July 2019 – The Pull Of The Land

The Lost World and Green Mansions

July 27, 2019July 27, 2019 Richard Barnes

Green Mansions, the 1904 William Henry Hudson novel, was made into a 1959 movie starring Anthony Perkins and Audrey Hepburn. The director, Mel Ferrer, after concluding that he could not stage the film in the thick and impenetrable, not to say dangerous, jungles of Venezuela, had, nevertheless, taken the equivalent of about an hour of footage south of the Orinoco (not too far from the mining camp) and also in Canaima, much of which was incorporated into the movie. Although the motion picture, in its denouement, is not faithful to the book, it was pretty popular in Venezuela. The full title of the book included this subtitle: A Romance of the Tropical Forest. In sum, a young man fails at leading a revolution in Caracas and avoids execution by escaping to the deepest jungle, convinced he’ll never be able to return to civilization. There he meets an ethereal, mysterious beauty. Where did this non-Indian woman come from? Why do Indian tribes seek to kill her?

The Lost World, the Arthur Conan Doyle novel, published in 1912, was written after Doyle had bid farewell to Sherlock Holmes. It is a science fiction account of Englishmen who explore South America and discover an unknown jungle where dinosaurs roam. A major character is a young man who is determined to accompany the expedition in order to demonstrate his courage to a lady in London whom he hopes to marry. Upon his return he finds his efforts have availed him nothing and he goes back to the lost world. The inspiration for this work was most likely Venezuela, though some believe it’s Bolivia. However, Venezuela is the one most often alluded to, especially Canaima, a vast region of interminable forests occupied by massive tepuys, which are, in essence, huge mesas or table top mountains with vertical walls. One of these is Auyantepui, the site of Angel Falls, the tallest uninterrupted water fall on earth. Another is Roraima, most likely Doyle’s inspiration for The Lost World, much of whose adventures take place on a tepui.

Incredibly, it has had over 5 film adaptations, the first being in 1925 with Wallace Beery in the title role of Professor Challenger and the next in 1960 with the inimitable Claude Rains in that role. If you’ve seen the great movie, Grand Hotel, the one with Greta Garbo’s plaintive, “I want to be alone! I just want to alone”, you’ll remember Wallace Beery as the unscrupulous General Director Preysing. As for Claude Rains, if you’ve seen Casablanca, you’ll recall him as bribe-taking Captain Louis Renault who, deadpanned, utters some of the most famous lines in the movies: “I am shocked! Shocked! That there is gambling in this place!” And also, “Round up the usual suspects.”

I confess to having seen the 1960 Lost World adaptation but only recalling the scene where a member of the expedition is eaten by a dinosaur. Sorry. I was just a kid. I also saw Green Mansions. I have not read either of the novels. But both books and movies have been a continuous presence in my mind given their link to Venezuela — even to the area where I was born — and the many times they were referenced in conversations as I was growing up.

As noted above, Angel Falls is in Canaima, on the spectacular Auyantepui. Although first seen by a European explorer, the Spaniard, Felix Cardona, in 1927, it bears the name of the American aviator, Jimmie Angel who, following the directions given to him by Cardona, flew over the falls in 1933. He returned in 1937 and attempted to land atop the mesa only to have his plane nosedive and sink in the marsh. He, his wife, Marie, and two other companions were faced with either staying atop a site where no one ever visited — the Pemon Indians, reasonably, considered it too dangerous — or to descend the mighty mount by foot. It took them 11 days. It is entirely possible that the Pemon Indians had never seen the falls until after its discovery by air. It is a fact that they avoided Auyantepui and only began approaching it regularly after Angel’s fall (pun intended).

This adventure brought Angel Falls to the attention of the outside world and it in turn honored Jimmie Angel by naming the falls after him. His monoplane remained atop the mesa until 1970 when it was lifted by helicopters and now, restored, sits at the airport in Ciudad Bolivar, the capital of the state where the El Pao Bethlehem Steel mining camp operated.

