Ding dong, Chávez is dead....

sailorKa

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Rayma's poignant cartoon the day after Chavez was announced dead.

So, like some of you have read already on the news, Hugo Chávez Frías, the "president" of my country, died 3 days ago.

I feel like to properly paint a picture of how we feel as a country, I have to go back at least 3 months.

Chavez's cancer got worse after winning reelections(which is another story altogether), so on Dec. 10th, 2012 he went back to Cuba for more treatments.
He was supposed to come back before January 10th, to be sworn into office officially(Inaguration, I think you guys call it?).
Alas, Dec. 10 would be the last time any Venezuelan would hear or see from Chavez for a long time. The new year came and went and no news of the president's health were recieved.
Of course rumours started flying like crazy. Even now, after his death, there's fights about when he "REALLY" died.
The constitution is very clear about what should happen if a president is not sworn in(the leader of parliament should take over in the interim, etc etc) but of course, every facet of the goverment, house of representatives, national assembly, etc is dominated by Chavistas who do with the constitution(The one that Chavez twisted to his liking a decade ago) whatever the hell they want so they declared that Chavez was in a "leave of absence" and that he could be inagurated, basically, whenever it was that he arrived from Cuba.

Chavez "arrived to Venezuela" sometime during mid Fabruary and still we didnt see a single picture(apart from one very doctored picture of him in Cuba with his daughters, no one had seen him since December the year before).
Days and days passed and not only did Chavez not inagurate himself, neither did he appear on television to give a speech(his favourite pastime!), or even show a picture of himself.

This is when students of Venezuela said "ENOUGH" and went to chain themselves in PEACEFUL PROTEST in Chacao, in front of some goverment-related buildings, to demand that we be told the truth about Venezuela's president health status.
Hardly a insane demand, right? We were basically being governed by a ghost, as far as we were concerned! ::hora:: (click for bigger pics)


Notice the police behind them "protecting" the TSJ(Supreme Justice building). I actually had to walk through that building going to work some days ago and had to pass through a line of armed guards like those. *shudders*
So the police, as is known to do in Venezuela, tried to kick and beat the shit out of (and shoot with bb bullets) the students for asking the logical question in everyone's minds:
"WHERE'S THE PRESIDENT? WHY WON'T THEY TELL US ANYTHING?"

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Soldier: "Do you see, Sargeant? I just beat up a student for asking the same question I make [to] myself every day...."
Studen't sign reads: "Where's the president?!"





(and fast forwarding for a second here, this is what happened to the tents the students were sleeping in an HOUR or less after Chavez was announced dead:
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Chávez sympathisers came in motorcycles and set them tents on fire. Thankfully no one was inside.)

So yeah, this was the political climate that greeted me on March 5th, two days after my birthday.(I turned 24 years old. I was 9 when Chavez came into office. Lets just let that sink in. Over half of my life has been spent under Chávez's regime)
Now this is why on top of everything, this is a day I will never forget:
I GOT MUGGED AT GUNPOINT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT IN A CROWDED BUS STOP. ::bleh::

Thankfully, they only took my phone(Samsung Galaxy SIII, which I bought for 7,000 bs.F in March last year and now costs 15,000 bs.F because our money keeps getting devaluated more and more and our economy gets worse and worse) but the nerve of it all was that the dude took my phone and didn't even run away.
HE WALKED AWAY. went calmly down the stairs to the subway, phone and black gun, which he pointed at me, in hand.
There are cops on the other side of the plaza. I always see them. But I didn't go to them. In Venezuela, the idea of police is not comforting to me for reasons like the pictures above.
I'm even hesitant to ask cops for directions, fearing that they will see me as weak or lost and kidnap me or send me to a dark street where a buddy of theirs(or themselves) can mug me.

