Inevitably, the drama of at least two dozen masked men carrying firearms as dawn broke in the capital grabbed the headlines the following day. The gunmen blocked streets with barricades of burning tires in protest at recent raids by the state security directive, Disip, and claimed they were being persecuted by the police. But the notable lack of action by the police and the National Guard (GN) prompted suggestions that the swaggering gunmen had the sympathy of the authorities.
The reaction of the government raised questions. Asked to comment, Citizen Security Deputy Minister Tarek el Assaimi: "I'm not authorized to offer declarations with respect to this."
The Disip has made several raids in 23 de Enero trying to track down Juan Montoya, who's suspected of being involved in four small-scale bomb attacks in the capital this year. Héctor Serrano, who lived in the district, was killed as he placed an explosive device at the entrance of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fedecámaras) on February 23.
An identity document purportedly from the Metropolitan Police (PM) was found on Serrano's body. He and Montoya have been linked to Frente Guerrillero Venceremos, a shadowy group of supposedly disgruntled police officers.
The protesters virtually took over 23 de Enero for more than four hours. Residents were unable to make their way to work because bus services were suspended. Men in woollen balaclavas rode around on motorbikes openly wielding shotguns and hand guns.
Afterwards, they held an impromptu press conference where they claimed to be maintaining law and order in the district. They claimed that the biggest sale of illegal drugs in Caracas took place less than a hundred meters from Miraflores Presidential Palace, not far from 23 de Enero.
Spokesmen for the gunmen identified themselves with President Hugo Chávez and called their action a "revolutionary strike." But they also said they were putting on a show of strength aimed at the Disip, to show that they were just as heavily armed. And they threatened to carry out similar demonstrations across the city -- "from Catia to Petare" -- in the future.
This was not the first such incident in downtown Caracas. In 2006, a group of armed masked men took over a square, protesting against an arrest warrant issued for a man wanted for murder. Those gunmen were later said to belong to the Tupamaros, a hardline group of Chávez supporters. Again, police stood back and no arrests were made, either during or after the event.
The veracity of this somewhat hostile report aside, the issue in Venezuela is a lack of a clear vision of state power: is it to be held by revolutionary socialists, from the streets-on-up? Or is it to continue in the hands of people who are, effectively, maintaining the status quo which comes out of the bourgeois IV Republic? With the ever-present danger of full capitalist restoration -- and full-scale repression of the working-class -- if Chávez is removed?
ReplyDeleteAnd the problem is that Hugo Chávez -- and much of the coterie around him -- still want to have it both ways: with all the change that comes from social revolution; but without all the messy details that liberal reformists are always trying to avoid. Which is like trying to take advantage of the power of the changing tides without getting one's feet wet.
If Hugo Chávez is truly a socialist, and likewise his team, then they must defer to the power of the consejos which run 23 Enero. Which means that the secret police -- whose loyalties are somewhat questionable, no? -- can't just waltz into the place and haul off anyone they feel like grabbing. That is not revolutionary democracy.