Sir Walter Raleigh also explored Canaima in the late 1500’s. Some say he was the first European to have seen Angel Falls, but that’s doubtful given the extreme remoteness of Auyantepui. Even today, to get there, the traveler flies to Canaima from Ciudad Guayana. Then by foot, donkey, and canoe, he arrives at the foot of the falls days later, assuming the weather permits it. I visited once but never made it to the falls due to weather and having run out of time.

As a side note, the incident which led to Raleigh’s execution took place in Venezuela. It was his second expedition, in 1617. Against his orders, and against the express conditions of the English crown, a detachment of his men attacked a Spanish outpost, Santo Tomé de Guayana on the Orinoco. (The ruins of the fort are still there and the mining company arranged outings there several times. As can be imagined, this was exciting for us kids.) Raleigh’s son was killed in the attack. Raleigh returned to England where he knew he would be executed by beheading.

Both Sir Walter Raleigh and Jimmie Angel kept being pulled back to Venezuela. Raleigh suffered great loss with his son’s death, exacerbated by knowing he also would die upon his return to England. Angel kept being drawn back time and again, and, during a rough landing in Panama, he suffered severe head injuries followed by a heart attack from which he never fully recovered. He died 8 months later in Panama but not before making sure to ask that his ashes be taken back to Auyantepui. Venezuela, especially Canaima, has drawn and continues to irresistibly draw explorers, naturalists, novelists, cinematographers, and many others. And will continue to do so.

They, and such as they, understand the pull of the land.

As to the tepuis (tepuy or tepuyes in Spanish), let’s get off the beaten track of precambrian quartz sandstone and go into the science fiction, Twilight Zone world of some contemporary theorists. Giant trees. Yes, some believe these structures were of a time when trees were giants in the land, composed of the equivalent of silicone and used by earth’s gods and priests to communicate across vast distances. So, suspend reality for a moment and when you see the photos of tepuis below, imagine them as tree stumps.

Giants indeed!

The novel was made into a 1925 movie of the same title.

Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger in the 1925 adaptation.

Claude Rains as Professor Challenger in the 1960 version.

Mt. Roraima, in the southernmost region of Canaima, near the border with Brazil. It is almost certain that this phenomenon inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, *The Lost World.*

Kukenántepui provided inspiration for the movie Up.

Outpost, Santo Tomé de Guayana on the Orinoco. Attacked by the British in direct contravention to Raleigh’s orders in 1617.

Artist rendition of the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh

Jimmy Angel. Another example of the pull of the land. He was born in Missouri, but he was always pulled to Venezuela. He died in Panama, in 1956 after suffering head injuries during a rough landing. He asked that his ashes be taken to Angel Falls. His wife and children did so four years later.

Plaque honoring Jimmie Angel in Canaima National Park

Apple Foot: A Road Trip to Mérida

July 22, 2019January 3, 2024 Richard Barnes

In the late 1960’s, during a summer trip back home to Venezuela, we took a road trip to the state of Mérida in western Venezuela. Mérida is in the giant cordillera of the Andes, the longest mountain range in the world; it is the principal physical feature of the continent as a whole. Lest I be accused of bias, let’s see what a non-South American had to say about these hills:

“Stretching in an uninterrupted granite flow for forty-five hundred miles from the Caribbean to Cape Horn, the Andes are the most stupendous mountains in the whole world; nothing can rival their solid and continuous immensity. There are many single peaks in the Himalayas that are higher, but the Andes include no fewer than forty-nine over twenty thousand feet, much higher than anything in the continental United States, Switzerland, or the Caucasus. Mount Aconcagua in Argentina and nine other giants are at least a mile higher than Mont Blanc or Mount Whitney.”

On the frontier between Argentina and Chile, more than twenty peaks rise over 20,400 feet and thus surpass Mt. McKinley in Alaska. Pico Bolivar, the highest in Venezuela at 16,300 feet is about 2,000 feet higher than Mt. Whitney and 4,000 feet shorter than Mt. McKinley.

