One week ago, six militants belonging to the Hugo Chávez Popular Defense Brigades of the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current (CRBZ) were assassinated in Ticoporo Reserve in Barinas State. Popular movements, local officials, constituent assembly deputies, and friends and family members gathered over the weekend in emotional tributes to the victims.
By Katrina Kozarek
This past weekend popular movements, local officials, constituent assembly deputies, leaders of diverse Chavista political parties, as well as friends and family of the victims united to pay tribute to the six Chavista activists who were assassinated on July 27, an event which is referred to by the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current (CRBZ) as the “Ticoporo Massacre.”
The victims, José Gerardo Rojas, Alexis Ontiveros Mora, Eudis Jhoncley Rojas Peña, Kevin Alirio Navas Rodríguez, Milagdi Oliday Garrido Navas y Manuel Cordero Benítez belonged to the CRBZ’s Hugo Chávez Popular Defense Brigades in the region. The emotional tribute took place on the grounds where the assassinations took place outside the home of Kevin Navas in Sucre Municipality of Barinas State.
Participants expressed their indignation for what they believe to be part of a systematic “counterrevolutionary attack against Chavista militancy”. Orlando Zambrano, national constituent assembly member and member of the CRBZ, alleged that the violence was organized and executed with “the participation of [large scale] cattle farmers, former security agents and paramilitaries.”
Yenifer Urbina, municipal council member for the United Socialist Party (PSUV) and activist of the CRBZ, referred to the assassinations as a massacre and declared that “we are not afraid, we will not leave this be, we demand justice!” Alibeth Navas, sister to one of the victims and also member of the CRBZ, seconded the call for justice and stated that “no one will shut us up.”
Those who presided the tribute expressed frustration at the apparent lack of action from crime-fighting forces and the CICPC investigative police. Nine days after the assassinations occurred, there has been no official information released from investigative forces nor the Attorney General’s office.
Juan Carlos Guevara, general secretary of the Chavista party Homeland for All (PPT), stated in his intervention that “there can’t be so much impunity in a revolution”.
Ángel Prado, constituent assembly deputy and leader of El Maizal commune in neighboring Lara State, expressed “This outrages me, if those responsible for creating justice don’t do it out of fear, the peasants must rise up…” after holding up a bullet shell still left on the ground.
The massacre follows a number of campesino assassinations this year, most of which have gone unpunished, including that of Communist leader Luis Fajardo in Merida State in November.
The CRBZ used symbols and rituals to pay tribute to their fallen activists. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Tears were shed at the event.(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Activists and militants arrived from Lara, Apure, Caracas and Barinas States. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Friends, activists, officials, militants and family members paid tribute to the fallen. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The Commune El Maizal arrived with a delegation in solidarity with the fallen. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The social media hashtag #NoMásChavistasAsesinados (NoMoreKillingsOfChavistas) was used by the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current (CRBZ) to denounce the killings and demand justice for the assassinated militants. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Those participating carried flags, banners and other symbols. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Family members of the victims were consoled and honored in the tribute. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Family members of the victims were present for the tribute in Barinas State. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The tribute opened with the national anthem. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Yenifer Urbina Socialist Party municipal council member and militant of the CRBZ: “We are not afraid…we demand justice!” (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Family members of the victims were moved to tears as constituent assembly deputy and CRBZ militant Orlando Zambrano spoke of the 15 children who were left without parents due to the assassinations in Ticoporo. (Katrina Kozarek, Venezuelanalysis.com)
