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Related: About this forumTiananmen Square & Venezuela’s Caracazo: A Tale of Two Massacres
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June 09, 2014
Tiananmen Square & Venezuelas Caracazo
A Tale of Two Massacres
by DANIEL KOVALIK
One cannot escape the ample media coverage of the 25th anniversary of what has come to be known as the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which it is estimated that at least 300, and possibly 3000 civilians, were killed by state forces. [1] Of course, that is a tragedy which deserves remembering and commemorating. And, this commemorating should be done in an honest way. Without belaboring this point too much, it is worth noting that there has been much mythologizing about the events in China twenty-five years ago, and I urge readers to check out both the Columbia School of Journalism [2] and Nikolas Kristoffs New York Times account from that time period. [3]
Another event, which took place 25 years ago, also deserves commemorating. This event, which the U.S. media has almost entirely ignored, involved the state murder of hundreds (at least 300), if not thousands (possibly 3,000) of protestors in Venezuela. [4] In other words, the estimates of those protestors killed in Venezuela are identical to the estimates of those killed in Beijing. Of course, given that Venezuela has a tiny population (around 30 million) compared to that of China (over 1 billion), these numbers are proportionately much greater.
And moreover, these events in Venezuela, now known as the Caracazo, led to historic change in Venezuela and Latin America as they would lead to the political rise of Hugo Chavez who opposed the Caracazo massacre and who would become President ten years later in great part due to the populations reaction to it. And, as Noam Chomsky has opined, Chavezs leadership in turn led to the historic liberation of Latin America after 500 years of subjugation by the Spanish and the U.S. [5] No small feat, indeed! But again, these monumental events, which began with poor Venezuelans rising up against an increase in fuel prices, apparently deserve no mention, at least as judged by the Western media.
Why this difference in coverage by the U.S. press? Again, if one were to look at the magnitude of these two events, Venezuelas Caracazo would deserve as much, if not more, coverage than the killings in Beijing. However, the killings during the Caracazo were, in the word of Chomsky again, of unworthy victims, because these killings were carried out by a government that of President Carlos Andres Perez that was aligned with the United States. And, the David that would bring down this Goliath was Hugo Chavez, a perceived enemy of the U.S.
Moreover, the Caracazo is a problem for U.S. journalists because the number of its victims dwarfs the number of individuals (a total of 42) killed during the most recently months of protests in Venezuela. And, this 42 includes a sizable number of state security forces and pro-government activists who were killed by violent opposition protestors. [6] In other words, the reaction of Venezuelas government, now led by Chavez successor Nicolas Maduro, appears, and in fact has been, much more restrained than that of the pro-U.S. government which preceded Hugo Chavez. But again, you would not know this from U.S. media coverage of these events.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/a-tale-of-two-massacres/
Good reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101694989
MADem
(135,425 posts)About 1,500 students face prosecution after three months of street protests this year with no evidence they took part in any criminal act, including about 160 still behind bars, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said.
Forty-two people, including 38 civilians, were killed in the daily marches to decry crime, inflation and food shortages in Venezuela. Excessive use of force by security forces has been documented as well as least 14 alleged cases of torture.
Yet there has been no substantial progress in investigating such cases, the ICJ said.
The independence of legal institutions in Venezuela is "very weak", the Geneva-based jurists group concluded in a report.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/05/uk-venezuela-judiciary-idUKKBN0EG1SH20140605
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)and almost seems like you're trying to justify the repression carried out by Maduro and co. I suggest you look at all the pictures and videos we've shown in this thread and read the numbers regarding how many have been arrested and jailed, and how many have been murdered since the Feb 12 protest. This government already kind of has a Caracazo of its own, and if not, it's surely brewing one up with the way its bigheads are making themselves richer while everyone else, even the poor, only keep getting poorer