One cannot help but be amazed when reading about Simón Bolivar’s crossing the Andes, surprising and beating the Spanish in Boyacá. But one is astounded when reading about José de San Martín (1778-1850), a major hero, only, unlike Bolivar, not tempestuous nor spectacular. An Argentinian Creole (Spanish, but born in the colonies) he trained a crack force, a small army of Chileans and Argentinians and led one of the most phenomenal campaigns in history.

He, two years before Bolivar, crossed the Andes, in his case from Argentina to Chile. The crossing was initiated on January 18, 1817 and it was rapid: just a few weeks to cover 300 miles of incredibly steep mountain trails. He led his men “through defiles, chasms, and passes that were often 10,000 to 12,000 feet high.” He became known as “The Hannibal of the Andes.” Simón Bolivar crossed the Andes in a like feat two years later, in 1819. Both crossings were decisive in the ultimate fate of South America.

The contrast between both crossings is instructive in considering the very real differences between the two. San Martín planned the crossing with great discipline and strategy. Bolivar deceived his men to get them to the foothills and many deserted then, but the sheer force of his personality was sufficient to compel many others to remain with him for the crossing. In both cases, the crossing was met with military success. But it illustrated the chaos of Bolivar versus the order and discipline of San Martín, thereby foreshadowing the results of their conference in Guayaquil in 1822 when San Martín in effect stepped aside and allowed Bolivar to come to Perú with no competition. Impetuosity triumphed and determined in large measure the course of South American history.

The Venezuelan city of Mérida is beautifully situated in an Andean valley and is home to the second oldest university in Venezuela, the University of the Andes (Universidad de Los Andes), established in 1810.

About 10 miles from the city center sits the majestic Pico Bolivar (Bolivar Peak), the tallest peak in Venezuela, one of many within the Sierra Nevada de Mérida which runs about 200 miles Southeast-Northwest, part of the northern extent of the Andes Mountains.

Mérida is home to the highest and second longest cable car in the world (1,600 feet shorter than the Tatev in Armenia). However, it is unsurpassed in combining such height and length. The journey is just shy of eight miles, reaching a height of 15,600 feet: a one-of-a-kind engineering marvel with over 40 years of history. It was conceived and built in the 1950’s under Pérez Jimenez and reached the end of its useful life in 2006 when it was closed. However, it was rebuilt and service was resumed in 2016.

But what impressed me the most from that trip were the roads. The exciting, thrilling, dangerous, crazy roads.

Many of these, including the Carretera Transandina were built during the military government of Juan Vicente Gómez. General Gómez provided badly needed leadership and enrichment to the country, principally through concessions granted to American companies. Many of these concessions were in remote and dangerous sites in far west Venezuela, on which also roamed unconquered Motilone Indians whose expertise included great accuracy with poisoned arrows. So, while Americans were foxtrotting to the “Roaring Twenties, western Venezuelans were waltzing away from poisoned arrows.

Venezuelan infrastructure, much of which exists today, was built. Cattle paths became paved highways; wooden structures became skyscrapers, only surpassed by the public works fomented by yet another dictator in the 1950’s. And all foreign debt was paid. By the end of his rule, the Caracas-La Guira; Caracas-Colombia; Caracas-Soledad (on the Orinoco River) and a network of many other highways had been built. This contributed powerfully to national integration and to reaching heretofore terribly isolated regions of the country.

Even his enemies, and they are legion, admit that the Gómez years were characterized by peace and unprecedented progress. He was a great admirer of Simón Bolivar and built most of the monuments to his honor, including the one in New York City. To the consternation of his enemies, he died the very same calendar day, December 17, of Bolivar’s death, but 105 years later.

We will be reviewing more about Gómez in future posts.

The roads are what I most remember from that trip and my understanding that they were built with prison labor.

I also recall stopping at a small restaurant at the edge of a cliff and my father reading over the menu. Suddenly he laughs, “Look at this. It says ‘Pie de Manzana’.”