Orlando Zambrano, constituent assembly deputy and militant of the CRBZ denounced “The participation of cattle farmers, former security agents and paramilitaries” in the “massacre”. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Placards were put up at the place of the killings. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The “Junt@s” women’s front of CRBZ gave flowers to victim’s family members in a symbolic gesture. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Many took advantage of the moment to consider the future of the land struggle. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Commune El Maizal’s youth quartet “Four Strings” presented a the tribute in Barinas. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Ángel Prado, constituent assembly deputy and leader of the El Maizal Commune expressed “This outrages me, if those responsible for creating justice don’t do it out of fear, the peasant sector must rise up…” (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Reinaldo Iturriza, intellectual and ex-minister of communes asked “What the f*** are they waiting for to pronounce in rejection of these assassinations?” referring to the lack of an official statement from the national government. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Pedro Alvarado, militant of CRBZ and constituent assembly deputy: “If there is no justice we will apply other options, we will denounce with first and last names, and other means of pressure…” (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Belkis Pediachi, mayor of the Sucre Municipality in Barinas State. “Kevin Navas was a fighter and a leader … No one is going to tell me bad things about Kevin because I knew him” (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Farmers from Sur de Lago region in Zulia and Merída express their solidarity with CRBZ and the victims of the “massacre”. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The tribute began with an emotional symbolic march circumventing the area where the assassinations occurred. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The tribute began with an emotional symbolic march circumventing the area where the assassinations occurred. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The tribute began with an emotional symbolic march circumventing the area where the assassinations occurred. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The tribute began with an emotional symbolic march circumventing the area where the assassinations occurred. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
The tribute began with an emotional symbolic march circumventing the area where the assassinations occurred. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Family members of the victims were present for the tribute in Barinas. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Local militia members also turned out. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Political leaders and militants of different chavista political parties were also present. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Alibeth Navas, sister to one of the victims and militant of the CRBZ “no one will shut us up, we demand justice!” (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Bullet shells were found during the Barinas tribute on the grounds where the assassinations occurred. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
El Maizal commune presented Kevin Nava’s mother with their communally produced corn meal. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Juan Carlos Guevara, general secretary of the chavista party Homeland for All stated in his intervention that “There can’t be so much impunity in a revolution.” (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
(Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Approximately 200 people arrived in Barinas to pay tribute to the “martyrs of Ticoporo”. (Katrina Kozarek / Venezuelanalysis.com)
Toña León and Héctor “el Chino” Peña, musicians and militants of CRBZ, played in the tribute in Caracas. (Carolina Cruz / CRBZ Press)
Tribute in the Cultural Center in Parque Central, Caracas. (Carolina Cruz / CRBZ Press)
Tribute in the Cultural Center in Parque Central, Caracas (Carolina Cruz / CRBZ Press)
The “Martyrs of Ticoporo” (Carolina Cruz / CRBZ Press)
Popular movements and international organizations express solidarity in the tribute in the Cultural Center of Parque Central, Caracas. (Carolina Cruz, CRBZ Press)
Dance group “Las Abejitas del Panal” presented in the tribute in the Cultural Center of Parque Central, Caracas (Carolina Cruz / CRBZ Press)
Tribute in the Cultural Center of Parque Central, Caracas (Carolina Cruz, CRBZ Press)
Caracas also paid tribute to the ‘Ticoporo Martyrs’
Popular movements in Caracas also paid tribute to those referred to by the CRBZ as the “Ticoporo Martyrs” in the Los Caobos Park and the Cultural Center of Parque Central.
The Patriotic Force “Alexis Vive,” the Movimiento de Pobladores y Pobladoras, the Other School (La Otra Escuela), the Otro Beta Movement, the National Network of Communards, Surgentes Collective, the Platform of Peasant Struggle, Askapena of Euskal Herria (Basque Country), and the popular movement Patria Grande from Argentina were among those organisations which expressed their solidarity and demands for justice.
In the event held in Caracas, Kevin Rangel, natilonal coordinator of the CRBZ, warned that the deaths of the six members were not “isolated actions,” relating them to the advances of US imperialism through the reactivation of “paramilitarism, principally since January of this year.”
The various popular movements, individuals and political figures present at the tributes held in both Caracas and Barinas resoundingly called for an in-depth police investigation and justice for the fallen.
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