At around 2 a.m. yesterday, excrement and homemade explosives were thrown at the Caracas offices of the Venezuelan daily El Nacional. The attack comes less than a week after a separate incident in which unidentified assailants shot at the façade of Diario de los Andes,based in Valera, in the northwestern state of Trujillo.
In another incident in June, bags of animal excrement were thrown at the offices ofCorreo del Caroní, a daily newspaper in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz. Security footage showed five men vandalizing the offices, according to local media reports.
Rayma Suprani, one of the few female cartoonists in Venezuela, speaks about the role that humor plays in resisting tyranny, and how cartoons are the thermometers by which we measure freedom.She believes that critical drawings are crucialto testing the strengths of a democracy. Suprani worked at El Universal, one of Venezuela’s largest newspapers, for 19 years before she was fired last year after publishing a cartoon that mocked the legacy of Hugo Chávez and the state of the Venezuelan health care system. She remains defiant, and reminds us that freedom of expression should have no limits. Humor is the key to ending repression, Suprani says, and stresses that we should teach our children to wield pens, not guns.
Tal Cual, one of the few remaining Venezuelan newspapers critical of the government, is so shorthanded there’s often no receptionist on hand to let people in. Visitors must bang on the front door until someone in the newsroom notices. That can take a while because there are hardly any editors or journalists left.
The first draft of the e-commerce bill grants the telecommunications authority new powers to block websites found in breach of the bill’s restrictions. Read more about Venezuela’s E-Commerce Bill
An anti-government protester, covers himself with a shield during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas, Venezuela, June 4, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Veron
Police clash with anti-government protesters in Caracas.
Oil-rich Venezuela has been rocked by two months of protests, with at least 41 people killed since a wave of demonstrations against the leftist government of Nicolas Maduro broke out in February (Carlos Becerra/AFP)
Covering protests in Venezuela
Coverage of street demonstrations is an exceptionally dangerous assignment, with journalists subject to assaults, obstruction, detention, raids, threats, censorship orders, and confiscation or destruction of equipment. This report is one in a series of three by Getty photographers who documented for CPJ their recent experiences covering protests and shared their photographs.
By John Moore/Getty photographer
I spent two weeks in Venezuela covering the daily protests against the country’s high inflation and soaring crime. These protests have rocked that country for the past months. Venezuela is extremely polarized, with roughly half the population in opposition to the leftist government of President Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chávez after his death a year ago.
During my visit, I covered the almost-daily street marches, sometimes with tens of thousands of people. In Caracas, the marches were largely peaceful early in the day, with many middle- and upper-class professionals taking part. Later, in the afternoon, the protests were usually led by university students, who provoked confrontation with National Guardsmen. The students threw rocks, and the security forces responded with water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets.
Photojournalists–as usual, in conflict zones–were especially vulnerable to injury because of our proximity to the action. Often, National Guard troops fired tear gas canisters directly at the protesters and, consequently, at us as well. There was also a danger from the rock-throwing students, who had varying levels of accuracy with their throws, with large stones often landing on fellow protesters and photographers.
I was taken in for questioning by military intelligence one day, after covering a one-year anniversary parade for the death of Hugo Chávez. I was detained by soldiers, driven to a military facility, and questioned by a non-uniformed colonel for about an hour. As an American, I was viewed with suspicion–to say the least–and he didn’t trust my press credentials. I urged them to confirm my identity with the government press office, which they finally did, and I was released.
I was told they hoped that the interrogation would not color my view of the government. The colonel said they needed to be careful about threats to Venezuelan national security.
Caracas-based freelance photographer Carlos Becerra’s photographs of the ongoing Venezuelan anti-government protests provide an eye-opening look at the waves of chaos, violence, and destruction that have swept over the nation. In these shocking images, protestors and security forces alike are seen running through the burning streets of the capital, with many protestors wearing gas masks and carrying crudely assembled shields in an effort to survive what has become a life-or-death situation for many.
The first image above, depicting a young protestor looking straight into the camera while flames illuminate the wreckage and crowds behind him, lends a face of humanity to the protests, which are unknown to many people around the world. The civil unrest, which erupted in early February, is said to protest the high levels of criminal violence, inflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods in Venezuela—problems that are largely blamed on the government. President Nicolás Maduro’s aggressive response and the brutality of security forces have only fanned the flames, creating an even more impassioned protest against the government in what is now being called the “Venezuelan Spring.”
