Month: March 2019

Madrina

Richard Barnes

In today’s quick-paced Western world, hand-written letters are a lost art. Why would anyone write a letter when email…no, wait! That’s just as anachronistic. Texting is more efficient. And, for good measure, be sure to use acronyms AMAP!*

Over a recent weekend as I was going through some old documents searching for Bethlehem Steel correspondence, I found a less ancient recent letter that I had inadvertently filed among them.

The letter is dated March 21, 1995, but was actually completed about two weeks later, as it was written over a space of over ten days. It was from my godmother, known as madrina in Spanish, who wrote me after she had received our 1994 Christmas letter and photo. She lived in the interior of Venezuela and passed away a few years ago; an event which saddened me deeply.

The letter is written over eight pages in beautiful, flowing longhand script. It is thoughtful, funny, sincere, and, most importantly, loving. The letter writer had schooling: three grades. Plus six months’ secretarial school. I mean no offense or disrespect to my fellow college-educated friends but she was more educated — truly educated — than most of us.

Her nephew was one of my best early childhood friends. Whenever I think of him, I think of the classic carousel humming top. He and I would dedicate much time of play spinning that thing. We each had one and “competed”. Not sure on what basis we kept score. But we did.

As a child, I addressed her as “Tía C__L__”. And I addressed her thusly the very last time I visited with her in 2005, when her mind had begun to noticeably fail. She lived another nine years after that, passing away in 2014.

The perceptive reader will note how loving and also how prescient she was. 

Here are some excerpts:

“My dear nephew….

“I pray to the Lord that you are well and in union with your family and I also ask God that He might bless you with good health, peace, and wellbeing in this new year that began not too long ago. Amen…..

I’ll tell you that I received your letter in mid-February and it was stamped in Texas in December, 1994. Almost two months to arrive in my hands. This happens all-too-frequently in our country; mail arrives in Venezuela quickly, but there is far too much neglect….”

“Ricky, my dear son, this aunt of yours would so much like to … and know all that happens in your family. The mischiefs, anecdotes, and the rest of the acts of the “gang’ and in general of every one of you all.”

“I believe my memory is beginning to fail me. I think I’ll have to consult with a doctor to see if he can help me with a given medication. Sometimes I have difficulties maintaining a conversation because I forget a word or two or the name of a person or thing. This worries me and makes me feel bad. But I am fully conscious that this is the work of the ‘almanac’ which promotes havoc as time goes by.”….

“Ah! Lillian, a little birdie told me that, soon, God willing, another baby will arrive. Is it true? If so, may it please the Lord God that all goes well and that a little sister may arrive to accompany Elizabeth… [to Elizabeth’s dismay, it turned out to be another boy, Nathan. But the next birth was indeed a sister, Esther — RMB].”

“The truth, daughter, is that children are a blessing from God and are the joy of life for loving couples. That’s how I see it.”….

“Today, the third of April, I have heard on the noon news that a major embezzlement was discovered in SIDOR [the large steel works operation in Guayana, Venezuela’s interior. Refer to post, Guayana The Reverse Miracle — RMB]. I will be following this event. Our country fell into disgrace ever since the [mining industry was expropriated] during the time that Colombian [his opponents denied he was born in Venezuela — RMB], Carlos Andrés Pérez ruled, and the fanaticism of the political masses re-elected him [twenty years later] so he could finish the job of destruction. Now the people … expect the new administration to perform miracles in little time.”

[She, like many Venezuelans, was very frank in her assessments of all political leaders and parties — RMB]….

“Please forgive me for commenting on all this…. It hurts me that my country, so beautiful and with so much treasure in its soil, a country which should be at the top of the list of the world’s industrialized and developed countries is in such a disastrous condition. How far from today’s conscience are the writings of our Libertador, Simón Bolivar. No one even considers him or hearkens to him…. Unfortunately, in my thinking, none of those who have governed Venezuela have loved her in truth.”

In my godmother you can see and hear “the Spain” in the people of Venezuela — the courtesy, the simple erudition, the warmth, the transparency — and, in her regard for Bolivar, you can also sense “the France”. Finally, in her recognition of the corruption of her country’s leaders — “none … have loved her in truth” — you can see the inchoate recognition that something was wrong and had been wrong for a long time. These thoughts will be developed as we continue posting over the coming months.

