The roles hatred and racism play among Venezuela’s middle class

[polly7]

By Arturo Rosales writes from Caracas. Axis of Logic
Axis of Logic
Thursday, Feb 27, 2014


Two participants in the "peaceful student protests" on February 21 in San Cristóbal, Tachira State. One hides behind the other and the barricade, preparing to hurl a molotov cocktail at the Venezuela National Guard. The opposition and western media portray young men like this as heroes. The National Guard and other security forces are ordered to maintain order but not to react under penalty of Venezuelan law.

Talk to any middle class or upper class opposition person in Venezuela and they will tell you that there is no racism in Venezuela’s rich, multi-cultural society. Even though they are the main practitioners of it and they would see it if ever they were to honestly look in the mirror.

Malditos hijos de puta, malditos cubanos de mierda, fuera de mi país!
(translated: "Fucking sons of whores, Cuban pieces of shit, get out of my country.&quot

Malditos chavistas de mierda, vamos a matar a todos!,
(Translated: "Fucking chavista pieces of shit, we are gonna kill you all!&quot

Asesinos! Cobardes! Jalabolas de Maduro!
(Translated: "Murderers! Cowards! Maduro ass lickers!&quot

These are a selection of standard insults hurled at the National Guard protecting the National Public Television station (VTV) from being destroyed or burned to the ground in the middle class area of Los Ruices in Eastern Caracas.

The people hurling these insults are generally local inhabitants who have been trained from early development to hate anything that is Cuban or smells of Chávez by a 14 year campaign in the private media that has fostered division, racism and hatred in Venezuela.

The victims of this abuse are men and women in the National Guard, people from humble, often poorer backgrounds, regarded by the perpetrators of such filthy diatribes as being somehow inferior as human beings.

Full article: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_66428.shtml

[ChangoLoa]

1. Anti-Cuban "racism"?

Because we are from different "races" now?

The author of this very simplistic article should rather talk about xenophobia. And it has certainly grown during this crisis. It's not directed against Cubans in general, but against Cubans working for the Ven government and especially against those working hand in hand with the security forces.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. and he goes on to say that racism isn't about skin color in Ven

that its about class, which is classism not racism. He doesn't even know what he's talking about. yes, I imagine that many protesters aren't too happy with Ven being a Cuban colony. I agree with that part.

[Judi Lynn]

3. This is one article I will never relinguish. Hope the real DU'ers here will take time to read it.

From the article:

Not all but many of these younger people have turned into the 21st century neo-fascists hating and despising the Venezuela’s original people, indigenous, descendents of slaves and other immigrants like themselves such as poor Colombians and the not-as-well-educated popular classes that live in the crowded mountainside barrios overlooking their splendid homes in East Caracas.

The middle class have many words to describe humble people from poor areas. One of their epithets for those who clean their houses is “Chusma” which means “lower class scum” - a favorite to be dropped into a diatribe by unhappy middle class people upset by the fact that the poor now have the same rights and some of the same things that they have enjoyed for centuries, thanks to the Bolivarian Revolution.

Fortunately for these middle class denizens of civility they can get away with this sort of behavior towards the Venezuelan National Guard (GNB) as this military body is trained not to react under any circumstances to verbal abuse, being spat upon or even having rocks and molotov cocktails thrown at them. Members of the GNB are only permitted to react with force if they are physically abused. In such cases they are only authorized to use proportional force that includes tear gas, water cannon or plastic bullets – all internationally approved for crowd control.

Twenty years ago the situation was completely different before President Chavez put limits on how crowd control could be exercised in Venezuela. Back then, insult a National Guardsman you would be whipped with a cane they carried called a “peinilla”, receive a beating or if necessary they would drag you out of your home, beat you and spirit you away to an uncertain destiny – sometimes to be “disappeared.”

Adults among modern day middle class fascists have forgotten those dark days and the younger ones among many in the “student protests” never experienced them. Now, with impunity they abuse the soldiers, the same ones who have helped them in cases of natural disasters like earthquakes or a floods. I wonder if the National Guard or its equivalent in US, Germany, France, Spain, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Brazil or any other “developed country” would be so tolerant when facing such mindless hatred and intolerance. I very much doubt it.

Unforgiveable, both degenerated, foolish parents and their pointless children. Typical right-wingers, aren't they? How could they ever imagine themselves actually superior to human beings?

[Zorro]

4. What's a "real DU'er"?

Sounds as if the folks reported in the article use the same kind of divisive language you typically do in your posts.

[polly7]

5. Someone who isn't invested day after day in derailing and wanna-be censorship of

articles and opinions that report on what is actually happening in a country and its people under siege (again). It's a fairly simple concept.

[Zorro]

7. I didn't ask you the question

but since you chose to respond, by your very definition the source of the "real DU'ers" remark -- who you flatter downthread -- is not a "real DUer", since they habitually respond with irrelevant pictures and insulting comments unrelated to whatever is the current topic under discussion in an attempt to bully those with opposing viewpoints.

[polly7]

6. [phone] Judi-Lynn. nt.

[Flatulo]

8. And so it goes. The goal of a classless society is certainly elusive. nt

[Judi Lynn]

9. We all heard about their dirty racism and political ignorance for ages.

No different from the Cuban "exile" right-wing reactionaries which used to crowd around the tiny house of Lazaro Gonzalez (during the days of the little child Elian Gonazalez) in Little Havana, Miami with their anti-Clinton signs, and, inexplicably, an effigy of Fidel Castro with a woman's bra attached to it. Clowns, idiots, scum, and racists above everything else.

They feel they, like Venezuela's oligarchs, with whom they've bonded, are actually worth more as people than African descended human beings whose ancestors were kidnapped from their homes and forced to work for nothing their whole lives to make these grotesque wastes of skin wealthy. Yeah, they are really "special" people, aren't they?

No wonder they are seen as gusanos (worms) by everyone else.

[Mika]

10. And the faithful corporomedia plays along.

Just like they did during the Elian debacle you refer to.
The media portrayed the Miami-Cuban community as a single-minded bloc, and depicting the rallies in front of uncle Lazoro's house as large and unifying . As a result, whenever there'd be some revelation that an uncle or some other renown Cuban exile felt that the boy belonged with his direct family in Cuba ... oh my god!! Communista!! Fidel was controlling them too (along with AG Janet Reno and Bill Clinton).

Such a predictable Pavlovian response when the Castro bell is rung.