV, was rumored to be also an anti Chavez major electoral upset. which by itself would explain the pro Chavez attackers since they were about to lose the last bastion they held, the school of Social Work, an obvious magnet for pro Chavez students that hope to get a job in public administration.... Such a repudiation of Kevin Avila after Chavez himself promoted him could not possibly be accepted, you must understand.
Consequences
Now we have a clear advance on how will chavismo react in October 2012 if it loses the general election.
Now we have the first clear, unequivocal demonstration that chavismo has grown beyond communism into a bona fide fascism. True communists manage better such situations, knowing well in advance that they are going to lose and thus taking precautions to stop the elections of make the necessary previous arrangements not to lose. Fascists apparently tend to believe that they may win and thus need to resort to such acts of violence. Since there were already bombs thrown today in Campus to try to stop elections we must conclude that chavismo is now divided into a commie group and a facho group. Though the end result is basically the same: totalitarian abuse.
I think that it is time to make people take notice, here, in Venezuela but also outside of the country, starting by informing the local embassies as to what is brewing.
We must also note that media was very slow, even reluctant to cover the events. Self censorship is alive and well. One year ago Globovision would have interrupted its normal programming to report live. Tonight Patricia Velazquez movie presentation was not interrupted, the host satisfying themselves with occasional verbal updates.