The picture above is that of the fire set last night by Chavista hordes at Univerdad Central’s Aula Magna, a magnificent concert hall/auditorium, designed by Carlos Raul Villanueva and whose acoustics were fixed by Alexander Calder. A picture of the concert hall is shown below:
As votes were being counted for the election of Student Union President and other positions, more than 40 motorcyclists, their heads covered, invaded the university shouting “Castro-Communist Chavista Hordes” trying to disrupt the counting and burn the electoral material. They had incendiary bomb and tear gas canisters (wonder how they get them?) which they used to disrupt the process and scatter people away from the university.
Their problem? That once again Chavista forces not only lost a student election, but the Chavista candidate, Kevin Avila, received less than one out of each fifteen votes, as the three opposition slates received over 7,700 votes to Avils’a 500. Fortunately the data was preserved and the votes had been counted when this happened.
Kevin Avila is a Chavista student leader which was expelled from the University for violent behavior against the President of the university, but was quickly reinstated by the Venezuelan Supreme Court in one of those flash rulings that only those that support Chavez receive.
The total rejection of Chavismo by students and the fact that more than 50% of the students showed up to vote, despite threats of violence by the Chavistas to scare away the vote, was too much for Avila and his fascist comrades, as they roamed the university at will without any sign of security forces near the university attempting to detain them as they came out (The University is autonomous and the police does no enter its campus, but there are only well-defined narrow entranecs that can be controlled by security)
Is this is a sign of what we will see in 2012? Is this how Chavismo will act when and if it loses the Presidential election in 2012? That is the scary part. As Chavez spoke to the radio last night, claiming to be fine and jogging, these barbarians were trying to burn down Universidad Central de Venezuela, one of the leading educational centers of the country, which ironically nurtured most of the university graduates in Chavez’ Cabinet and where Giordani, Merentes and Navarro worked all their lives. Shame on them and on the Government for allowing this to happen. But more importantly, shame of them for staying silent in the face of the type of fascism that they claimed to ahev spent their lives fighting.
The Devil's Excrement 
December 13, 2011 at 10:02 am
Hola Canuck, Kepler and kernel_panic:
Some say that the REP is not so dirty (I do not believe it) with just some 3e5 dead, probably with the best intention of reducing abstention.
Is there hard data about how dirty is the REP?
How could you avoid fraud with 2 million of voting ghost and a progovernment cne?
In the US probably just 5-10% are registered…
December 13, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Well, indeed there are not so many people over 130 year old.
One of them lives in a municipio with abstention close to 100% and Chavismo getting over 98% of the votes. I really want to visit that municipio next time I am in Venezuela. Is it the water? Is it the guarapo de papelón?
Or is it, perchance, doña Coromoto’s bollos?
December 12, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Well, if Venezuela has to place most of its hopes for the future on the likes of these UCV “students”, it’s still better than most the even-less educated young and older population, to be perfectly honest.
At least they have the bare-minimum trained neurons to acknowledge the basics: Chavez crap=bad.
December 12, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Carlos I am beginning to wonder what irritated me with you in the beginning.
The only problem I hve with this statement is- leave the old people alone.
I guess I a talking about the really old. And, many are uneducated but
the ones I know -many older ladies are wonderful.
And there are many in between I don’t have a problem with.
But,also, lots of young people esp. drive me nuts.
For example last Aug. I was questioning some teenagers and they knew
so much details about Chavez -propaganda, but they knew nothing critical
NADA. And, not much else either..
December 13, 2011 at 6:24 am
There is a lot to be said for telling the old people to “get out of the way” and let the young people take over.
And I consider myself old.
December 13, 2011 at 6:53 am
Jeezz.., aren’t a few bloggists over-sensitive and cranky on this board?! Lighten up. I’m no kiddo myself at 47 y/o. All I was suggesting is that the future of any nation lies in its youth, and even is ours is mostly under-educated (UCV education, if we’re lucky, only the very lucky ones get something better than that). I was just addressing the topic at hand:
A minimum of education is what’s needed for people to discern between Chavista and other political crap. And if you read appropriately, I wrote that’s a good thing both for both the young and old who are less fortunate and even less educated. Relax!
December 13, 2011 at 7:00 am
Sorry Ira, that reply was for Charles. O agree, the better educated our youth is from now on, the better. They will be the ones in charge soon enough. And the fact that Chabruto cannot conquer the “college” student population goes to show you: all it takes is a minimum of preparation to understand what’s going on in Vzla and the world.
