The Devil's Excrement

It’s sort of hard to know what to make of this story. This morning, roughly 70 skeletons were seen hanging around Caracas,
as a form of protest over the Government. The police immediately
suggested that this was a terrorist act and the skeletons contained
some form of toxic substance that intoxicated two cops. Well, a group
calling itself “Cambio” (Change) took responsibility this afternoon for
it, saying this was a non-violent protest and that the charges of a
toxic substance being present “could only be understood as the attempt,
typical of Cuban intelligence of neutralizing, taking legitimacy out of
a form of democratic struggle, which is non-violent and original
against the tyranny and as another episode in the strategy to seed fear
and shut up any voice of protest

The
group claims represent the young and be protesting against the way the
Government treats young people. They say that young people between 15
and 24 are the most affected by shootings with handguns. They point out
official Government statistic saying that 2,500 people have been killed
by security forces since Chavze took over, but there are more than
3,550 cases denounced to the Prosecutor’s office. The group argues that
the Government says that this ahs always happened in Venezuela,
but they note that in the four years prior to Chavez’ election there
were only 540 such cases. “These skeletons that we plant all over Caracas today are only a reflection of what the policies of the regimen have done to Venezuelans. We experience death and misery. Venezuela requests a change”

Well, it is hard to tell if the skeletons were toxic or not, but the
police have not explained how come only two cops acting together
suffered from this. If they were not toxic, this form of protest
represents an interesting and novel form of protest against some very
valid and relevant issues.

This entry was posted on September 8, 2005 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Venezuela.