The Devil's Excrement

A year ago today, the day after the recall referendum, a group of
people, mostly women, were protesting at Altamira Square the results of
the recall referendum, when three guys in motorcycles showed up and
started shooting at them. One lady, Mrs. Maritza Ron was shot dead,
seven others including one Deputy of the Solidaridad Party were injured
in the shooting. The world press caught the shootings on video and
photos. You can see some of them below

Below
are also a picture of Mrs. Ron being taken away, as well as a picture
from her burial, when other women carried her coffin, a very symbolic
act and tribute in a country where by tradition men usually carry out
that task.

A
few days later two of the men were captured, including the man in the
red beret. Amazingly enough their attorneys are arguing self-defense
against unarmed men and women who were peacefully exercizing their
right to protest. To this day, there has been no condemnation of the
murder by the Government, no speedy trial, or priority given to the
case as in those against opposition figures. What we do know is that
the same guy appeared as if by magic
at the burial of murdered Prosecutor Danilo Anderson, at a time that he
was supposed to be in prison. Even the murderers have special
priviliges in this outlaw Government.

The murder of Maritza Ron
is another tragedy of this confrontational administartion that has
divided Venezuela, where hundreds of murders and injuries remain
impune, while the full force of the Prosecutor’s office is used daily
to keep opposition figures in check, with nothing ever resolved. Where
obscure articles of outdated laws are revived to prosecute their so
called enemies, new laws are created to limit them or new charges
applied with remarkable efficiency. But her murder is more symbolic to
me, because that day she was just being the true opposition to this
Government we really have, the acts of common people like her, of which
there are millions, and not of political parties, people that despite
the very real and veiled threats, the impunity and the overwhelming
control of the institutions by the Government, live to fight another
day, to demand that their rights and the law be respected and to unmask
the true nature of this autocratic and militaristic Government. May she
rest in peace.

This entry was posted on August 16, 2005 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Venezuela.