December 12, 2011 at 9:29 pm
At the end of the day, most political leaders in Venezuela have been “seat of the pants” type of guys. Caldera’s Ministers of Finance were both engineers, Petkoff saved the day from Planning. In the en dit is the story of our lives, little belief in knowledge, political loyalty is more important. CAP was probably the best at choosing competent people and look how he ended up.
December 12, 2011 at 7:57 pm
So there’s a new elected UCV leader? Chavista or not, he doesn’t exactly look like the sharpest tool in the shed, does he?
December 12, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Does hugo?
December 12, 2011 at 9:16 pm
i must admit that I have no idea about who the guy with the beard on the Noticias 24 picture, who won at UCV is, but I bet he’s not the next John Kenneth Galbraith. I’d love to see a video of that dude attempting to express himself in public..
December 13, 2011 at 9:53 am
Jajajjajajaja! Well-spoken.
Chavez expressions speak volumes sometimes
and you never know what he may say or do when he
is ‘off script’…and his emotions may change
off the charts in either direction within one sentence…
December 13, 2011 at 6:21 am
Abraham Lincoln was no great looker either. When you’re ugly, you try harder.
And I’m not even saying Lincoln was the deity that so many claim him to be. I have my own opinions.
December 12, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Isn’t this a very productive blog!!
December 12, 2011 at 4:08 pm
I’ve waiting for this.
Eljuri: Venezuela no supera los 30 millones de habitantes
La proyección dice que llegaremos a 28 millones y medio de habitantes (…) pero de ninguna manera llegaremos a los 30 millones”,
If you suppose that some 35 – 40% of the population is under 18 how do we arrive at 18,000,000+ registered voters which is 64.3% of the total population?
http://www.noticierodigital.com/2011/12/eljuri-venezuela-no-supera-los-30-millones-de-habitantes/
December 12, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Just checked:
Population 2009, under 18 10,161,000 or 35.7% according to UNICEF.
That would mean that every single living Venezuelan over the age of 18 is registered to vote. Yeah, realllly
December 12, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Canuck,
I have the CNE registers as of April (you can download them from CNE).
If you want me to do some calculations on that, let me know, I am trying to find interesting patterns in the data
The average age for voters in most states (I haven’t calculated the average but I will do later) is about 42-43 years old, with the average going just one year or so less for very poor regions.
We still have a higher percentage of people over 100 than Okinawa.
December 13, 2011 at 8:59 am
I have also been busy with election data from esdata and just a little bit with census data (related to the REP)
If you like, I can send you the spreadsheet with my meddling, the most interesting thing I’ve found so far is the strong correlation between rate of variance of total number of registered voters and the rate of variance of pro-government support:
ER: rate of variance of total number of registered voters
PG: rate of variance of pro-govt vote
%G: total pro-govt votes (as % of total votes)
—2008—–2009—–2010
ER 0.76 1.52 0.68
PG: 0.85 1.53 0.63
%G 55 55 51*
*: this data doesnt take into account the PPT votes and were credited as pro-gvt
Also, the sharpest increses (by far) on the total number of registered voters happen in 2006 and 2009 wich were crucial elections to keep chavez in power and were the sharpest decreases are found are elections in which chavez didnt do well (not to say chavismo lost)
year —— total number of registered voters
2004—— approx 14 million
2006——15748904 (13% increase)
2007——14190937 (10% decrease)
2008——10844371 (24% decrease)
2009——16450711 (52% increase)
2010——11201968 (32% decrease)
How in the FREAKING hell can the total number of registered voters fluctuate so much as more than 20% IN-A-SINGLE-YEAR! the REP is a total hoax and sadly, I foresee verrhuguin winning next year because of that, now there are over 17 million voters (and growing each passing day), close to 2009, look how things went from 2008 to 2009 and look how things were in 2010 and how they could be in 2011…
December 13, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Thanks. Kernel, can you do that for municipio and detect the broader variance?
Have you noticed also the October Bulge?
http://venezuela-europa.blogspot.com/2011/08/baby-boom-or-what.html
How come there is such a distribution on births between 1966 and 1976, specially at the end? (and only then, nothing comparable in a century)
December 12, 2011 at 12:11 pm
[…] Barbarians at the Gate: Chavista Hordes Set Fire to UCV’s Aula Magna Over Election Loss […]
December 12, 2011 at 9:48 am
Here’s another “Ripley’s Believe or Not”
TSJ ordena despenalizar el delito de invasión
http://www.reporteconfidencial.info/noticia/3163396/tsj-ordena-despenalizar-el-delito-de-invasion/
The Supreme Court has decriminalized the act of invasion of property.