I miss you, dear Tía.


*As much as possible.

The Barracks, Part II — José Tomás Boves

Richard Barnes

One cannot begin to understand Venezuela without knowing some of its revolutionary history.

In the previous post I alluded to the bloodletting in Venezuela in the revolutionary wars of the 19th century. Among the most terrible campaigns of the era (of any era) were those of José Tomás Boves, Venezuela’s own Attila the Hun, also known as The Beast On Horseback. Boves was born in Spain but lived in Venezuela most of his life. He began his horrors in the vast plains of Apure and Guárico, scenes of immense bloodshed. Numerous contemporary reports describe the monstrous rainy season lakes as reddish with the blood of thousands of Venezuelans slaughtered by their own countrymen during the unbelievably heinous racial wars unleashed by strongmen such as Boves who incited los negros against the white criollos, including the gang rapes of women, children and even toddlers. Some of the tortures inflicted on the criollos (Spanish descendants, but Venezuelan-born) are beyond belief, including the live skinning of men, women, and children.

By the end of the revolution in the late 1820’s, foreign observers reported without exaggeration that Venezuela’s criollo population had practically disappeared. Young women from reputable families, when initiating a courtship, felt compelled to inform their beaus early on, “I am from the time of Boves.” Nothing more needed to be said.

Boves lived by the sword and died by the spear. A few months before his death his army had left Valencia in ruins. One of his many despicable acts was to swear profusely and formally, as the Eucharist was held by a priest outside the city, that he would harm no one. After this ceremony, he and his army entered and called the citizens to a banquet and elaborate ball at which he had his musicians play the tawdry songs of the Apure region, to which he forced the women to dance with his men while the husbands and fathers and brothers were taken and thrust through, impaled, skinned, or otherwise tortured before suffering the coup de grace.

This frenzy lasted 3 days.

On their way out of Valencia, heading east, they came to the home and ranch of the Bravante family. Boves gathered the family, including the 19 and 12-year-old daughters. He ordered his men to defile the girls as he forced the father and brother to watch. He then ordered the family’s slaves to further defile them. Finally, he himself proceeded to engage in the same acts only now the girls were in death’s agony and shortly afterwards were killed.

Boves’s men killed the father but somehow the brother tore loose, killed one of the attackers as he took his horse and fled.

Now we come to the battle of Urica, about a day’s journey north of Maturín, a colonial town just north of the Orinoco River in southwest Venezuela, about three months after the slaughter in Valencia. Boves was in the midst of the battle as the town of Maturín was emptying out into the vast prairies of Venezuela. There was little hope that Boves’s army would be stopped and the people knew better than to expect anything but the vilest treatment.

As the battle raged and Boves’s men took advantage, a young man, fighting in defense of Urica and Maturín, espied him on his horse as he led his men and fought. This young man, with a singleness of purpose and steel in his eyes, fought desperately, to get closer to Boves. As he neared Boves, the opposition of Boves’s men became almost irresistible, but the man, killing as he advanced, was not deterred. Closer, closer he came.

Finally, after several wounds, the young man was thrust to the hard ground. With his sword he killed one of Boves’s lance men and, grabbing the dead man’s lance, he ran like a whirlwind towards the horse and his rider. Screaming like a dervish,  he mightily rammed the lance right through the chest of the evil man. So powerful was the act, that the lance protruded out Boves’s back as he fell from his horse, the eyes glazed open, dead, before he hit the ground. The young man was immediately sliced to death by Boves’s frenzied men. 

The young man was Ambrosio Bravante, avenging his sisters’ miserable deaths at the hands of Boves.

The ravages experienced in Venezuela resembled those of the French Revolution. That is not a coincidence. And it explains much of Venezuelan history. More on this in later posts.


Early 19th century depiction of José Tomás Boves

Mid-19th century depiction based on description by Daniel O’Leary, Irishman who fought with Bolivar against Boves. Boves defeated Bolivar the two times they met in the field of battle.

