OAS Visit Ends Student Hunger Strike; Student Confrontation

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/12/10
TAGS: PREL PHUM VE
SUBJECT: OAS Visit Ends Student Hunger Strike; Student Confrontation
in Tachira Results in a Death

REF: 09 CARACAS 1523; 09 CARACAS 1489; 09 CARACAS 1389
09 CARACAS 1292; 09 CARACAS 1279; 09 CARACAS 1269

CLASSIFIED BY: DUDDY, AMBASSADOR, DOS, AMB; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (SBU) Summary: Student activist Julio Rivas claimed
victory and ended his 18-day hunger strike on December 8 after a
visit to Caracas by an OAS team that listened to the students'
concerns and announced a January 2010 visit to Venezuela by OAS
Secretary General Insulza. In a separate incident in the border
state of Tachira, week-long student protests against electrical and
gasoline shortages led to a December 8 armed confrontation
involving students from two universities and the National Guard,
resulting in the death of a student, Jesus Ramirez Bello. Students
throughout the country mounted protests over his killing on
December 9. End Summary.



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OAS Visit Ends Hunger Strike

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2. (SBU) On December 8, a three-person delegation from the
Organization of American States (OAS) arrived in Caracas to meet
with students who had been on a hunger strike since November 21
(ref a). The students' demand had been for a visit by the
Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) to assess the
situation of human rights and political prisoners in Venezuela.
This OAS delegation was composed of the OAS Secretary General's
Senior Advisor Antonia Urrejola, staffer Rodrigo Zubieta, and the
OAS' resident doctor, Rodrigo Hurtado. The delegation met with the
students, accepted the human rights documentation they had
prepared, spoke by telephone with several political prisoners,
including the Prefect of Caracas Richard Blanco (ref b),and
announced that OAS Secretary General Insulza planned to visit
Caracas in January 2010. The delegation left the same day.
Lawyers for the students stressed to the press that this visit had
been authorized by the Venezuelan government.




3. (SBU) Based on this visit, student activist Julio Rivas
claimed that their demand for an OAS visit had been met and that
they would end their hunger strike. Rivas said, "This is our gift
of hope for those who have suffered human rights abuses. They can
be certain that this hunger strike concludes with our objectives
being achieved. This is an example that with conviction we can
reach our goals, no matter how hard they seem to be. Through unity
we can rescue (our) democratic values and principles."




4. (C) On December 9, the students' lawyer Alfredo Romero
told Poloff that the students considered the hunger strike a
success since they achieved four goals: (1) Article 18 of the
Inter-American Charter was successfully applied for the first time
in Venezuelan history, resulting in the authorization by the CIDH
of an official delegation to visit the country; (2) a three-person
official delegation was admitted to the country and gathered human
rights documentation; (3) the delegation spoke by phone with
several political prisoners, including Jose Alberto Sanchez Montiel
and Richard Blanco, and spoke with the relatives of prisoners
Eligio Cedeno and Delfin Parra; and (4) the students received a
commitment from Secretary General Insulza to visit the country in
January 2010. According to Romero the students' next move will be
a series of protests calling for the resignation of Interior and
Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami.




5. (U) Venezuelan media on December 9 reported the statement

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issued by Secretary General Insulza in Washington that stressed
that his goal had been to end the hunger strike both for the
students' welfare as well as to establish a "normal framework" for
reestablishing a dialogue with the Venezuelan government regarding
a possible visit by the CIDH. Insulza's statement also clarified
that his visit to Venezuela "would take place in a more general
context in the near future on a date I hope to set directly with
Venezuelan authorities through the appropriate channels to analyze
various matters of mutual interest."



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Student Killed During Protests in Tachira

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6. (SBU) National Experimental University of Tachira (UNMET)
engineering student Jesus Ramirez Bello died December 8 from a
gunshot wound to the head that he received during a face-off
between UNMET and pro-government students from the Bolivarian
University of Venezuela. National Guardsmen were reportedly
present during the confrontation. Eleven other students were
injured. The UNMET students were protesting the wounding by gunmen
of a student the week before during demonstrations over shortages
of gasoline, water, and electricity. Media reports indicated that
officers from the Scientific, Penal, and Criminal Police (CICPC)
who arrived to investigate the shooting were chased away by masked
persons in red shirts. (Note: Red is the color worn by Chavez
and his supporters. End Note.)




7. (SBU) In a December 8 interview on the official
Venezuelan Television (VTV),Minister of Interior and Justice Tarek
El-Aissami blamed Bello's death on the "bad performance" of the
Tachira State Police. El-Aissami accused the police of cordoning
off the area and letting students fight it out and asserted that
opposition Tachira State Governor Perez Vivas behaved in a
"negligent," "fascist," and "destabilizing manner." El-Aissami
said he would decide "in a few hours" whether or not to suspend the
Tachira State Police. Governor Perez Vivas has counter-charged
that armed groups linked to the government were responsible for
Bello's death. On December 10, both the television and print media
showed an image of a youth wearing a mask and shooting into the
crowd of students.



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Comment

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8. (C) Student protests continue to percolate throughout
the country on issues ranging from political prisoners to
electrical and water rationing. With public opinion highly
sympathetic to the student movement, the GBRV appears willing to
take some steps to keep the movement from building momentum. In
October, for example, the GBRV released Rivas from prison just as
the student hunger strike calling for his release was gaining
adherents. Now, the GBRV permitted a relatively low-level OAS
delegation to visit, for one day and with a very limited mandate,
in order to end this second hunger strike. While the students are
claiming a victory, nothing much has changed, other than a
half-hearted promise by Insulza to visit Venezuela to discuss a
range of issues.




9. (C) The death of the Tachira student provides the GBRV
yet another pretext for "intervening" the Tachira State Police,

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something President Chavez has urged since the November 2 killing
of two National Guardsmen along the border. Chavez has long sought
to undermine, if not depose, opposition Tachira Governor Perez
Vivas by accusing him of treasonous collaboration with Colombian
paramilitaries and of failure to maintain order in his state.
DUDDY