We all joined him in laughter. In some countries the anglicized translation and pronunciation for apple pie is accepted (pie de manzana). But not in Venezuela, at least not back then. The translation would be “pastel de manzana.” The Spanish word pie (pronounced pyeh) means “foot”, not pie.

We then went back to seeing what the menu had for lunch, when my father breaks out in louder, infectious laughter. The menu had an English page and for dessert, it said, “Apple Foot.”

We all laughed heartily.

I don’t recall seeing any more such menu items during my life in Venezuela, but years later I did see some menu items an Englishman read in Ecuador:

Hays Krimm (ice cream)Airistiu (Irish stew)Wide Navel Wisky (White Label Whiskey)

Apple Foot is my favorite.

The crossing of the Andes can be recreated for those with a more adventurous bent. Explorers Passage offers “world class guides” who are “the pioneers of trekking along San Martín’s infamous route.” Unlike San Martín, for “nights off the trail” you can relax in comfort and luxury in premium accommodations.

José de San Martín, circa 1848, two years before his death. Photo taken in France. After his explosive meeting with Bolivar, San Martín exiled himself to Europe where he lived the rest of his life. Unlike Bolivar, he was modest and disinterested. He was a devoted husband. When his wife, Doña Remedios, died he had the words, “Wife and Friend” chiseled on her tombstone. She embroidered a flag for him when he set out for Chile across the Andes. The flag never left his side.

Artist rendition of the meeting between Bolivar and San Martín in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The meeting actually took place in an office, not outdoors. Little is known of what was actually said. But San Martín was disappointed and shortly thereafter resigned his command, returned to Argentina, and sailed into exile to Europe. He never returned to Argentina.

City of Mérida, Venezuela. Pico Bolivar is about ten miles distant.

In 1935, Enrique Bourgoin and his guide, Domingo Peña, were the first to reach the peak of this, the highest mountain in Venezuela. Many previous attempts had failed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Above map shows the route they took.

View of Pico Bolivar within its range, the Sierra Nevada.

Cable car which reaches to Pico Espejo, relatively close to Pico Bolivar.

I recall my mother telling me that many of the roads were built with prison labor.

Near Apartaderos, Mérida, one of the highest towns accessible by car on earth. Built during the military government of Juan Vicente Gómez, early 20th century.

Part of the Carretera Transandina built in the Gómez era.

Photo taken in 1925, shortly after the inauguration of the Transandina Highway.

The old Caracas – La Guaira Highway, also built during the Gómez era, inaugurated in 1924. This was still in use into the 1950’s. I recall excitedly looking forward to being driven to the airport during our annual family leave.

Universities: 1960’s

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019 Richard Barnes

John Gunther’s Inside South America gives a concise overview of universities in South America in the 1960’s. Gunther had a gimlet eye towards those who were slightly to the right of Franklin Roosevelt, whom he would debrief after his trips to the continent. I say this only to note that his perspective was left-of-center. As far as education, he was a Deweyite. So his comments on universities in South America — comments which apply to Venezuela — are “friendly” — he did not think they were controversial in that day, the day of Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress, and Johnson’s Great Society:

“South American universities differ markedly from ours in many respects. Students in some schools have such freedom that they do not even have to attend classes, and scholastic discipline is lax. (Of course, this is true in England and much of Western Europe too.) … Education is a serious matter. A student is apt to take himself much more seriously than ours do; to be a student is practically to be a member of a profession. Most students are passionately political, and many are Communists or Communist-inspired. Student councils are powerful, and actively assist in the running of most hemisphere universities and … have an official voice in appointing faculty members to positions of tenure. This has been a rule for a long time in several South American institutions.

“[T]he national university is theoretically exempt from search or seizure by army, police, or other government authorities; students have, in a word, immunity from arrest.