So I just stood there in the same spot for 20 minutes after getting mugged, waiting for the bus to arrive.
I got to work(I'm working for a florist and balloon-gift websites) and that was that. My father tried to convince me to go home early because I'd been mugged but I told him that no, I'd stay until 6:00 like always but that I would appreciate it if he picked me up at work so I wouldnt have to take the subway(and bus) back home.

at 5:30 PM, I was ssoooorta asleep XD(WHAT. I'd finished working and I was alone in the office. shhhh! first time I do this, I swear! XD) when the phone rang.
I picked up the phone and it was my boss, calling from the other office down the street where everyone but me works:
"CLOSE UP AND COME DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW. WE'RE LISTENING TO THE RADIO AND CHAVEZ JUST DIED."
me: *IS THIS A DREAM???* "wait, are you fucking kidding me right now?"
boss: "HE'S REALLY DEAD. COME HERE NOW."

So I close up and while I walk down the street, I hear ppl's bits and pieces of conversations and they're all about Chavez and hospitals and stuff and I'm thinking "is this really true? is he really dead?"
When I get to the office, a girl who works there is running towards me, coming from the bus stops.
She says that she was going to Plaza Venezuela(WHERE I WAS MUGGED THAT MORNING ::hora:: ) and that the bus driver, who knew her, told her midway to turn around and go home since things were apparently getting ugly in Pza. Vzla.
She walked the way back and passed a sorta mall we have nearby and everyone was pulling down their businesses' roller shutters and that banks were closing up and putting up alarms, expecting people to go ballistic.
We went inside, where I proceeded to take the company's phone to try and call my father to tell him I was waiting for him in the other office but absolutely no phonecalls went through. The phone lines were as collapsed as on New Years Eve.
I managed to call a friend's house and told her to keep calling my dad, cuz I was going to the ATM to get some emergency money with my boss.
While we were waiting for our turn at the ATM, a police car passes us by broadcasting on their PA system that there was to be no public transportation that night(!!!) I still saw a couple of buses go around but everything was clearly unstable and I thanked my stars that I made my father agree to pick me up before all of this happened.

We went back and I saw my father, agreed with my boss that the day tomorrow would be too unpredictable and it would be foolish to go out so we wouldnt go to work the next day.

I went with my father to pick up my sister and her boyfriend from a funeral home(her bf's grandmother had passed away) and we went to our Grandma's place to wait till things calmed down a bit. I talked to hanachan on the phone(lol) while my family was glued to the TV. We went home at around 11PM and the streets were absolutely deserted.
That night, 7 days of "Official Mourning" were declared.

...(going to continue on next post cuz this feel ridiculously long and also im afraid of losing all the stuff I've written so far.)

--k.
 

sailorKa

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(cont.)

That night, also, we recieved a call from my hometown. I have some cousins who work in government-related places(and who are very poor) and they were told that the very next day, they were all to be loaded in buses heading to Caracas.
The country was to mourn for Chavez and the pictures had to look like millions were crying for him.
This is standard procedure for Chavista affairs, bringing in people from the inside of the country, promising them cash and a meal(and a red shirt and a gun in some instances), and threatening them with being fired from their job or losing benefits if they don't go(most government work places would make you sign 'attendance' to prove you went) so keep that in mind when you see these pictures... That being said, its obvious millions of people did love him and were genuinely devastated by his passing...



etc etc. Some of our local newspapers looked like this the next day:
Most newspapers who weren't expressly pro-Chavez simply put things like his name and the date. From the newspapers I bought/found that day, only one(El Propio) had the headline: "Se Nos Fué." (He Left Us)
But I see online that a couple others said things like "Chavez loses battle against cancer" and the most opinated one simply reads "Chavez's death will start off a time of change."
No one was like "muahahahaha, the fucker died!" because c'mon, the dude had cancer. he was only 58. He was liked by some ppl. Gotta be respectful.



So they've been displaying hs body for 2 days now and ppl can go and see it(but they STILL havent shown a picture of a zoom with the cameras so technically, I still havent seen Chavez since December.)

Over 50 leaders came to the funeral, including the ridiculous asshole Sean Penn. I loved Milk but the nerveeeeee of this guy. THE NERVE.

