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.
“‘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.
