Remember her?
She is Gabriela Ramirez, the so called People’s Ombudsman(woman), which in Spanish and in Venezuela’s Constitution is called the People’s Defender. She is supposed to be ready to defend everyone’s rights. .
Well, a few days ago, pictures came out of children armed with weapons. Big weapons (Ak-47’s?). The pictures were not anonymous, they were clearly identified with the “Colectivo La Piedrita” activities. (They even have a Facebook page) This is a paramilitary group that has always promoted having and bearing weapons, going around with covered faces and the like. Of course, once pictures like this one appeared all over the place, with a clear indication to where they came from:
La Piedrita leaders began saying that this was just part of a play…
Yeah, with real weapons, there is a clear message there, no? In fact, they even held a protest to ask for “respect” for the armed children.
Of course, the Government began “investigating” this, but they had to do little, just go to 23 de Enero and find La Piedrita and those responsible for this. They have yet to do it.
And the National Assembly also expressed their outrage, creating yet another commission which will not even bother to go to 23 de Enero, about 10 minutes away from where the Assembly meets. They are probably afraid to go there anyway. They don’t like oligarchs there.
I wonder what the guy that Chavez put in charge of disarming the people thinks about all this? I guess he is to busy preparing the website.
And we had not heard from Gabriela, pictured above, she always delays her appearances, as if she is not truly connected to the upper ups and is waiting for some guidance on what to do or say. Unless she has to defend the Government, that is always automatic. But today she did show up and apparently she found a true crime in all this and concentrated on it:
She finds publishing the images as illegal, insulting and degrading to the kids, as arming them. In fact, she even suggested there was no crime, the weapons may not even be real. She even called on opposition parties not to use the images in the campaign. La Piedrita gets the benefit of the doubt, the candidates don’t. That is why I published only a small picture, it will be a small crime in Gabriela’s eyes. Sort of arming a kid with a Beretta instead of a Kalasnikov.
Funny, she did not condemn “La Piedrita” either for defending the rights of the kids to be shown with weapons, even if it was only a play.
Yeap, we know who the real criminals are in Venezuela: anyone that does not support Hugo IS one.
Venezuela is truly the world upside down.
Note added: Was PSUV Deputy Robert Serra present at the La Piedrita event?
Seems like it…, I am sure he voted to investigate too.
The Devil's Excrement 
February 3, 2012 at 10:51 pm
Don’t you think Gabriela Ramirez looks a bit like Natalie Merchant?
February 4, 2012 at 10:51 am
Oohhhh–that’s cold!
February 3, 2012 at 1:27 pm
SO many words to say nothing, just for giving the breadwriters theyre meal!
February 3, 2012 at 3:22 pm
Rudeeee, do you mean “their” meal?
Whose “many words to say nothing” are you talking about?
Do you want to be a “breadwriter”?
Maybe you should write more …if you have the time?
February 3, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Any reaction other then to utterly and universally condemn this sort of message is a disgrace. There is no “but” in this. There are no excuses. La Piedrita produced and published this, and they deserve to be condemned and excoriated by every sector of the society. If you are not as angered and outraged by this as I am, then you are part of the problem.
End of rant.
February 3, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Oh boy! So according to you, one cannot make a political analysis in this comment section?
I am analyzing the government reaction, which I find unusual. And that, from the standpoint of understanding what is going on in Venezuela is important to do. I want to understand WHY they are changing their predictive behavior.
As for being outraged, let me recall to you that I was one of the first to write in the net about this issue.
February 3, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Gracias ya le escribi.
Miguel
February 3, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Sorry Bruni. I didn’t mean for that to be taken that way. It is just that, to me this is SO outrageous, I don’t like to see it treated as “politics as usual”.
I am reminded of the child soldiers in Africa. This is not the behavior of a civilized people, and I would hope that others are as outraged as I am. To analyze the government’s reaction, I think that even they understood that this was not something they could condone. However, instead of condemning it in the terms it deserves, they are cynically protecting and excusing their perceived allies, which is nearly the same as condoning it.
February 3, 2012 at 11:57 am
Absolutely, but a few years ago he would have been more virulent and would not have accept this as a punishable matter. ¿The elections? Maybe, but we have been in elections before, and that was not the attitude. I still feel that the government reaction to this has been different to what I would have expected.
February 3, 2012 at 10:19 am
Miguel, of course she must have shown up before and condemn the whole thing, but she was probably trying to see how to spin it the goverment way and now she may have a point according to the LOPNA: if arming children or inciting children to violence is considered a crime (article 92) , showing the picture of children disguised as armed paramilitary is probably against article 65.
