Since the disputed re-election of Nicolas Maduro on July 28, at least a dozen people have been killed in protests across the country, particularly in Caracas. The violence, committed by security forces and armed groups, has left more than a hundred injured and the opposition leader has denounced ” the cruel and repressive escalation of the regime “At a time when the government is trying to maintain control of the country, including through fear, the armed groups “colectivos” are playing the role of allies.
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Since July 28, at least 11 civilians and one soldier have lost their lives in Venezuelabecause of the repression of demonstrationsaccording to the NGO Foro Penal. The latter were spontaneously organized after Nicolas Maduroin power in Venezuela since 2013 was declared re-elected for a third term until 2031, last Sunday. According to the official results, the heir to the socialist and Bolivarian leader Hugo Chavez obtained 51.2% of the votes against 44.2% for his opponent Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
On July 29, security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Venezuelans after thousands took to the streets shouting “Freedom, freedom!” and “This government is going to fall!” to protest the presidential election result. Photos and videos posted on social media, including by armed groups, in recent days provide evidence of the violence in Caracas. On July 29, an armed group shot opposition protesters near Miraflores Palace, as police looked on.
For her part, Katiusca Camargo, an opponent of Maduro, fears a new rise in violence and believes that the government wants to dissuade the population from taking to the streets before the large gathering this Saturday, at the initiative of Maria Corina Machado, leader of the opposition : ” We have dead people, wounded people, detainees, missing people… People know it. They are afraid. They know they are going to find themselves facing armed people., […] fierce wolves. “She is talking, in this case, about “collectives” (collectives in French). In the current climate of confrontation and political conflict between the government and the opposition, which is reflected in the streets, they play a leading role. Whether in Petaré or Caracas, these armed gangs sow terror by robbing, denouncing and even killing civilians.
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It is not difficult to recognize them and identify their neighborhoods of origin. On a wall in the capital, graffiti depicts a man with a rifle in his hand, accompanied by the phrase: “The colectivos take Caracas to defend the revolution!” In the streets, especially in this period of political unrest, they are often seen on motorcycles, heavily armed and hooded.
Origin
There is no place in Venezuela more emblematic of the Bolivarian Revolution and the “colectivos” than the popular neighborhood of 23 de Enero (January 23 in Spanish) in Caracas. This is where most of these groups are based. This pro-Chavez sanctuary, where the former president lived, houses the presidential palace in its center. At least a hundred “colectivos” are registered, several thousand men, who have become a fundamental element of the repression of the Venezuelan regime. The government would directly supply the weapons, such as automatic rifles, machine guns, fragmentation grenades and tear gas, according to the Spanish newspaper The Country.
Their presence in Venezuelan political and social life is not new. These civilians are Nicolas Maduro’s armed wing in working-class neighborhoods. Their supporters call them the “steel knights” on their motorcycles and consider them the most ardent defenders of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution. However, today, they are more like criminal gangs with immense power of social control. Former Attorney General Luisa Ortega (2007 – 2017) defines them as “ armed civilian groups outside the law “.
The term “colectivos” originated in Venezuelan guerrilla groups in the 1960s. But Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution appropriated it. Word “collectives” is asfantasized about Venezuela. It describes very different realities. At the time of the restoration of democracy, the Cuban revolution broke out on the other side of the Caribbean Sea. And that would give the idea to guerrilla groups to foment a guerrilla war in Venezuela “, explains Thomas Posado, a researcher at the University of Rouen, a specialist in Venezuela. From the end of the 1960s, the Venezuelan guerrillas capitulated and peace returned. Some stayed, kept their weapons, and would become embryos of these collectives. These are people who are always aware that the balance of power will be armed and who maintain a politicized discourse.
Territorial control
According to the American think tank Insight Crimethe “colectivos” gained momentum in 2002 after two attempts to overthrow the government: a military coup against Hugo Chavez, then president of Venezuela, and a strike in the oil sector. Initially, the government presented them as social groups that worked on education and production projects within the framework of the community organization promoted by Chavez. Since then, Nicolas Maduro has given them responsibility for the distribution and control of food, especially in disadvantaged areas.
Under the name of “Bolivarian circles”, they resembled the committees for the defense of the revolution created by Fidel Castro in Cuba. At the neighborhood level, about ten people are placed as spies, carry out patrols and serve as a repressive force. But these circles have not developed in all Venezuelan cities. As of 2011, they are divided into two: “colectivos” and a militia with reservists, some of whom were also in the Bolivarian armed forces.
With the various significant events that have occurred over the past 20 years in this territory, several NGOs and organizations, including the Organization of American States (OAS), have warned of human rights violations. On July 31, 2024, the Secretary General of the OAS also declared in a message on his X account that he would ask the International Criminal Court to indict Nicolas Maduro and issue an arrest warrant for him due to the post-election violence: ” Maduro promised a bloodbath and we were outraged to hear it and even more outraged now that he is doing it. There is premeditation, treason, brutal impulse, ferocity, superior advantage. »
” Venezuelan authorities must end detentions, repression and violent rhetoric against opposition members ” thundered the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
After a week of tensions and repression by the police and the “colectivos”, Nicolas Maduro’s party and its supporters are maintaining pressure on the opposition which continues its massive mobilization.
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