[NYTr] Opposition Violence at University in Venez - What Really Happened
 
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:00:01 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Hands Off Venezuela via Venezuelanalysis - Nov 9, 2007
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2818  (photos here too)

originally published at
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/violence_venezuela_university.htm

Opposition Violence at Venezuelan University - What Really Happened

by Rodrigo Trompiz and Jorge Martin, Hands Off Venezuela

According to eyewitness reports from Hands Off Venezuela members,
violence broke out yesterday in Caracas when opposition students
arrived back from a peaceful demonstration against the proposed
constitutional reforms. Apparently frustrated by the lack of violence,
a group of about 250 of the opposition students (many from other
universities) went straight to the Central University of Venezuela
(UCV) to the School of Social Work which is a stronghold of
revolutionary students inside UCV.

There, a group of revolutionary students was campaigning for a yes vote
in the referendum. They had an assembly for
students/teachers/non-teaching staff in the morning and were putting up
posters and giving out leaflets.

They were then attacked by the opposition students who surrounded the
School. Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown, the toilets were
destroyed, the door of the Students Centre (Bolivarian dominated) was
burned down, and around 150 people (students, teachers and non-teaching
staff) were trapped inside the building for several hours, with the
violent opposition students trying to force their way into the building
to lynch them.

Some of the students inside the Faculty are nationally known Bolivarian
student leaders (including Andreina Taranzon who spoke in the debate
with opposition students at the National Assembly earlier this year at
the time of the RCTV protests). They managed to call the state TV and
reported live on what was happening.

The police are not allowed to enter University premises owing to a law
on University autonomy. The Mayor of Caracas offered the possibility of
the Metropolitan Police going in to contain violence and allow people
in the School to come out, but the rector of the University, a member
of the opposition, refused the offer. The University authorities are
responsible for security on their own premises and did nothing to
prevent violence from escalating.

Meanwhile, opposition TV stations were full of reports that masked
Chavista supporters had fired on opposition students and that one
person had been killed (this was then proven to be false, nine students
were injured, most of them from inhaling fumes from the fires started
by opposition students).

Finally, the head of emergency and fire-fighting services was allowed
by the rector to go into the university and negotiate the safe exit of
the people who were trapped inside the School of Social Work by a
violent mob of opposition students.

The international media has been "reporting" about these clashes as if
"armed Chavista gunmen" had fired on peaceful opposition students. A
member of Hands Off Venezuela was present at the University when the
violence broke out. He reports that the gunmen who originally opened
fire stopped him on his way through the UCV to the Bolivarian
University nearby. He reports that the two gunmen on the motorbike did
not look like students, but were more likely thugs hired for the
occasion and that they were shouting anti-Chavez slogans and boasting
of having shot at Chavistas.

Even news agencies now are reporting that Bolivarian armed men arrived
at the UCV after the opposition students had sieged 150 people inside
the building of the School of Social Work to help those sieged gain
safe passage out:

    Later, armed men riding motorcycles arrived, scaring off students
and standing at the doorway - one of them firing a handgun in the air -
as people fled the building. (The Guardian [1] ) 

What Hands Off Venezuela eyewitness report is that, faced with the
inaction of the University authorities, hundreds of students,
University workers and people from nearby neighbourhoods finally went
into the University to help the people at the School of Social Work
escape from the violent mob of opposition students. Some of them were
carrying guns, which was only normal considering the extremely violent
nature of the situation.

Bolivarian students, teachers and non-teaching staff have now held a
joint meeting at the UCV and called for a demonstration against fascist
aggressions to take place in the UCV on November 15.

Videos of the violent attack by opposition students can be seen here:

http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?988 [2]

http://www.radiomundial.com.ve [3] /yvke/noticia.php?990 [4]

Image Description: 
Violent opposition students outside the School of Social Work (ABN)
Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2818

Links:
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7060225,00.html
[2] http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?988
[3] http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?990
[4] http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?990
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