Just so you get an idea of the type of ~friends~ Chavez surrounded himself with, this is just one of many who cried and KISSED HIS COFFIN.......Comrade Mahmud Ahmadineyad, "president" of Iran.

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Now as I was writing the first post, people were banging pots and pans and throwing noisy fireworks to protest the fact that Vice President Nicolas Maduro was going to assume power(instead of Diosdado Cabello, the President of the National Assembly, who is Chavist too but this is what the CONSTITUTION said should be done).
He just gave a 2 hour long speech, which means he graduated from the Chavez School for Long-ass Speeches For Fancy Dictators, in which he IRONICALLY promises to honor the constituion in Comrade Chavez's name.
HONOR THE CONSTITUTION.

There is a 9999999999999999999% chance that he is going to not only run the country until elections are called, but that he's going to be the Chavista Candidate for the presidency as well.
BUT OH, LOOK. WHAT DOES THE CONSTITUTOIN SAY ABOUT THAT?

Article 229 of the constitution: "Whomever is serving as Executive Vice President (Maduro’s actual title), Minister, Governor or Mayor on the day of the announcement of his or her candidacy, or at any moment between that date and the election, may not be elected President of the Republic.”

After tomorrow, Maduro will not be VP but acting president. Yet becoming acting president is the privilege of the vice president or the president of the National Assembly. In order words, his new status as acting president -- which would likely legalize his candidacy -- is conditioned on his immediately prior status as VP -- which would make him illegible.

so they've broken two articles of the constitution in less than 3 days.
BUT THIS IS A TOTALLYYYY DEMOCRATIC AND AWESOME COUNTRY, RIGHT??? :/

============================

I finally gave you all the facts, now a bit on how I feel about it....?

I feel weird. I talked a lot during December and January(while Chavez was missing) about this with hanachan.
I kept telling him that to me, he was already dead and that it didn't matter because it wasn't going to change anything.
That I didn't care if he was alive or dead.

But hearing the actual news of his passing, I just felt this bizarre feeling overcome me.
It was like a slap of mixed emotions.
It wasn't happiness, certainly. I think its a bit weird to celebrate someone's death. Even when they're absolute disgusting pieces of shit like Chavez or Osaba Bin Laden.
When Bin Laden died, I was just...relieved the war had finally a reason to end. That the madness in USA looked like it had an end coming.
It wasn't exactly that I was HAPPY to see him dead. I was just that, relieved.

That's how I felt about Chavez, sorta.
Not happy that he is dead, but....relieved that this chapter of Venezuela's history is coming to an unexpected end.

The page isn't completely turned, dont get me wrong.
Our country is fragmented so deeply that it'll take decades for us to reconcile our differences and be united once more as one country.
But you guys have to understand, I thought the next chance of VOTING him out of office(not a guarantee to be rid of him but merely a CHANCE TO TRY) would be when I turned 30 years old. ::ash::
I'm a little older than some people here but I'm still in my twenties.
Over half of my life has been dedicated to the single purpose of voting Chavez out of office.

I grew up DESPERATELY. Counting the days until I turned 18 like most people in my neighboring countries count the days till they're 15.
What was most important to me was being allowed to vote, to have a political voice.
When I was younger, I would worry and pace back and forth while my parents and older sister went to protests or voting booths, only to have my sister come back red-faced and gasping for breath because she practically swallowed an entire tear gas canister by herself.

This hasn't been ALL I've known. I do remember life before Chavez, a little.
But he certainly shaped my political conscience as I grew up.
People were always optimistic about taking him down but to be truthful, I never thought it was possible.
To me, Chavez was an ummovable object and the opposition was the unstoppable force. We were going to clash forever.
Because I had frames of reference. We used to spend vacations with Cuban friends of the family in Key West, Florida, USA.
They escaped Cuba with their life and the clothes on their backs.
Fidel(and now Raul) reigned supreme there.
But even with all these -facts-, I never for a single moment thought "fuck it, my vote's not worth it."
Because that was the last vestige of democracy I had. The last thing I could cling to.
I voted for every little thing I could the day I turned 18 onwards, but I never thought it would amount to much.

