"Today I was hit with a rock in the back, a helmet in my nose. I swallowed tear-gas, Carried the kid who died, and what did you do?" - Robert Redman, February 12, 2014
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Vigil for Victims of Violence in Venezuela since #12F |
Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter analyzed what is taking place in Venezuela looking at it through a Cuban context. Below is a closer look at Venezuelans shot in the head since February 12, 2014.
The Venezuelan opposition has rightfully focused its attention
on the Castro regime's presence in Venezuela and their tactics of
repression and control, but should also look at another ally of the
Maduro regime, the Iranians who used terror to quell student protests in 2009 using snipers and motorized paramilitary units.
Below is a partial list of people shot in the head during the protests in Venezuela since February 12, 2014:
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Bassil Alejandro Dacosta |
Bassil Alejandro Dacosta was shot in the head in Caracas on February 12, 2014 from shots fired by a group of police men and his killing was captured from different angles on three different cameras. He was 24 years old.
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Robert Redman, circled wearing a cap |
Robert Redman, in the picture above
carrying shooting victim,
Bassil
Alejandro Dacosta on February 12, 2014 was himself shot in the head and
killed later that same day in Caracas but not before tweeting: "Today I was hit with a rock in the back, a helmet in my nose. I swallowed tear-gas, Carried the kid who died, and what did you do?" He was 31 years old.
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Génesis Carmona (on the right holding poster) |
Génesis Carmona was shot in the head in the city of Valencia in the state of Carabobo on February 18, 2014 and died a day later from her injuries. In the last picture taken of her before being shot she is holding up a poster with two other women that reads: "God's time is perfect but if we don't go out into the streets, the time of Maduro will be ETERNAL." She was 22 years old.
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Geraldine Moreno |
Geraldine Moreno was shot in the head with buckshot on February 19, 2014 in Tazajal, located in Naguanagua, in the state of Carabobo while taking part in a protest and in one of her last tweets on February 17th explained what motivated her to take part in the demonstrations: "No one sends me I go because I want to defend my Venezuela." She died from her injuries on Saturday, February 22, 2014. She was 23 years old.
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Anthony Rojas |
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Wilfredo Rey |
Bus driver Wilfredo Rey, 31, died on March 21, 2014
after being shot in the head during a confrontation between demonstrators and hooded gunmen
in the western city of San Cristobal in Tachira. He was not involved in the protests. Married, father of
three small children. He was 32 years old.
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Adriana Urquiola |
On March 23, 2014
Adriana Urquiola was shot twice, once in the head in Nuevos Teques. She was
five months pregnant and worked as an interpreter on Venevisión News. She was 28 years old. She and her husband
got off a bus due to a barricade and were going to catch a taxi when the shooting occurred.
Filippo Sevillano, president of the Student Center at the University of Margarita (Unimar),
was shot in the head on the night of April 1, 2014
during a protest
on Jóvito Villalba Avenue, in front of the Rattan Plaza commercial
center. He has been operated on and is currently hospitalized. He is
27 years old.
Out of the eight shot in the head, five were young people openly in
opposition to the Maduro government and protesting when they were shot.
Average age of the victims is 26 years old. The other three were not participating in the protests but were in the
vicinity and happened to fit the profile: young and gainfully employed or a student.
Is it just a coincidence? Who benefits from targeting young protesters
and creating a climate of terror where people fear to go out and
exercise their right to peaceful protest? Is it just a coincidence that
an ally of the Maduro regime, Iran, used a similar tactic against
student demonstrators in the Green Movement in 2009?
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