I had written a post before we knew of GR’s wisdom, right after the photos were circulating, comparing this case with the Querida Rosinés case and with the Rosinesing picture.
http://www.cuentosintrascendentes.blogspot.com/2012/01/dos-fotos-y-dos-leyes.html
But I am now tempted to write another one, because there is something different going on in the government with respect to these photos.
They are not reacting like they usually do. They tried to blame Serra first, next they have all been very eloquent on their condemnation, and now they are trying to use the excuse that it was a play and that the weapons were not real. Which does not make a difference because even if the weapons are not real, it is inciting children to paramilitary behavior.
Chávez condemned the whole thing in public and even GR’s request of withdrawing the photos from the press is actually milder than usual. So the pictures must have had an effect or are being used for some obscure political purpose.
February 3, 2012 at 11:47 am
“Chávez condemned the whole thing in public”-yet it was faulty
in that he was mostly concerned about it hurting his image for
reelection.
And, in the same breathe-Chavez hinted that it was
“the CIA infiltrators” that maybe responsible for this…
yeah, good answer Chavez.
February 3, 2012 at 9:53 am
Thanks so much Miguel for reporting on this.Little by little so many people are ” getting used” to the intolerable and to the signs and symptoms of a very highly organized crime system.
For years the opposition has been dilly dallying in a fog of pseudo excuses made of intellectual dishonesty while pandering to those who refuse to drop the old bone of destructiveness.
Truth has become a dirty word in Venezuela and many of those who try to utter it end up ostracized.
It is a land that went from the land of instant friends to a land where everyone is a stranger.Nobody trusts anyone.Who can you welcome into your home now?
February 3, 2012 at 10:50 am
“Truth has become a dirty word in Venezuela and many of those who try to utter it end up ostracized.”
Chavez always frames things in a rediculous way- as now. His first complaint is -this posing of children with guns will hurt his image in the upcoming election.
What Chavez did not mention is -it is just plain wrong any way you look at it.
I noticed the other article about the freakin’brainwashed military-
disgusting garbage That is UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
February 3, 2012 at 9:15 am
It doesn’t surprise me at all, and to acknowledge that, makes me sad.
Venezuela is sitting on a rotten foundation that eventually will collapse, and a lot of people don’t realize it, like the stupid woman in the photo.
February 3, 2012 at 5:22 am
It’s very interesting that Chavez is not supporting La Piedrita asking if they are truly revolutionary & asking Aissami to investigate them.
http://www.noticierodigital.com/2012/02/chavez-sobre-la-piedrita-%C2%BFson-revolucionarios-de-verdad-lo-dudo/
Let’s not hold our breaths that this will happen.
In the same cadena he reiterates that the armed forces is Chavista & that they have Chavez in their heart.
He also said:
“No van a poder limpiar la Fuerza Armada de chavismo, de bolivarianismo, de patriotismo”
They are not going to be able to clean the Armed Forces of Chavismo, of Boliviarnismo, of patriotism.
http://www.noticierodigital.com/2012/02/chavez-la-fuerza-armada-es-chavista-y-tiene-a-chavez-en-el-corazon/
This is an outright threat from a bully. If anyone thinks he’s going to leave quietly they are gravely mistaken. In my opinion there is only one way out. Without Chavez there is no Chavismo.
February 3, 2012 at 7:07 am
AlbertoRavell from Twitter
Si las Fuerzas Armadas son chavistas,el Plan Republica sera manejado por chavistas?
February 2, 2012 at 11:42 pm
If they’re facsimiles, they certainly look very real (not toy guns) and similar to the ones carried by the militia women in other pictures I saw. I’m no longer surprised at what this so-called People’s Defender says, because anytime she opens her mouth she always comes out with something really stupid. Where does the Chavez government get these people to help run the country????? Unbelievable!!!
February 2, 2012 at 10:59 pm
The weapons are plastic facsimile of American made M-4 assault rifles. Please do not make everybody mistake of calling any long weapon an Ak. And i am very upset to see this woman complain declaring that the crime is in publishing a pictures but not on the people who gave them those “weapons”
February 3, 2012 at 1:53 am
Makes sense: Chavez now says that there are CIA moles in La Piedrita. They must have used American weapons (or facsimiles of) to frame the Revolution. But why did La Piedrita guys allow American hardware in their child propaganda? To expose the CIA operatives?
February 2, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Big surprise Chavez the thug shows his hand,
plata or plomo that’s his message.
make your choice Venezuela a new washer,
or a built from a 9 year old.
February 2, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Yes, a new washer or a bullet from a 9 year old…
Reminds me of the Khmer Rouge?
[The Khmer Rouge killed nearly two million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979, spreading like a virus from the jungles until they controlled the entire country, only to systematically dismantle and destroy it in the name of a Communist agrarian ideal] from Time Magazine, 2009