The story is quite straight forward and in any other country it would be a major scandal, there are simply too many perverse elements about the story: Last Friday, 28 miners who illegally mine gold near the Atensa mine in Bolivar state, did not return home in the evening. They disappeared mysteriously, reportedly in the hands of “El Topo” gang. Some of those who managed to escape the massacre, claim the Army and the investigative police were with the gang. The bodies were later paraded around, supposedly with an official escort, and taken away from the area.
The relatives went to the investigative police (CIPC), but the police asked that the survivors be brought in to be interrogated. Obviously, none of them want to testify or accuse anyone.
These were not faceless bodies, the people provided 28 names, and it reportedly includes a woman who is pregnant.
And then came the first reaction by the Governor of Bolívar State: He came on TV to deny that anybody had disappeared. Even worse, he claimed he went around the region and found no bodies. That he had heard there was some form of confrontation, but no bodies, no massacre, no one had disappeared.
All of this, while protests began to escalate and the relatives of the missing miners began not only providing names and ID numbers, but pictures to show that these were not “phantom” people. They were very real.
The Governor went as far as tweeting on the subject, as the protests increased and roads were blocked on Saturday, like shown in the picture at the top of the post.
Here are two tweets by Rangel:
“We make a call to the “people” of Bolívar to preserve the peace that characterizes us, let’s not make ourselves echo of false and irresponsible information” said the first tweet above,…and
“Cheap politicians want to tarnish the success of the registry for mining projects that the National Government has put forward with important advances”
Why the rush? Why deny so fast? Why make claims he could not support? A registry of mining projects is more important than 28 lives of Venezuelans?
As the protests increased and the proofs of the identities of the 28 miners became known, others parts of the Government reacted. The Prosecutor’s office and the People’s Ombudsman were forced to investigate the possible massacre.
By then, Rangel Gomez changed his tune, admitting the “possibility” that something may have happened, but again asking why it was that there were no bodies. But somehow, he does not ask where are the people that are missing. There should be “live” bodies, no?
This case is simply another remarkable example of the perverse revolution initiated by Hugo Chávez and now being followed (on steroids!) by Maduro.
First, the Governor’s reaction is typical of the revolution: Anything denounced is an attack on the revolution and it has nothing to do with reality and must be false. If the events took place far away from Caracas, then nobody will find out about it, so the denial will become the truth anyway.
Like the 130,000 homicides the revolution denies have taken place since 1999 due to the indolence of the Government.
Except in this case, the new spread further as the Deputy from Bolívar and others learned about it and they would not let go…
Second, the Governor shows no empathy and no compassion with the miners or their relatives. The case is something he wants to sweep under the rug fast, before those thinking of lending the Government money to invest in the country’s gold, change their minds (If they ever had the idea of lending absurd amounts guaranteed with gold in the ground)
To Rangel Gomez, these are not people or human beings, they are lost voters.
But things are even more perverse:
One, As in everything in the country, it seems that whenever there is economic activity, order is preserved by “pranes” gang leaders who control jails, towns, cities and mines. Since the Government is not imposing order, a pran does. The other day I was told of a fairly sizable town in Sucre State controlled by a pran. If you want to work on the PDVSA project there, you have to make the pran happy. In another town, there is a sugar project, when people from Caracas went to visit it, the pranes provided the security.
Two, the official media, whether VTV, Telesur, El Universal or whatever, has simply ignored the issue. Not only do they deny access to the opposition to their outlets, but if you are Chavista and want to denounce something like a massacre, you are suspect. Chavistas have fewer rights than anyone in Venezuela apparently.
In fact, it is quite strange, some media actually have shown Rangel Gomez denying the massacre, but one has to wonder what the viewers must bethinking since there have been no news of a massacre taking place.
And if this were not perverse enough, not a beep is heard from Nicolas Maduro. Nothing about looking into it, least of all going to visit to express his sympathy with the families. Nothing. A perverse silence that measures the importance (or lack thereof) that he gives to the possible massacre.
Because in the end Maduro thinks that acknowledging the possible massacre will simply decrease his popularity. Never having solved any problems that the population would appreciate, he just thinks it is all against him. Economic war, massacre war, that is how he views the world. War against Nicolas Maduro.
It has to be!
It is a perverse end for the Chávez revolution. The revolution was supposed to be for the good of the people. Whether twenty eight Venezuelans may have been massacred or not, may be alive or not, is simply irrelevant to a Government whose only goal and purpose, is to survive and stay in power, the people be damned.
The true nature of the perverse revolution is all that remains…
The Devil's Excrement 
March 14, 2016 at 5:10 pm
Prosecutors office says four of the bodies have been found and not near the mine. This makes Rangel look extremely bad and the police needs to explain how bodies got to where they were found with all the police in the area.
