All the videos have the same format: first, the image of a demonstrator protesting in the street against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, or of an Internet user criticizing the regime on social media. Then, this same person faces the camera, filmed against the background of a police logo, with a remorseful expression, saying that he is sorry and asking the head of state for forgiveness. All enhanced with images or music from horror films, for example from a feature film with Freddy Krueger or from chucky.
the site Armando.info has published around twenty videos of this type, disseminated online by the official accounts of various Venezuelan security agencies. “The regime uses terror to inhibit any desire to protest, with a media component that did not exist before.explains to World Sociologist and human rights defender Rafael Uzcategui, co-director of the think tank Laboratorio de Paz. In the past, “traditional” dictatorships tried to hide abuses of power. Today, on the contrary, they are trying to scare people. »
A sign of this climate of terror, Edmundo González, the Venezuelan opposition candidate who claimed victory in the July 28 presidential election against Nicolás Maduro, left Venezuela to everyone’s surprise on Saturday, September 7: Spain granted him asylum.
For all the opposition, the threats have become explicit, while many exiles fear for their loved ones who remain in the country. On August 20, addressing Venezuelan artists and influencers living abroad and supporting the opposition, Maduro warned: “You decide if you want to continue your career, with your family in Venezuela.” He specifically mentioned popular influencer Lele Pons, 28, who did a live broadcast with her opponent María Corina Machado that garnered 10 million views.
The leader no longer bothers to hide his anti-democratic pretensions: “When it is my turn to hand over power, I will hand it over to a Chavista, Bolivarian and revolutionary president”declared on Monday, September 2.
In Venezuela, since the presidential elections of July 28, there has been an unprecedented repression against all those who question Maduro’s victory. This was proclaimed, without him providing evidence, by the National Electoral Council on the afternoon of the vote, while the opposition, which relies on the 83% of the voting records that it passed to obtain it, claims that it was its candidate, Edmundo González, who won. In just two days of protests following this proclamation, on July 29 and 30, at least twenty-four people died, often by gunfire. collectivesParamilitary militias appear to be involved in nineteen deaths, underlines a report by the NGO Acled, which describes a repression “more ruthless” than that of the 2019 demonstrations, after the disputed re-election, once again, of Nicolás Maduro.
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