“….[Students feel] liberated all over the continent. Their political self-consciousness and assurance have increased ever since [the early 20th century]. Having the right of refuge, they have more temptation to defy authority. Moreover, the universities became convenient asylums for bogus students, semi-students, and the like….

“Students make demonstrations, cripple the continuity of teaching by prolonged strikes, and take political sides…it is part of the profession of being a student. As to Communism it is undeniable that there are strong Communist or extreme left-wing elements today in almost all the national universities, both in the faculties and student bodies….

“Student violence should be taken with a certain perspective…. When a student throws a rock at a window this is not an example of mere hooliganism, but part of an essential revolutionary mood and mentality. The student has no other way of expressing immediate effective protest [sic!].”

Again, the above is from a friendly source. The schizophrenic nature of intellectuals’ rationalization of indefensible behavior is succinctly captured: students are fully in control, they launch prolonged strikes, yet they have no way of “immediate effective protest.” Glad he cleared that up.

In Venezuela student strikes would often turn violent. To take one example from the mid-60’s: stopping taxis, turning them over, setting them on fire. All for the purpose of supporting a transportation strike.

This problem was not new in Venezuela. In 1896, Richard Harding Davis in Three Gringos in Venezuela told of an American photographer stoned by students and concluded with these remarks: “And I am sure that the Venezuelan fathers would do much better by their sons if they would cease to speak of the University in awe-stricken tones, but would rather take away the boys’ revolvers, teach them football, and thrash them soundly whenever they caught them soiling the walls of their alma mater with nasty verses.”

When news outlets were quick to “report” that the mob who attacked Vice-President Nixon and his wife in 1958 were angry students, many, if not most, throughout the country knew that those mobs were instigated by Communist agitators and such was later confirmed. As recently as 2005, during my visit, a government organ celebrated that event and praised the Communist Youth for their actions and leadership in the mob attack.

In mid-1960’s United States (the time of Gunther’s visit in Venezuela) most institutions still saw the university’s purpose as the transmission of culture, of civilization. John Henry Newman put it this way, “…a habit of mind is formed which lasts through a life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom; of what… I have ventured to call the philosophical habit of mind.”

Russell Kirk expands further, “…genuine education is something higher than an instrument of public policy. True education is meant to develop the individual human being, the person, rather than to serve the state. We tend to ignore the fact that schooling was not originated by the modern nation-state. Formal schooling actually commenced as an endeavor to acquaint the rising generation with religious knowledge: with awareness of the transcendent and with moral truths. Its purpose was not to indoctrinate a young person in civics, but rather to teach what it is to be a true human being, living within a moral order….”

Too many fail to grasp that student protest behavior in an otherwise civilized society significantly increases the power of the state, which ostensibly is contrary to what students want. However, notice to whom the students appeal in such disruptions. Is it not to the state? Is it not to compel or urge the state to take such and such an action or to prohibit this or that speech or behavior, even to the criminalization of thought and belief? How many such major student protests appeal to the Triune God? None come to mind.

Some insist that such protests merely promote anarchy. That is obviously true in many cases; however, anarchy also ends up increasing the power of the state, which will restore immediate order and then see to it that it is ever-present to prevent a repetition of such actions.

A few years after Mr. Gunther’s visit to Venezuela, Columbia University in New York City was “occupied” by student protesters. Their actions included defecating into the college president’s office wastebaskets.

And a year after that, Berkeley riots were dealt with by then California Governor Ronald Reagan, who had no patience with the intellectuals’ justification of such behavior.

A measure of the effectiveness of anarchic actions can be seen in the number of pages in the federal register. The register had 14,479 pages in 1960 compared to 97,110 in 2016. In that span of time, there were only two years with significant reductions from the previous year: from 87,012 pages in 1980 to 63,554 pages in 1981; and from 97,110 pages in 2016 to 61,949 pages in 2017. Other than those two years, the numbers have skyrocketed since 1960. And this doesn’t even consider state and local regulations.

Educational institutions bear a major responsibility for this increase in the intrusiveness of the state, as they produce our leaders in thought, politics, and morality.