This order from the Supreme Court negates article 471 of the Penal Code.
The ramifications of this will be chaotic. It basically gives anyone the right to invade property.
December 12, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Island,
Good catch. One more death knell for the concept of private property in Venezuela…
December 12, 2011 at 9:31 am
Morning news to start a Monday with a chuckle:
“Estudiantes oficialistas denuncian irregularidades en elecciones de la UCV”
http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/111212/estudiantes-oficialistas-denuncian-irregularidades-en-elecciones-de-la
Chavista students denounce irregularities in the UCV elections.
“Kevin Ávila, excandidato a la Federación de Centros Universitarios por la Plancha Patria y Universidad, aseguró que numerosas irregularidades se presentaron el viernes pasado durante las elecciones de autoridades estudiantiles en la Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV).”
Doesn’t this loser know when to quit?
He’s basically saying that the violence prevented the proper counting of the votes. He neglects to admit that it was his own people that caused the violence.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the CNE or the supreme court cancels the election that gave the Chavistas under 10% of the vote
December 12, 2011 at 10:06 am
I wonder what does the Chavista regime pay to these “oficialista” “students” (most of them don’t study at all). What are they being promised to raise hell at the UCV?
December 12, 2011 at 6:48 pm
I think they just believe in the gang mentality and their view
of revolution means anarchy.
(I am surprised by this “normal statement” from you..)
December 12, 2011 at 4:22 am
Tom,
The foci are Caracas and Zulia, but that’s not all. The blue in the map I created, representing inhabitants per pupil for 1920, corresponds to a large extent with the opposition majority states in Venezuela now. The main exceptions: Falcón, back then “blue” (id. more pupils than the average in Venezuela), is now Chavista, Anzoátegui now oppo. These changes have to do with the flow of better-educated to Northern Anzoátegui, the massive emigration from Falcón plus decades and decades of guerrilla experience in the mountaineous regions of Falcón plus PDVSA money in Punto Fijo.
The rest: it’s basically the same.
Going back to what Carlos was saying: he says the Indio was meant not as racist remark but in the “second” meaning of Indio. He doesn’t seem to grasp -unlike everyone else here- why on Earth the pattern “Indio” is associated with this second meaning at all. More importantly, he doesn’t know why those indios indeed were so backwards technologically speaking, compared to Europeans. History did not began in 1492, not in 800 B.C. even. I would suggest – yet again- Guns, Germs and Steel…one book to have an overview of what Carlos should have picked up had he been a little bit more open-minded.
Anyway: I recall how I was talking to a Chavista testigo de mesa in Europe during election time. I was a witness for the opposition.
We had a discussion about the behaviour of embassy employees during the election process.
I kept talking to him and above all listening to him. I started to ask questions…about Jesse Chacón, about Diosdado, about oil prices, about crime, about social justice, about sustainable development, got his opinions.
He got much closer to us. He came from Lara. He probably didn’t finish bachillerato in Venezuela. He was obviously more “Indian” looking than Carlos.
There was a point when he started to say: you know, I just want more social justice for Venezuela, I want my children to get a more decent education…but you know: I am not married to this government. There are things that piss me off. And now I will also protest and deny my signature until they do it (count the votes right away, etc.)
That last thing would have been a great thing for us and against the embassy employees.
And then there came this woman from “our side”, blanquita (yes, like me), obviously with a better background, university studies in Venezuela and Europe, and she said, very loud, how ignorant, how stupid, how Indios all those Chavistas were. She said it because she was angry, like me, about how the employees were behaving. But she could not differentiate between Chavista honchos, Chavista agents, and their voters.
The guy who was about to change sides looked at me and told me: you know, there are too many like her on your side. They don’t learn.
And he was right.
What also many “on our side” don’t get is that if that not all of them necessarily work harder or were more intelligent than many of those low key Chavistas, but were born closer to the oil state tits, or got the family education they got. They honestly think they are enlightened just because of something from within.
Chigüire Bipolar had this brilliant story that reminded me of some people:
http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/29-04-2009/senora-maria-alejandra-lopez-crea-mas-de-10-chavistas-en-un-dia/
And going back to Miguel’s post:
yes, the Kelvin-encapuchados action is completely criminal. We should denounce it. As Daniel and Miguel wrote about it in English already I wrote about it in German now and sent the information to Spiegel. I hope others do the same in French, in Spanish, whatever. We should document these things, be prepared, plan actions to document these events better.