Thats why i'm so shocked now that Chavez is dead.

I still can't even process it. I can't imagine myself going to work on monday and moving around in a city WHERE CHAVEZ IS DEAD.

I'm still speechless. And there's still plenty of battles to be fought. But damn, this feels like a new beggining.

--k


PS: Per hanachan's request, a funny cartoon I saw on FB:
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sailorKa

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One last thing, and I'm sorry for triple posting, but some of you were complaining about bad or lukewarm articles about Chavez in North American media... This is one FANTAAAAAAASTIC article from The Atlantic, that explains who Chávez was, what he did, why people loved him and why he was still an asshole.

Chavez Wasn't Just a Zany Buffoon, He Was an Oppressive Autocrat

The Atlantic wrote:
Lost in the parallel strains of adulation and disgust was an appreciation of the complexity of his rule. In fact, Venezuela under Chávez was a glorious contradiction -- an autocracy with a popular, elected megalomaniac at its center.

The article is extremely eloquent and I highly recommend it to all of you and to anyone who you might want to explain why Chavez was a douche. XD
I have other things to say about this whole ordeal but I've posted 3 times already so I'll let some conversation flow first. XD

--k :grin:
 

flowersofnight

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That "chaining up God" cartoon is still fantastic ::meev::
I won't repeat myself overly much, but I hope this will be the chance for Venezuela to "de-stalinize" a little. There must be some people left in government who know things have to change.

EDIT: BTW, has the opposition gotten any more organized since the last elections? I recall that being sort of a perennial issue.
 

Iskanderia

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I don't have anything of worth to add but thank you for sharing that. I think that, for most Americans it's difficult to really imagine what life under a dictator is like. Even though we bitch about our government constantly and there are always people on either side who think that the current president is on his way to becoming a dictator and try to predict things like Obama dismantling the constitution to get elected for a third term, those people always seem nuts because there's this feeling that, no matter how bad it gets, it's still America and nothing like that could ever happen here. (Hopefully we're right about that).

Anyway, I hope things start to change now. Obviously it will take a long time to get where the country should be, but maybe Chavez's death will be the first domino.

And fuck Sean Penn.
 

Berserk

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Thank you for your first-hand accounts! I'm pretty speechless. I guess I'm just so sorry that people have had to deal with life under this madman and I hope the Chavistas who take his place will be weaker than he was so that the opposition can gain some ground. The strange thing about Venezuela's case is that it seems like it has been more a "tyranny of the majority" than a regular dictatorship, because he apparently did have the ardent support of most people.

Like Iska said, Americans do complain a lot about our government (and rightfully so), but we should also take a moment to count our blessings.

We actually nearly had our own Hugo Chavez in America, but most people have never heard of him. I think you would have to watch the whole PBS Documentary on him to get a good idea, but Huey Long was an excellent orator, champion of the poor, and an egomaniac who consolidated more power than any American should have. If he hadn't been assassinated, many people think he would have won the presidency and could have established himself as a dictator.

He inspired Sinclair Lewis' observation that, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
SailorKa wrote:
I think its a bit weird to celebrate someone's death. Even when they're absolute disgusting pieces of shit like Chavez or Osaba Bin Laden.
When Bin Laden died, I was just...relieved the war had finally a reason to end. ...
It wasn't exactly that I was HAPPY to see him dead.
Well you're a better man than I am then, 'cause I was pretty damn happy when Bin Laden was killed :D

I think it helps to remember that he celebrated the death of thousands of Americans. Hard to feel guilty about being happy he got his just desserts.
Iska wrote:
And fuck Sean Penn.
And Michael Moore.