I am in great sympathy with the students in Venezuela who today protest at the tyranny under which they struggle. I want them to “win.” Many have been killed.

However, do they realize that they were not well served by their predecessors, who, in effect, rioted and struck and protested in favor of a system akin to that which rules there now? That’s a harsh thing to write and it hurts to write it. But sometimes the truth is harsh. May we learn to pause in order to ponder what brought us to this point. As we’ve seen in prior posts and will continue to see in future posts, Venezuelan, and much of South American history is more reflective of the French Revolution than of the American. This helps explain, at least in part, what has brought us to this pass.

Pray for Venezuela.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Nixon attacked by student mob in Venezuela in 1958

Génesis Carmona, former Venezuelan beauty queen shot dead at a student protest in 2014

Miguel Castillo shot at point blank with smoke grenade by “security police” who then rode away (2017)

Students “liberate” Columbia University in 1968 (New York City)

Berkley University riots in 1969. The actions of the “students” were beyond filthy.

Gov. Ronald Reagan rebukes the students and the faculty of Berkeley University

In the same press conference Governor Reagan accuses a professor, “You are a liar,” to his face. This, at a time when words meant something. The sound is not the best.

Venezuelan Navy Captain Dies After Signs of Torture

July 5, 2019July 6, 2019 Richard Barnes

If memory serves, this is only the second post where I address current events in Venezuela. As readers know, I am avoiding, as much as possible, the reporting of present-day polemics, preferring to focus on helping to increase understanding of Venezuela by consulting her history (including early links with the United States), portraying her people and culture, alluding to the way we were. That will help us understand, in as irenic an approach as possible, how we got to where we are, and, perhaps, the way forward.

However, sometimes it is necessary to pause and look around at today’s scene. If we know about folks being drawn to death unjustly, let alone cruelly, and say nothing, we will be held to account: “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, ‘Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?”

Although this blog’s purpose generally excludes reporting on contemporary incidents, it does mean to help explain how we got to where we are; and to know where we are, it is at times necessary to not assume folks “know”, especially when the media’s reporting of terrible events is so muddled.

The below link is to the New York Times, not known for its fiery right wing reporting. There’s plenty of other reporting on what is happening in Venezuela: hundreds, if not thousands, drowning on their desperate journey to ever-elusive freedom in Aruba or Curazao; multiple reports of disappearances and tortures; threats to wives and children of anyone suspected to be opposed to the regime; corpses exploding in morgues for lack of electricity and, consequently, no controlled temperatures; the purposeful collapse of criminal law and the consequent explosion of savage wickedness; hunger; and much, much more.

I’ve refrained from posting or commenting on such. Those who wish to know more, are able to find it. But you will have to search beyond the mainstream media enthralled with noisome dingbats who, most recently, tell us that we run concentration camps along our southern border. Mercifully, such pronouncements have been strongly rebuked by a few, including Holocaust survivors who point out, reasonably, that those in real concentration camps were herded there by Nazis or Soviets. Nothing of the sort is happening here, where folks are coming on their own accord. And there are no survivors of the Boer War to tell about the first concentration camps in modern history. They too would be aghast at the comparison. The media should help here, but it seems interested in reporting only invective, not facts.

The article linked below is so low key it’s almost pathetic. It’s as if it’s written to blunt any criticism of its having ignored what’s happening on the ground in Venezuela. They can now say, “Oh, but we have indeed reported on these things.” Spare me. However, I’ve selected it because, for many people, the Times is a credible source that you can point to, should you be asked.

If you prefer reading a more-to-the point summary, this, from the Caracas Chronicles might suffice:

“Navy captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, arrested by the Military Counterintelligence Directorate (DGCIM), was missing since June 21st until, five days later, regime Communication Minister, Jorge Rodriguez, accused him on TV of being involved in an alleged coup. He was publicly seen two days later, when he was taken to his preliminary hearing in a military court with obvious signs of violence, in a wheelchair and with poor mobility. The captain’s wife, Waleska Pérez, denounced his serious physical condition by torture and requested protection from the Inter American Commission of Human Rights, because her husband’s life was in danger. Hour later, early on Saturday, June 29th, Acosta Arévalo died. Everything happened under State custody. This Saturday night, the regime confirmed the death through statements; none deny the torture, or the reports that torture was the likely cause of death.”