And yet: we also need to analyse where these people are coming from, who their neighbours are, what state of mind those neighbours have, what message we can bring to those neighbours, to those relatives.
I have been to poor areas of Venezuela time after time. I have friends there. I have seen how Chavista thugs behave. And I have seen how some people are starting to change, to become bolder, how how they start to get angry when Chavista thugs try to attack, etc. And it’s not easy for them. It takes more courage to do it when you are not sure how many are on your side.
But it doesn’t help when they see someone with a lighter skin colour than theirs, preferably in a nicer car,
perhaps one coming on a visit from Miami or Paris, dropping the words “Indios”, “monos” or the like to talk about “all those ignorant primitive backward tercermundistas we have to blame for Venezuela’s miseries”.
These “non-Indios” really don’t help us.
My message: be prepare with cameras, security, journalists, etc when you fear Chavistas may strike again, but don’t forget to start “mining” their territory. This means concretely going to La Vega, in Libertador, where Kelvin votes, and listening and talking to people there.
A couple of years ago we had less votes in Libertador. In 2010 we got a little bit more (just a tiny bit more). We need to keep the trend.
We still are minority in La Vega.
We can change that.
December 12, 2011 at 6:45 pm
blanquita (yes, like me) and so intelligent.
I dub thee “Inanna” “Queen of Heaven”
daughter of Enki -the God of Wisdom.
(Inanna – later became Venus)
The Lady of the Evening.
[Just teasing, you know.
Thank you for so muchgreat information and statistics.
I enjoy learning from you every day.]
December 11, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Thanks very much for publicizing this ugly incident. It is very disturbing. I remember in later-2009 (as I recall) when a similar pro-government gang came on motos, with pistols, and burned buses, near the big clock. I don’t know anything about this particular incident, of course; but generally, I think these are not fundamentally student groups, although they may include some students. I think they come from organizations like that of the now-deceased Lena Ron: far-left Chavista parties who are more-like a motorcycle gang, even having their ‘parades’ through capitolio on motos, and often a few of them drive into student demonstrations to threaten people. Sometimes Chavez appreciates their actions, generally not so much, depending on the political tatics of the day. It is important, seems to me, to work hard to expose who they are inside the country. And, it is very important to spread information about this activity outside Venezuela, in as objective a manner as possible. Thanks very much for this article.
December 11, 2011 at 11:23 am
Where is the world wide coverage of this raid by these thugs??
Chavez sends his thugs in if he thinks he might lose
Everyone need to know now what is happening !!
December 11, 2011 at 3:30 am
[…] Miguel Octavio and Daniel Duquenal explain what this foretells. blog comments powered by Disqus /* */ /* */ /* */ Payday Loan […]
December 10, 2011 at 5:21 pm
This is a start. They will go on with that and we need cleverer strategies to cope with it. They are experts in using violence.
Now: this thug Kevin was 3 years old when the military – who later said it was “la cuarta republica” -went on the shooting rampage on 1989 Caracazo. He was a child when Chávez got elected. He votes in one of the most Chavista areas of La Vega, something we need to consider.
Most of Western Caracas is already anti-Chavez, but we should analyze the clusters where they are still stronger
December 10, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I wish a newspaper would write an article about why the
gangs in Venezuela seem to support Chavez
“thug love” ?
And I repeat, where is Tarik al Assimi?
It shouldn’t be too hard to locate these motorcycle riding
chavistas. They must be brought to court for their crimes.
December 10, 2011 at 4:37 pm
This is yet another blatant reminder that the biggest problem in our country is… you guessed it: freaking Education. The lack thereof, of course..
Anytime we spend so much time scratching our heads, or writing about any under-developed, under-educated country, guess what’s always present: general ignorance of the majority of the “pueblo”. Many of whom can hardly spell their own last names, let a lone have the most basic grasp of geo-political or socio-economic forces at play, or any vague sense sense of history, whatsoever.
This is why, even at the UCV (not exactly Harvard or Oxford last i checked) the overwhelming majority of somewhat educated young people are against the Chavista retrograde regime. It’s freaking obvious, to anyone with the slightest Education, who hasn’t sold his/her soul for money or some shady government position.