Note: Historians agree that Boves won the Battle of Urica, but was killed there, by a spear through his chest. But they disagree as to the identity of the man who killed him. I’ve used a well-sourced biography for my description above, but others disagree. Furthermore, historians acknowledge, some reluctantly, that arguments can be made that Boves’ actions were in reprisal to Simón Bolivar’s own actions and his “War To The Death” proclamation. These posts will discuss these and more, in future weeks and months. 


Flag similar to that used by Boves’ forces

The Barracks

Richard Barnes

The three Latin American countries most identified with Simon Bolivar are Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In the 40’s and 50’s, some used to say: Colombia is the University, Ecuador is the seminary, and Venezuela is the barracks.

Having visited but never having lived in either Colombia or Ecuador, I am reluctant to comment on their monikers above. As to Venezuela, I am reluctant to press its characterization too far. However, at times, a generalization might have a grain of truth. 

I recall getting ready to accompany my cousin to see a movie in San Felix, in the state of Bolivar, a little under 500 miles southeast of Caracas. My aunt cautioned us as we walked out the door, “Be careful! This is the season for recruiting!” My cousin, assured her we’d be all right but I had no idea what she was talking about and just let it go over my head. 

As we approached the theater area, we saw a commotion in front of the theater doors. Soldiers were grabbing young men and boys and tossing them into patrol trucks with cage-like structures on top. My cousin grabbed my shoulder and pulled me behind a corner from where we watched as boys scattered as fast as they could run but many did not make it because soldiers were strategically placed at random points and were pretty successful in apprehending them and dragging them to the trucks which would transport them to boot camp and years in the army. 

I watched in a bit of horror soldiers kicking the boys to the trucks and pushing their posteriors as they scrambled into the cages. Years later, reading about colonial era British shanghai methods and about the American, Shanghai Kelly, I’d recall this scene, which has remained with me since.

Venezuela lost a third of its population during the South American revolutionary wars of the early 19th century. The bloodletting in Venezuela was unmatched by any other South American country or region. To help understand the magnitude of the carnage, with 600,000 to 800,000 deaths (depending on which source you trust), the United States lost about 2 or 3% of its population during the Civil War. That’s more deaths than all her major wars combined.

Venezuela lost 33%.

The military campaigns were heroic, atrocious, incredible, treacherous, and pitiless. They featured unimaginable tortures which paralleled those documented in Wilbarger’s Indian Depredations in Texas. 

In the words of the British Legion’s Captain Mahoney, recorded in Recollections of a Service of Three Years in Venezuela and Colombia: “The best and dearest blood of the inhabitants flowed profusely; their fairest towns and cities were laid waste; and one of the finest portions of the globe became a grievous theatre of rapine, devastation, and murder. It is scarcely hazardous to assert, that there was never a period, in any age or country, in relation to which history has recorded more premeditated slaughter or greater cruelty in the application of tortures more dreadful than death itself.”

That helps explain why Venezuela was known as the barracks.

Humanitarian Crisis

Richard Barnes

As stated in the “About” page of this blog, my sincere intent is to tell about Venezuela irenically. I want to avoid polemics here, not because polemics are bad or unimportant; they are not. They play a role in aiding our understanding of events and even life and death issues. However, in these polarized times, it is most necessary to first go back to basics. Vince Lombardi once addressed his team after a terrible first half performance and, holding a football aloft, he declared, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” Hard to polemicize about that. And that sort of explains what this blog attempts to do.

So, you may wonder why I might bring up the current humanitarian situation in Venezuela here. Is there sufficient reporting about that readily available in the media? Are there enough debates on Venezuelan Socialism? Are there ample arguments on the competence of the government there?

The obvious answers to the above interrogatives are, of course, “yes, yes, and yes.”

But, and here I must tread on some toes: the reporting is nowhere near thorough.

There is indeed a crisis. And the poor and the indigenous peoples are those who suffer the most.

Today (this was written, mostly, on February 22, 2019), one of the trucks loaded with medicines and food, was burned as it crossed the Colombian frontier onto Venezuelan soil. See photo below and caption for additional commentary.

