This happened a few days ago. Just read on so that you can
judge the two sides of the same story…
On October 27, El
Nacional (see here)
reported that there were tear gas bombs and shots the previous day at the
Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), which is the largest and most important
University in the country. The events happened after the attack on a march
organized by Rosales’ supporters to
promote going to vote on December 3. According to Stalin Gonzalez, the
president of the Federation of Students, men in motorcycles, wearing red
T-shirts from the Alcaldía de Caracas, started throwing artifacts to the
marchers. One of them was shooting, then
got into the School of Social
Work where there were about 40 people armed with
guns.
Narvaez, the vice-Provost of the institution was protesting on
TV the presence of the armed individuals and saying that the DISIP (police) had
not come despite being called by the authorities. While Narvaez was on TV, a
group stopped a truck close the University, showed a gun to the driver and told
him to stay quiet because they were the government. When they arrived at the
entry of the University they asked the driver out, got themselves out of the truck and throw a
Molotov cocktail to the empty truck.
Juan Barreto, the major of Caracas,
rejected the accusation of promoting violence.
He said that the Metropolitan police and the DISIP always give
protection to the “supposedly unity candidate”
and that “we ask our people not to get into violence and we do not
promote it. We have no fear because we know that Chavez will win the Presidency
and that the opposition is acting irrationally when confronted with its
failure”. And then, in his usual charming words he said that “the coupsters are
giving their last kicks”.
I wondered which coupsters was he referring to….
So this curious ghost decided to check out the “official
news”, published by the government (see here).
To my surprise it took me a while to realize that VTV was referring to the same
news.
The events have become a “warning about a plan to
destabilize the Venezuelan Universities”. The article says that according to
“University leaders”, there is a plan devised by University authorities and students to “heat up” the Universities.
The plan is rooted on the opposition desperation for the lead of Hugo Chavez in
the forthcoming elections.
Interesting, in the VTV article there is not recount of what
was going on, no Molotov cocktail, no truck in fire, just the opinion of the
“University leaders” of what the plan is and why.
Also interesting is the corollary of the whole incident
expressed by Hector Rodríguez, one of the student leaders interviewed by VTV.
He said that there is a pretension of University
support for Rosales taking the UCV as a pattern without accounting for
educational centers like Universidad Simón Rodríguez, Bolivariana and Unefa.
The UCV, he said, is no longer the “alfa” and “omega” of the academic circles
in Venezuela.
The article then explains that there is a plot to initiate
violence at the Universities for December 3 since it is well known that Chavez
will win with 50 to 60% of the vote.
At the end, the article reminds the reader that the
President proposes a deepening of the socialist doctrine during his mandate
whereas Rosales is prone to neoliberal concepts and a rapprochement to the United
States.
Quite a peculiar way to recount a violent event.
__________________________________________
Update. On the 28th El Nacional reported that a
preliminary inquest identified the individuals that attacked the march as
students of Sociology, armed groups from El 23 de Enero and students from the
Universidad Bolivariana.
Reporting from Cyberspace,
Jorge Arena
Distinguished ghost blogger.
The Devil's Excrement 