Again, the irony is that in countries like Vzla, Peru, ecuador, Bolivia, or many African nations, Asia, you name it, our so-called “democracy” or electoral systems sometimes do work, uhhh, too well:
The elected officials resemble the uneducated “pueblo” way too much. Indio siguiendo a otro indio, and pardon my French. History has shown, over and over again, that you need the freaking ELITE to lead a nation, the brightest, smartest, and especially most educated individuals.
Sadly, that’s not the case lately in many of our vastly uneducated countries. So you have the theft, corruption, ineptitude we see. Just look at Bolivia’s perfect representative of most Bolivians. Or el malandro Chavez, otro vivo mas de algun pueblo. Democracy!
December 10, 2011 at 4:51 pm
And it’s no surprise that other latin-American countries are doing better lately, especially Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, even Argentina and Brazil.. guess what: unlike Venezuela, they have invested in education for quite a while.
December 10, 2011 at 5:25 pm
“you need the freaking ELITE to lead a nation, the brightest, smartest, and especially most educated individuals.”
Those who are intelligent and well-educated can do a good job of leading if they are also wise, honest, and compassionate. If they are corrupt and self-serving, I’d prefer the corrupt and self-serving uneducated morons.
December 10, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Nah.. I’d rather have a somewhat educated crook like Diego Arria, instead of a barrio thug like Chavez running and stealing things..
December 10, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Carlos,
You are just showing your blatant ignorance. Where did you learn history?
Don’t you know why the Indians were Indians, had no chariots, no developed metalurgy or widespread writing systems? No, you really don’t. The history lessons you got at school were not enough.
As for education:
a country will always be a failure as long as some people – the one-eyed- considered themselves “intelectual elite”. Only when the average citizen has a decent education does a country has a chance for success.
Venezuela is bottom of South America in that and it has been for decades already.
December 10, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Kepler, you obviously don’t get easy points and disrespect other bloggers. Not wasting time on you.
December 10, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Never mind. You have an obsession with the “indios” you keep mentioning time after time…of course, in your special “not-so” meaning.
December 10, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Carlos- you are insulting and trying your cheap shots again.
Why? Go soil yourself somewhere else..
You contribute garbage which nobody needs or wants.
December 11, 2011 at 11:02 am
What “cheap shots?” If you are offended by the word “Indio” you are obviously misinterpreting the whole point. And talking about “garbage” what did you just write? You offered absolutely NOTHING to the specific topic of this blog. Who are these people?!
December 12, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Pardon the delay,Carlos can you say “cannon fodder”?
It is not education- it is brainwashed people who are led by
a whacko with zombie henchmen and la munecas who have erased
their soul and brain and become mouthpieces for CHavez/Castro
insanity.
You, Carlos think you know something, you are sure you do and
you are sure you are right-case in point
DO you really believe the reason the students oppose Chavez is-
because they are uneducated? That is what you implied above.
Tell me what you re really “offering” here? Nothing but BS, from
what I read…
December 12, 2011 at 8:10 pm
I wrote exactly the opposite on 2 occasions. Even slightly educated UCV “students” oppose Chavez. Read again. And relax, dude.
December 13, 2011 at 6:05 am
I in no way thought Carlos indicated that the uneducated oppose Chavez. How could you possibly come up with that conclusion based on what he wrote?
If anyone wants to be “insulted” by something in that post, you MIGHT have a case where he said that these students weren’t Harvard or Oxford material, but your case would be pretty weak. (Because 99.999% of university students worldwide AREN’T Harvard or Oxford material!)
Carlos said that anyone with ANY level of decent education could never support Chavez.
December 11, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Carlos,
I know many an overeducated “elite” who I would never want leading me, or any nation for that matter.
Yes, education is critical. But what kind of education? And how far reaching is that education?
I believe the answer lies with Kepler’s mantra: Good education needs to be wide-reaching to achieve a simple objective. Every member of the population should be better equipped than it is now to discern fact from force-fed fiction. This is a tall order in a land cultivated for centuries by those who’ve imposed or allowed, to their benefit, a cult of magical realism. So the challenge is monumental. But it is critical to ensure empowerment among a population that can better contribute to any stage of government, or to the growth of the nation in other endeavours.
December 11, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Syd, agreed for the most part. It is clear that if half of Venezuela’s population or more had at least an UCV “entry level” of education, they would not endorse Chavez or any other lying politician as easily. As demonstrated by the lack of support Chavismo has at any somewhat-educated level of society, (usually de clase-media, clase media y alta, many of whom simply left the country, like the majority of “elite” posters on blogs like these).
