Americas Forum has released news of how Venezuelan students opposed to the dictatorship of Hugo Chavez were lured to a television station and then beaten mercilessly by the bodyguards of pro-Chavez government officials.
Venezuelan students attacked by Mario Silva bodyguards
Without the presence of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan government officials are showing just how brutal they are capable of being. Below is an email regarding the situation of Lorent Saleh, a Venezuelan student leader who was lured to the Venezuelan government TV station and beaten till the point of hospitalization.
This email is the translated and reprinted with the permission of Rodrigo Diamanti – member of the human rights organization “A World Without Censorship”.
7/8/2011 – 10:00pm
“Leaving the hospital where Lorent Saleh is.
The short story is that he arrived with fever in the morning (it seems like the blows to the head produced fever), and they took x-rays and a pelvic exam.
Despite not finding anything more severe than the trauma generated by his beating, the doctor demanded that he stay the night in the hospital and that he be examined by a neuro-surgeon.
Among the injured is also Gabo Mijares, who’s head was split open by the butt of a gun (please see picture on my twitter). To Ronnie they split his lip as well with a gun and Nelson Semeco has a hairline crack in his foot, due to the savage kicks he received.
This happened last night at midnight, after Mario Silva and Amorin invited them to VTV (state run TV station) for their right to a rebuttle. (Note, Mario Silva is an important figure in the government. His main position stems from his talk show program called The Razorblade, a program which President Chavez has said is his favorite. This show is used by the regime to identify and threaten political opposition and to air threats by the regime. There is a close relationship between this show and the Political Police SEBIN)
Upon arrival at the station the students were told to talk to the bodyguards of Mario Silva, and these told the students, “Mario Silva instructed us to tell you this…” and hit Lorent in the face.
The other students were in the car and the bodyguards demanded that they leave the car and they were beaten until the bodyguards were tired.
The people in the buildings around the TV station started to Yell and that, it seems, helped to stop the beating.
They are planning to press charges in the Venezuelan court. Hopefully this helps for something. The most important support that we can give is spreading the word about what happened and of course denouncing the thug Mario Silva.
Thank you and good night”
Well…my question is,
Are these students “mancos”? (translation = no hands to fight back)
They should have fought back the attackers (even if they have gotten their asses kicked in the process), period. At least the attacking side would have gotten a taste of their fists.
I say it is about time the Venezuelan opposition fights fire with fire.
If they’re attacked by physical means, then fight back by physical means. If government officials use weapons against them get weapons and fight the government officials (by the way, private individuals can still get weapons in Venezuela, unlike Cuba).
The bottom line here is the OAS chaired by Insulsa is in Chavez’s pockets and the international human rights organizations won’t do much except putting out some bullshit statement of support for the opposition so there is no other choice for the Venezuelan opposition to risk it all and fight for their country’s freedom.
Unfortunately the Venezuelan opposition thinks that they’ll unseat Hugo Chavez from power by demonstrating in the streets.