It's moments like these where I understand why Trey Parker and Matt Stone came to hate liberals so much after moving to Hollywood.
 

sailorKa

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Sorry for being absent, y'all! Work has been killing me~~
hanachan wrote:
EDIT: BTW, has the opposition gotten any more organized since the last elections? I recall that being sort of a perennial issue.
not really. We're going with Capriles Radonski again since its the biggest contender we have right now, as you know, but Chavez's last sentence to Venezuela before going to Cuba was "CHOOSE MADURO IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME."
As you can see, they already broke the constitution just to follow Chavez's wish and make Nicolas Maduro a candidate, Im sure they'll move heaven and earth to make him win. and I'm 90% sure he will.
Also, thought you might get a kick out of this ::meev::
People are saying Nicolas Maduro looks like Profesor Jirafales from Chavo del Ocho. XD http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2iGo9c4KFs4/S ... maduro.jpg
Iskanderia wrote:
Anyway, I hope things start to change now. Obviously it will take a long time to get where the country should be, but maybe Chavez's death will be the first domino.

And fuck Sean Penn.
Lets hope, lets hope. :) and yeah, fuck him.
I actually rarely get genuinely angry at VENEZUELAN Chavistas.
HELL, one of my friends is the extremely Chavista daughter of a general that helped Chavez in the coup attempt in 1992. :P They all have their reasons for believing in Chavez even if its doing more hurt than good. wtvr. to each their own.
BUT NON-VENEZUELAN CHAVISTAS???? THAT LIVE OVERSEAS????
AND ARE BILLIONARES LIKE SEAN PENN OR OLIVER STONE(yup, he's a Chavista)????
::hora:: ::hora:: ::hora:: MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL.

@Berserk: oh wow, Im definitely going to look up that Huey Long dude. Never heard of him and im pretty into USA politics...
As for the why im not happy Chavez is dead...I think its also because he seriously changed the ENTIRE SYSTEM.
He changed the constitution, the COUNTRY'S NAME, the bills, THE HOUR(we have half an hour less, JUST BECAUSE)..hell, he even changed the direction the horse in our coat fo arms is looking to.
The entire government is FULL of Chavistas. etc.

When I was in 8th grade, we read Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo. The book impacted me in a lot of ways even thou I can barely even remember what the plot was about now.
But to this day, I still remember the opening quote of the book:
"They killed the bitch but the puppies remain."
Thats how I feel about Chavez. Yes, he's dead. whoop-de-doo. The government is still chock-full of his lackies and it still doesnt look like it will make much of a difference. hopefully history will prove me wrong but we'll see.

Iska in the random thread wrote:
I saw this fascinating documentary (I wish I could remember what it was called) a few years ago about the phenomenon. Besides talking about those American college kids, it also focused on the cult of Che that has evolved all over South America. They interviewed people in tiny villages who had shrines to him set up in their homes and who prayed to him like a saint. They had turned him into a literal mythological figure in that some of them believed that, when he was alive, he had various magical powers like the ability to fly. (bolded because it's incredible and people shouldn't skim past it).
XD I can tell you've never been to latinamerica if this surprises you. OK, so I've never met anyone who prayed to CHE GUEVARA, but.....I notice that the way latinos(or to not generalize, mostly just Mexican/Venezuelan/Cuban) ~do~ Catholicism is very different from how USA Christians do Catholicism.
In here, you can't have a surgery done without someone telling you they'll pray to José Gregorio Hernandez for you.
And he isnt some saint or anything. He was just a Venezuelan doctor who lived in the late 1800s. *shrug*
so my point was... look at the very telling Rayma cartoon done couple days after Chavez died...
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And that's exactly what's happening. I read on a [Chavista] newspaper that people are now calling Chavez "The Jesus Christ of the poor"(which is ironic because, wasn't Jesus already the JESUS FOR THE POOR?) and putting his pictures up in altars and shit.
Also? Chavista media is now calling him "Eternal Leader." (Comrade Kim Jong-Il should've copyrighted that...)
...so yeah, I KNEW that if Chavez died abruptly(and I said this before he was diagnosed with Cancer), that the country would make him a martyr, and thats exactly what's happening.
Like someone said on the radio, now its going to be even harder to beat him because now that he's dead, he's even more perfect and God-like. And you can't defeat a God. :oops:

--k
 
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