Caption: At least five statues of Hugo Chavez have been destroyed in five of the 23 states that make up Venezuela.Article information
- Author, Juan Francisco Alonso
- Role, BBC News World
-
30 julio 2024
Statues of Hugo Chavez. This has been the target of the unrest caused by the decision of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela to declare the candidate for re-election, Nicolas Maduro, the winner of the presidential elections of last July 28.
On Monday, 187 protests were reported in 20 of the 23 states, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS) and in some of them five effigies in honor of the military officer, who governed from 1999 until his death in March 2013, were torn down by protesters.
The violent repression of the protests has left several dead, although information is currently unclear as to the number.
According to the NGO Foro Penal, at least 6 people have lost their lives (1 in Aragua, 1 in Táchira, 2 in Yaracuy and 2 in Zulia), while the National Hospital Survey has recorded 3 deaths, 2 in Maracay and one in Caracas. There are also dozens of injured.
According to local media reports and videos posted on social media, the destroyed statues were located in five states: Aragua, Carabobo, Falcón, Guárico and La Guaira.
This is not the first time that monuments in honour of the late leader of the so-called “Bolivarian Revolution” have been destroyed. Something similar happened in 2017 and 2019. However, what is striking about this occasion is the number of statues attacked and the short period of time in which it occurred.
However, there are those who see another difference: who carried out the events.
“Maduro, with his anti-popular conduct and behavior, has succeeded in making the people who loved Chavez so much tear down his statues and protest against his supposed re-election,” a former senior official told BBC Mundo.
Several of the regions where attacks against monuments were recorded were considered electoral strongholds of Chavismo until not long ago.
For example, in the coastal state of La Guaira, located just 30 kilometers north of Caracas, there has not been a governor other than the ruling party since 1998, something similar has occurred in Falcón, some 445 kilometers northwest of the Venezuelan capital.
Image source, Video capture
Image source: Taken from Reuters video
Caption: Videos about the demolition of monuments in honor of the late Venezuelan president began circulating on social media.
A strategic error
The demolition of the statues does not appear to have been ordered by any sector of the opposition, but rather was the result of the unrest that degenerated into some of the spontaneous demonstrations that took place on the same day that the CNE, an organization controlled by the government, proclaimed Maduro as re-elected president.
However, there are those who believe that these actions are counterproductive to the objectives of the sector that seeks to displace Chavismo from power.
“This has symbolic weight, but it does not do any favours to the democratic sectors of Venezuela,” political analyst Carmen Beatriz Fernández told BBC Mundo.
“When you look at the data that the opposition claims is true, you see that 30% of the electorate voted for Maduro and before that they probably voted for Chávez. Still, one in three voters is a Chavista and this type of action could galvanize Chavismo,” explained the professor from the University of Navarra (Spain).
“Statues should be torn down when the regime changes, not before,” he concluded, in clear reference to what happened in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003, or to what happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Photo caption: On Monday, as Maduro was proclaimed re-elected president, protests broke out in numerous areas of the country.
Personality cult
Monuments to Chávez began to be erected in different parts of Venezuela after he died on March 5, 2013, as a result of cancer that was detected in mid-2011.
The effigies were followed by the naming of schools, hospitals, stadiums and other public works. This, despite the fact that during his lifetime the deceased leader had publicly expressed his opposition to such actions.
“I beg you not to attach my name to anything,” Chavez urged on August 3, 2008, during his program Hello, President!
“No, no, no. No Hugo Chávez Street, no Hugo Chávez Bridge. No, for the love of God, that brings bad luck. We have to name (these structures) the heroes (of Independence),” added the then Venezuelan president.
Caption: What happened with the Chavez statues is reminiscent of what happened with the monuments to Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
However, experts believe that the words of the late president were not in line with his actions, since throughout his almost 14 years in power he encouraged or allowed the development of a cult of his personality.
One of the ways in which he exalted his image was through his constant appearances on radio and television.
“Since Chavez arrived at Miraflores (the presidential palace), the chains have reached an unprecedented level of frequency. They were used as an expeditious route to invade Venezuelan homes and feed the cult of the leader’s personality,” wrote political scientist Trino Marquez in an article.
Early Monday morning, the CNE declared Maduro the winner of the election with 51.2% of the votes, compared to 44.2% for the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, with 80% of the votes counted.
However, González and opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was elected as a candidate in the primaries but was disqualified from running, rejected the results and said that the records of the votes they have in their possession allow them to confirm that the opposition candidate beat the candidate for re-election by almost 30 points.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.