By saying that the governing leaders should be “elite” or better educated than most, I am not giving up on the dream of a “wide-reaching” educated population. We have seen in other countries it can be done to some extent, even our neighbors in Colombia are by enlarge much better educated (no wonder they are doing better with much less resources, same as Chile, Costa Rica, etc)
Not am I saying that the fact of being relatively “elite” (compared to the majority of any “pueblo”) implies being honest, competent and efficient as politicians in charge. I actually keep criticizing previous governments with somewhat educated leaders who were also highly corrupt, with guys like Diego Arria, or Caldera’s sons..
But since under-education and corruption is so widespread in countries like ours, who do you prefer to be in power? A corrupt, people’s thug like Chavez, with little education like most of the population, or a more educated crook like Diego Arria, Leopoldo or MCM (I’m sure that if they win, someone, if not themselves, would keep stealing trillions anyway)
I stand by my point: I want elected officials who are smarter, better prepared, and better educated than most. That’s what leaders should be. Even in the wild world (not exactly Caracas, I mean the Serengeti jungle) In a pack of elephants is led by a wiser, smarter Matriarch, lions follow a shrewdest, oldest and strongest lions.
If you have political leaders who are much like the average Joe in the street, not only corrupt, but also under-educated, you have a recipe for disaster. That’s exactly what countries like Venezuela or Bolivia have: one of the average Joes in power.
Of course the long-term solution is to raise the overall level of education and morality for all, across the board. That takes time and resolve, a couple of generations, for starters. But you have a much better chance if your elected officials are “elite” to some extent, and not just as uneducated as the masses.
December 11, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Una pregunta: Just as a matter of fact. Is it the case that H. Chavez is “uneducated”? My understanding is that, besides a college-level education at the military school, he then attended classes at Univ. Simon Bolivar and worked on his masters. I don’t recall now (a friend who taught many military officers there in the 1980s and early1990s told me these stories a while back). In those days, I am told, taking classes at USB, and prsumably also at UCV, in political science and related social-sceince fields was popular with military officers as it gave them a venue to have political discussions in a legitimate setting away from the top-brass’ eyes and ears.
But, I was told either that Chavez did not finish the thesis for the masters, or did finish that, and then stopped while working on a PhD. I don’t recall now.
Meanwhile, I agree very much with Keppler’s comments that a low educational level in Venezuela is a major problem for politics.
December 11, 2011 at 3:12 pm
I dunno what course Chavez took. But all you have to do id hear him talk. Especially when he first got into power a dozen years ago, he sounded and acted much like any campesino or urban thug from Catia or la Urbina..
One thing you cannot blame on Chavez, is that the guy is works hard, and seems to read a lot. Self-education on the job has been evident in the past decade, just by hearing him talk. Such prolonged international political exposure with leader 10 times more educated than he will ever be must leave its mark. (Still, just go to u-tube and have a laugh on the utter barbarities he keeps saying, demonstrating his pathetic level of fundamental education). Don’t over-estimate any “master classes at UCV or other “technical institutes” or military stuff in Vzla either..
By now, Chavez is generally more knowledgeable and relatively smarter than the average Venezuelan. But he’s still a laughable clown, when compared to any dignified and much better educated rulers of most countries.
December 11, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Tom,
Chávez went to the military because that’s what bad pupils tended to do.
His father was a teacher and so was his mother;
Chávez did bachillerato de ciencias, like most of us.
I think there was a combination: the guy has serious psychological problems and cannot focus at all and his school must have been very bad. If you did a bachillerato de ciencias in Venezuela, you had at least to take universal history for one year, history of Venezuela for two, some physics and geography and 5 years of biology, which included in Venezuela for quite some decades now information about evolution. So: any pupil must have heard a little bit about Assyrians, Egyptians, etc. They must have read – even if only for a day- about how native Americans came from Asia.
And yet: Chávez asked during an Aló Presidente how old mankind was: 20 centuries? More? Like 25 centuries?
Go and ask 10 average Venezuelans 1) in what century – MORE OR LESS- was Jesus – whether you are religious or not, it doesn’t matter- born or supposed to have been born.
2) in what century – more or less- did Europeans arrive in Venezuela
3) in what century – more or less – did we get independence
and
4) from what language did Spanish derive mostly from
Half of those Venezuelans will have no clue.
Some of those Venezuelans will have a university degree and actually not be bad in their field.