At the other entry point, in the south, specifically at Kumaracapay, Gran Sabana municipality, near the Venezuela-Brazil border, the actions taken by the national police painted an even worse picture: 

From the Caracas Chronicles:

“Chavista officials say there was a shootout, a fight at the border. There was not, they gunned us down!” Very few times I’ve spoken to a man like Aldemaro Pérez. A 36 year-old indigenous leader, he speaks in plain terms, but unambiguously.”

“Is it true there are two Pemones [indigenous Venezuelans] dead?”, I ask.

“That’s absolutely true. We were near the border (with Brazil) expecting what we really want, the humanitarian aid. At five in the morning, a group of soldiers arrived trying to block the border. We tried to stop them, and they shot at us.”

“They killed two of us, Zoraida Rodriguez and her husband, and now we have four national guardsmen arrested. Three lieutenants and a sergeant, they’re our prisoners.”

After filing the above report, Aldemaro Pérez and four other Pemon Indians were arrested by the national police. Their whereabouts are unknown. The four police who had been arrested by the Indians for their atrocities are no longer in Pemon custody.

Seven of the fifteen people shot have since died.

(Above: Friendly fire? Food and medicine burning at the Colombia border. It may have been inadvertently set alight by the Venezuelans who were tossing Molotov Cocktails to disperse the government troops from blocking the truck coming to them. They may have missed and set fire to the truck itself. Others insist that the government forces themselves set the aid on fire. Reporting is sketchy. I cannot confirm either version)

“‘We don’t understand how a policeman can do this. How can they shoot their own people? Why wouldn’t they care they are sick and starving? Why would they burn medicine?’ said a member of the Colombian police while the truck with humanitarian aid burned on the Venezuelan side.”

Many headlines in the United States and Europe have noted the blocked humanitarian aid. Many have also reported the deaths of “protesters.” 

However, relatively few have reported the loss of food and medicines and almost no one has emphasized that the dead and wounded — some critically — are indigenous people in desperate need of help. In other words, they are Native American Indians. Twenty-five are missing. Either they fled to the jungles of Venezuela and Brazil or they are detained in undisclosed locations or they are dead.

“… the locals know the regime brought 80 buses full of armed people, so nobody’s going out. ‘This is a ghost town today, and let me be frank with you,” says our man, “We feel abandoned. We feel isolated. Everyone was supporting us until this attack began and now we’re alone and we’re cut off from the rest of the country. How are we supposed to defend ourselves if those attacking are our supposed protectors?”

This area is rich in gold. Might that explain the state’s zealotry?

In a time when just about anything is an outrage and an offense, one would think that shooting unarmed, defenseless, destitute, and ill Indians, in addition to starving them, would merit at least more extensive reporting, let alone a bit of sympathy.

One of the most “left-leaning progressive” Democratic presidential candidates has called for support of the Venezuelan people who are fleeing the dictatorship. In effect, such a pronouncement puts that candidate pretty much in agreement with the President she hopes to unseat. 

This is not a partisan issue. Nor should it be.

The situation is desperate and very sad.

Pray for Venezuela.

a pemon girl

Nixon in Venezuela in 1958

Richard Barnes

Although I was only four and one half years old at the time of this event, I do recall the commotion occasioned by this event and the embarrassment and sincere regrets expressed by Venezuelans in El Pao and San Félix. Back then, children were not to interrupt adults as they spoke; this gave us much opportunity to listen in on conversations. Although I don’t remember exact words, I do very much recall the revulsion and the anger and the consternation, by both Venezuelans as well as Americans

By my college days, many Americans were downplaying the seriousness of this incident; even making jokes about it. But it was serious enough for President Eisenhower to have ordered a naval squadron to the Venezuelan coast, plus to have placed our Caribbean bases on high alert. All public events were cancelled and the Nixon’s left the next day. Furthermore, a cache of Molotov cocktails was discovered in a building adjacent to where the Vice President was to have participated in a wreath-laying ceremony later that day.

Readers might find the old newsreel linked below to be of interest; especially the gracious words spoken by Vice-President Nixon upon his return to the U.S.A. It’s only 3 minutes.