A Scripture verse that was quoted often in the days leading up to and following the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, was II Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Our rights are God-given, “endowed by our Creator.” If we value liberty we must be a people who values a love for God in Jesus Christ. We must be a people who grasps, however inchoately, that a state pretending to be God is a crass violation of the First Commandment. It is an abomination which eventually brings judgement.

Those of you who pray, please pray for the family of Captain Acosta. Pray for the people of Venezuela. Pray for the restoration of liberty and a decent civil order in that stricken land.

And, most importantly, be sure to thank the Triune God for the liberties we continue to enjoy in this great land of America.

As for the New York Times report, it’s below the photo. Read it and weep.

Navy Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo. Witnesses report that when he appeared before court on Friday, “he looked barely alive. He couldn’t move his feet or hands. He had excoriations on his arms, traces of blood on his nails, signs of blows in the torso, and he was almost unable to speak.” Upon seeing him, the judge ordered his immediate hospitalization and postponed the hearing. He died hours later in the hospital.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/world/americas/venezuela-torture.html

Source: New York Times, June 29, 2019

CARACAS — A Venezuelan Navy captain accused by the government of plotting a rebellion has died in custody a week after his arrest, underlining President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly ferocious repression campaign amid a spiraling economic crisis.

The captain, Rafael Acosta, is the first of more than 100 active and retired Venezuelan officers jailed by the government on treason charges to die in custody after allegations of torture.

A military judge told Captain Acosta’s legal team on Saturday that the officer had died in a military hospital the previous night, said his lawyer, Alonso Medina Roa. Captain Acosta was detained on June 21 and charged with treason and conspiring to rebel. He denied the charges.Mr. Medina Roa said the captain had been detained in good health but was in a wheelchair when he was brought into a courthouse on Friday. The lawyer said his client was struggling to speak or move, showed visible signs of beatings, and kept repeating the word “help” to his legal team.

Friday. The lawyer said his client was struggling to speak or move, showed visible signs of beatings, and kept repeating the word “help” to his legal team.

He was taken to a hospital from the courthouse and died hours later, the lawyer said.

Venezuela’s information minister, Jorge Rodríguez, a close adviser to Mr. Maduro, confirmed Captain Acosta’s death on Saturday night and asked the country’s attorney general to investigate the “unfortunate event,” without providing details.The head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, condemned the captain’s death, adding in a message on Twitter that “the crimes of Nicolás Maduro won’t be left unpunished.”

Captain Acosta was one of half a dozen former and active officers who have been detained in the past week over allegations of plotting to overthrow Mr. Maduro. On Wednesday, Mr. Rodríguez presented a video purporting to show Captain Acosta discussing coup plans on a conference call. The video could not be independently confirmed.

Mr. Maduro has survived one coup and one assassination attempt in the past two years, as the country’s economic collapse has weakened his grip on power. His government, however, has also repeatedly used unconfirmed coup accusations to jail and repress political opponents and instill fear in the armed forces.Last year, a detained opposition City Council member in Caracas, Fernando Albán Salazar, fell to his death from a window during his interrogation by intelligence officers. The government claimed it was a suicide.

Mr. Acosta was detained on the day that Mr. Maduro met with Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations human rights commissioner, in Caracas. After the meeting, Ms. Bachelet said she had agreed with the government to evaluate its anti-torture policies.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment following news of Captain Acosta’s death.His wife, Waleswka Pérez, told local reporters that her husband had done nothing beyond discussing in family circles Venezuela’s economic crisis and chronic corruption. She said she had not seen or heard from her husband since his detention.