I mean: these should be very basic questions for a Spanish American, nothing like learning by heart about a particular year or name.
As for education: we need education at different levels. Remember Russia has a rather decent education level. Still: it is going down the drain in corruption. It never knew a capitalist society, it went from feudalism to socialism. There are some countries in Africa that still have lower formal education levels and yet they are less corrupt. Take Ghana.
In Venezuela we also need to get used to open debate and the concept of “pluralism”. Venezuela is a profoundly feudal society, left and right.
Here you can see a map I made based on data I got from a German book about Venezuela. You will see for the year 1920 (when Gómez was in power and Hugo Chávez’s dad was not born yet) how many inhabitants each state had per pupil, a number that reflects, up to a point, school attendance.
Things have changed a wee bit. Still: do you see a pattern?
December 11, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Estimado Keppler
Thanks much for your map – yes, Caracas and Maracaibo are the foci. It would be interesting to see recent data. I know you have tried to do that, and it is very difficult to get data nowadays in Venezuela.
Well, we’re getting a bit off the point of this important report on the invasion of UCV. But, let me just say, in my seminar we talk a lot about “What is distinctive about Venezuela within Latin America” and why(http://www.umich.edu/~twod/latam_f2011 ). There is a link there to worldwide comparative studies by Ingelhardt et al at U. Michigan, called the “World Values Survey”. Here is a chart showing the location of Venezuela: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs/articles/folder_published/article_base_54 The meaning of the chart is a bit complicated, but there are associated articles explaing it on the website and on my syllabus. I’d like to do more work on this and write a chapter about these issues sometime.
December 11, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Carlos Iglesia,
I disagree…when it comes to corruption, the higher the intelligence reinforced by the greatest skills can bring far greater power to the evil intended.With increasing education the better we are at manipulation, and the more ‘status’ behind our moves.
I prefer someone less corrupt with intelligence….education is a plus but less necessary than the other 2.
As for corruption not all politicians are equally corrupt, so we should never collapse hierarchies.
December 11, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Miguel and i had an interchange of ideas recently on that. I disagree, the less educated, the more potential for wide-spread corruption. Not that “white collar crime” doesn’t exist by the trillions worldwide. In Vzla’s history, with the unprecedented high levels of oil prices, there has NEVER been so much corruption as now with Chavez. It’s no coincidence him and his chosen team of leading politicians are the least educated by far in Venezuelan history, thus the most corrupt and incompetent, ever.
Not that guys like CAP or Luis Herrera were erudite luminaries and nobel prize winning icons,, but this regime is clearly the lowest of the low, most uneducated, most corrupt, ever. There is a clear correlation.
December 12, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Wild elephants and lions and “elites and uneducated masses-and you want to raise the level of education and morality it will take generations–? Ha hA
Ramble on, muchacho. The key is to change the “state of mind” of the country
and you will never lead anyone to that, pal.They willbe lost in the forest
or on the llanos following you…
Break the lying fiction that exists today.
December 12, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Carlos,
The closest to an elite we had running Venezuela was freaking Copei. Look at where it led to, particularly Luis Herrera’s government. Which abstract, non-existent, elite are you talking about, specially when there are so many $ millions to be skimmed off of the oil revenues?
December 12, 2011 at 9:05 pm
And that’s part of the problem. Actiually Luis Herrera, if you remember, was a laughable llanero character, not only under-educated, but rather stupid and unintelligent too, by any international “elite” standards of nation “presidents”. Not too mention the drunkard “doctor”, Mr Lusinchi..
Which Elite am I talking about?, certainly not you, from what I gather here briefly. so that’s that.
December 12, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Again, sometimes “democracy” works TOO well in countries like ours. Let’s elect Maria Lionza next.
December 10, 2011 at 3:33 pm
[…] Miguel Octavio and Daniel Duquenal explain what this foretells. […]
December 10, 2011 at 2:23 pm
They are winning the hearts and minds of Venezuelans, and specially of university students with these stunts.
LIKE HELL!
Look at the bright side of things. Kevin Avila and vandalic associates are reduced to this. The more they do this, the more they burn themselves into a corner. If only, things like these were regularly uploaded to YouTube…
December 10, 2011 at 1:50 pm
From the reaction of the government, the message they are sending to the Chavistas is that this behavior is not only tolerated, but expected and encouraged. Frightening, indeed. Must Venezuela descend into complete barbarism, before it can get better?