March 9, 2016 at 7:23 pm
Unlike with Chavez who would had a quick answer even if was BS, Maduro has no clue of how to answer. Let me share my Hugoism’s!
1. The Colombian Paras and the Venezuelan Opposition stole the gold and then killed the patriotic Bolivarian miners to finance their violent overthrow of the peoples revolution?
2. This was done by government supported raiders from Guyana (only a few KM,s away) and we must declare war on them, and a national emergency and invade!
3. This was done by Brazilians with the support from their government. Let’s hope they invade and take us over so they have to feed us like the US in Irak, while we continue to fight the revolution.
4. The Gringo miners did it and the Canadian miners will be nicer.
5. That’s life in the Interior but, we here in Caracas are civilized people. Like I said, It’s the wild west with gangs and crooked Sheriff’s and Alcaldes. Where is Juan Wayne when you need him?
March 9, 2016 at 7:30 pm
Or El Zorro!
March 9, 2016 at 3:43 pm
This source is not unbiased, but it does mention the chain saws: https://dolartoday.com/confirmado-mineros-de-tumeremo-fueron-picados-con-motosierras/
March 9, 2016 at 3:15 pm
Can someone give me an update of what we know for sure about this?
This morning, my wife showed me a photo purportedly showing some tied up miners, and a chain saw.
Her translation to English skills are worse than my translation to Spanish skills, and I’m clueless. Plus, haven’t seen anything real up to date (today) about this anywhere.
March 9, 2016 at 3:39 pm
Here is an article in English that includes all the latest information I have heard: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35744130
March 9, 2016 at 6:21 pm
Nothing new, yes there are reports the bodies were chopped up, but the Governor held a press conference today and said no evidence.
March 9, 2016 at 2:00 pm
The AN should pass a resolution requesting that a Venezuelan Navy vessel should be renamed “28 Tumeremo Miners”.
March 9, 2016 at 12:22 pm
Miguel is absolutely right on everything here. Good observations.
“The story is quite straight forward and in any other country it would be a major scandal”
In any semi-civilized country it would be HUGE. They would not rest until the culprits are caught, or the president is impeached. Lots of people would get fired, at least. It would be on the news for weeks, very 5 minutes, on every channel, every paper..
But why isn’t “El Pueblo” much more outraged and pissed-off?? Don’t say they didn’t find out.. most of them know what happened, even when the criminal regime controls most of the media. They find out.
Therefore, Is the “pueblo” dumb enough to think the Chavista thugs had nothing to do with the massacre? Or they just don’t care about some far away miners? Are they so numb by now, so used to everyday murders on every corner of the country? They think it’s normal, that “shyt happens”? Does the “wise” and very smart “pueblo” think it’s normal that there are no investigations and total crime impunity? All they care about is money, enchufes, food and their own lives?
Here in the USA, ONE black person gets wrongfully killed by a cop, and an entire city is paralyzed (Baltimore, etc). Sorry to say, but “el pueblo” should be much more sensitive and reactive. Granted, they go to jail, lose their jobs or even risk their lives if they complain or manifest in the streets. But just a few months ago over 6 MILLION “pueblo” still voted for Maduro, and more than half of the entire population is still Chavista, and adores el pajarito comandante eterno. Today.
Now how “wise” and “smart” and “innocent” is “el pueblo”?
March 9, 2016 at 1:17 pm
“El pueblo” are a bunch of idiots, the fact that they voted for the chavista regime for 15+ years is proof enough of their stupidity.
March 9, 2016 at 8:43 am
And, to put this into a new spin, Del Pino was up in Toronto yesterday pushing the investment opportunities of Venezuelan mining to a trade show known as “The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC).” Really. I’ll bet the the news of the killings at Tumeremo went over big in Toronto. “You want us to invest our money, …there?” There is also a very high probability that he’s up there, in Canada, meeting with Canadian banks for THAT 5 billion dollar investment in the 55/45 joint venture with Gold Reserve. As they say in show biz, timing is everything. Del Pino couldn’t have timed this thing any worse.
March 9, 2016 at 6:07 am
The management of the crisis follows the standard chavistas script:
1) Deny the facts it as long as you can.
2) If you can’t deny the facts, accuse someone else, basically the empire or the opposition.
3) As a last resource, if you can’t accuse someone else, say that things were worse in the 4th republic or are worse in USA.
I’ve seen this pattern many times, specially in social media.
March 8, 2016 at 11:48 pm
They should have leaned the other way and acted tough and promised to find these killers and bring them to justice. Even if it was for show. Wouldn’t that be at least more normal than the way they behaved. Are they so afraid that their own leaders were somehow involved maybe… hmmm….
March 8, 2016 at 9:05 pm
When will this end? The opposition doesn’t seem to be a factor, the so-called moderates in the armed forces are mum, the Church remains silent. It feels as if Venezuela has slipped into a parallel world where life will get ever more cruel with no hope of escape.