Colectivos in Venezuela

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Illegal colectivos close to the government in the cityscape of Caracas on April 19, 2017 at the anti- Maduro demonstration La madre de todas las marchas ("The mother of all marches") organized by opposition leader Henrique Capriles .

Colectivos were originally called civil society collectives in Venezuela whose goals were cultural and political activities. The roots of these communities go back to the 1960s of Venezuela's history. Hugo Chávez later referred to the Colectivos as "the armed arm of the Bolivarian Revolution ".

development

The Colectivos emerged from the urban guerrilla Tupamaros , which were active in the 1992 military coup. > According to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , the Colectivos are said to have played a major role in Hugo Chávez's election victory in 1999 , as they mobilized the residents of the slums for him. After the election of the former putschist Hugo Chávez, half of the colectivos were heavily armed as paramilitary units loyal to him alongside the military and police, equipped with motorized two-wheelers and radios in order to get a grip on the districts that the police in Caracas could not control. These dreaded civil gangs - acting on behalf of the government - came to be known as Colectivos chavistas . Later these colectivos were used as "government-related thugs" to take action against politically different minds and to defend the Bolivarian Revolution .

Many colectivos acted like gangs and raised protection money and remained unpunished for criminal offenses.In the colectivos there were, shamefully, countless criminals and thugs for the Bolivarian Revolution who continued their criminal activities with impunity - other security forces should receive higher-level orders not to confront the groups. It was controversial whether the colectivos are still controlled or act independently.

In mid-March 2019, a new wave of repression was feared when Maduro called on the Colectivos to "actively fight against Guaidó ".

rating

According to a world report, the violent militias are “controlled from the highest level”. Diosdado Cabello , "the number two socialists behind Maduro ", is considered "the strong man behind the Colectivos ". A coordinator of the "Bolivarian Front for Socialist Defense" denied in March 2019 that the colectivos would be paid and armed by the government, which complicated the question of hierarchical classification: The group is also in the opinion of the Venezuelan international law professor Pedro Afonso del Pino as " one of the challenges “in the event of a change of government.

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations , Michelle Bachelet , warned: "The use of paramilitary forces and parallel police in the region has a long history. It is very worrying that they are operating so openly in Venezuela. The government can and must stop them because these groups are exacerbating an already explosive situation. "

The bishops wrote in 2020 that the guerrillas spread “horror among the people, tolerated and encouraged by the military and the authorities”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diosdado Cabello: La oposición no va a entrar a Caracas este # 19Abr , lapatilla.com of April 17, 2017, accessed on March 14, 2019
  2. ↑ Three dead in "Mother of All Marches" in Venezuela , diepresse.com of April 20, 2017, accessed on March 14, 2019
  3. ↑ The terror of the «Colectivos» - this is how Maduros motorcycle gangs hunt down opponents of the regime , watson.ch of January 31, 2019, accessed on March 15, 2019
  4. ↑ Colectivos chavistas, la siniestra defensa final del régimen de Maduro , El Comercio, February 25, 2019
  5. ↑ a b Venezuela's capital Caracas The most dangerous city in the world , Deutschlandfunk, February 15, 2016
  6. ↑ Daniel Huber: Venezuelas feared Colectivos , nzz.ch from July 15, 2017, accessed on March 14, 2019
  7. ↑ In the Empire of the Colectivos , El Nacional, July 21, 2013; "For at least a decade, residents have known ... that their everyday lives depend on the whims of paramilitary groups that act with the approval of the regime or even with its apparent support."
  8. ^ The cohabitation of the colectivos with the army , El Nacional, March 28, 2017
  9. ↑ Maduro calls on paramilitary "collectives" to "actively resist" Guaidó , abc.es, March 13, 2019
  10. ↑ Tobias Buyer: Maduro's thugs. Why protest in Venezuela is a life-threatening test of courage , welt.de from January 29, 2019, accessed on March 15, 2019
  11. ↑ a b c Venezuela: Anges ou démons, les "colectivos" défendront Maduro "coûte que coûte" , Le Nouvel Observateur, March 14, 2019 (French)
  12. ^ The last step towards dictatorship , nzz.ch of March 31, 2017
  13. ↑ Venezuela: Bishops call for the abdication of Maduro , Vatikannews.va, January 11, 2020