December 10, 2011 at 12:21 pm
[…] […]
December 10, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Looking at these photos breaks my heart. Being an Ucevista, that is the hall where I received my Architecture degree, the inmense pride of doing so in an architectural masterpiece.
I should add that the UCV was declared modern heritage of the world in 2000 by the Unesco for its amazing architecture and its integration with the arts. This is a crime that goes beyond than some burned documents.
On the other hand, it makes me proud that the UCV took such a great step to show the country that they want a free future without chavistas.
December 10, 2011 at 6:50 pm
“it makes me proud that the UCV took such a great step to show the country that they want a free future without chavistas.”
Thank you for saying that.
December 10, 2011 at 12:04 pm
To add insult to injury, I bet repairing the damage will be extremely difficult due to the lack of parts and expertise.
December 10, 2011 at 12:29 pm
For the photos it looks like the fire was set on the foyer and not inside (I really hope). If that was the case, there are more chances that it can be cleaned up than if it would have been inside, where the Calder’s clouds are.
The structure is an amazing concrete structure, so I’m almost certain it resisted. I’m concerned about the metal railings of those ramps and thenwood panelling of the doors.
BTW Bob, there is a lot of expertise and heritage restoration institutes in Venezuela that are able to tackle difficult projects. The problem might be resources and of course in this case, money. The UCV is a public university that functions with public funds, and I’m afraid the government won’t give them money to reapir the damage.
December 10, 2011 at 11:55 am
Well, you say Chavista hordes however the eminent Mario Silva using government TV says that:
Mario Silva acusa a “policías de oposición” dirigidos por la Rectora de los sucesos de la UCV
He accuses the opposition police under the orders of the head of the university for the events in the university.
http://www.noticierodigital.com/2011/12/video-mario-silva-acusa-a-policias-de-oposicion-dirigidos-por-la-rectora-de-los-sucesos-de-la-ucv/
If that wasn’t enough the big loser, Kevin Avila, said:
Conflicto entre opositores generó violencia en la UCV
The violence was between competing opposition groups.
http://www.reporteconfidencial.info/noticia/3163331/kevin-vila-denuncia-sabotaje-conflicto-entre-opositores-genero-violencia-en-la-ucv-/
For those of you outside Venezuela these comments are so ludicrous that you can’t even react to them. It would be like convicted bank robbers in your country accusing a school teachers group of robbing the bank. Yeah, right!
December 10, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Crap begats crap.
December 10, 2011 at 11:55 am
This is exactly what I was talking about on your last post. This was an election in a University. Imagine what the government will do when they also see that they will lose. There has to be a plan in place to fight back. We are dealing with street thugs 100 times worst than these pro Chavez students…thugs that when backed in a corner will do WHATEVER it takes to hold on to power. What happened at this university can serve as a glimpse of what will take place in OCT 2012. What can be done to stop it…..that is what all Venezuelans that really want a change must be preparing for.
December 10, 2011 at 6:45 pm
“There has to be a plan in place to fight back”
Why don’t you go down there and reach out and touch one of those
chavista thugs, tap one one the shoulder and say, “Don’t act like
a wolf boy ‘ Can’t you act like a gentleman?” I bet you just might make
a friend…in your dreams.
THEY WANT A FIGHT and regardless who starts it- THEY WILL
blame the opposition. ANd,Chavez propaganda machine will whine and
howl loud enough and often to be heard all around the world like babies
taken from the teta.
Ramon, if you could look into my eyes right now, you would understand
how angry I have been for a long time. How can you fight when THEY
don’t fight fair, they have corrupt law, police, military, fool militia all with
weapons wanting to kill you? Try something, anything, I’ll pray for you.
All that can be done is to say over and over -Chavez is all about
fiction, everything he does, has been tried and will not work. No more time,
no more chances. One more year, and then vote. I hope it is very clear
and it is a landslide for any opposition against Chavez.
My frustration has “boiled over” countless times…
December 10, 2011 at 11:36 am
That’s frightening. A Venezuelan Kristallnacht. No one stopped them. Not the police. Not the Campus Security. Every member of the University must be going through some deep soul searching. How could it have gotten this far?
Finally, and sorry to say, the most important thing that the opposition must deal with is ‘not’ their ability to convince potential voters to the logic of their cause. No. It is the insuring of the democratic process that is critical here. Real people casting real votes is what is important. If there really are 5 million phantom votes in the Venezuelan voter registery, as some have alleged, the cause may already be lost before it even got started.