Skip to content
September 29, 2023
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
  • Discord
Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

From Venezuela and made by Venezuelan Chavistas

Primary Menu
  • News
  • Opinion
  • About us
    • About us
    • Who we are – Becoming a Volunteer
    • Editorial guidelines for contributors
    • Our Sources
      • Venezuelan Sources
      • International Sources
    • Contact us
  • Categories
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Security and Defense
    • International
      • Africa
      • Asia
      • Europe
      • Oceania
      • US/Canada
    • Latin America and ALBA-TCP
      • South America
      • Central America and the Caribbean (+Mexico)
    • Ideology-Commune-Labor
    • Health-Education-Sport-Culture-Technology
    • Solidarity and Social Movements
    • OT Specials
  • Support Us
Light/Dark Button
YouTube Channel
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • Two Weeks Inside One of Venezuela’s Notorious “Colectivos”
  • Health-Education-Sport-Culture-Technology
  • Ideology-Commune-Labor
  • Opinion

Two Weeks Inside One of Venezuela’s Notorious “Colectivos”

April 1, 2019

Most journalists who come to Caracas stay in the affluent east of the city, shielded from Venezuelan reality behind the walls of their expensive hotels; behind their imperialist analysis of the country. The Canary, meanwhile, has spent two weeks in Venezuela with one of the country’s notorious colectivos.

Anyone who’s been exposed to the corporate media’s horrendous coverage of Venezuela, might associate the word colectivo with pro-government militias, thugs, or gangs. Though ‘colectivo‘ directly translates as ‘collective’ and can apply to any social organisation, the corporate media has commandeered the word to negatively portray grassroots democratic movements across Venezuela.

Guardians of the Liberator
The Guardians of the Liberator colectivo (GDL) operates in the La Brisa district of Caracas, overlooking Venezuela’s National Pantheon. Inside the pantheon lies Simón Bolívar, ‘liberator‘ of the Americas. Though the colectivo‘s name owes to its physical location, the colectivo sees itself more as ideological minders of Bolívar’s vision for the continent.

GDL leader Jaskeherry Rivas welcomed The Canary into his family home for two weeks, and spoke about the colectivo‘s vision:

Our colectivo is about the continuation and defense of Bolívar’s historical process: of pan-Americanism, of anti-colonialism, of respect for indigenous communities. People try to consign our history to the past. Hugo Chávez helped us rescue this history.
During an initial tour of the house, Rivas signaled to a corner of his second-floor patio. “You heard we’re all armed groups, right?”, he said. “Here, I’ll show you our arms”. He bent down, and unearthed shovels, buckets, and children’s games, turning with a smile. “These are our arms. This is how we fight to sustain our revolution”.

Culture, music, and arts
The GDL is a youth-orientated colectivo incorporating over 170 local families. It organices cultural, music, and arts events for local children, who are among the hardest hit by Venezuela’s economic crisis. As Robert and Emanuel – two young music producers who have opened their own modest home studio – told The Canary:

When I was younger I could take a girl out to see a movie. Right now we’re getting used to seeing those things as luxuries. I try to give my nephews money to buy something, like my uncles would when I was younger, but they can’t buy what I could with that money. It’s sad.

On 23 March, for instance, various youth colectivos hosted a rolling street party through the streets of the west of Caracas. After the party, organizers set up a mobile street stage and performed a comedy and drama show.

Youth colectivos are trying to fill a void left by Venezuela’s economic crisis; to give young people a different life path to one of crime and delinquency. “A group of young people robbed me once as I was walking home from a bar”, Rivas recalled. “They took everything, my phone, wallet. But once they realised it was me, they gave everything back. One of them was crying”.

Social value of work
It’s no exaggeration that Rivas is known by the entire local community. Leaving the house becomes a strenuous affair, as people are constantly milling around, keen to discuss the week’s events. “I don’t formally work”, Rivas explained, “I do informal, unpaid work. This work is socially valuable, yet colectivos are vilified”.

His words recall George Orwell, who wrote about capitalist society’s perverted understanding of labor value in Down and Out in Paris and London:

In practice nobody cares whether work is useful or useless, productive or parasitic; the sole thing demanded is that it shall be profitable. In all the modem talk about energy, efficiency, social service and the rest of it, what meaning is there except ‘Get money, get it legally, and get a lot of it’?

Indeed, the social value of the GDL’s work and the community’s strength is indisputable – and, at present, community solidarity in Venezuela represents a fundamental obstacle to Washington’s imperialist efforts. Some participants nonetheless lament that community events often become politicized, since the organizers are predominately revolutionaries.

War on language
The demonization of Venezuela’s colectivos forms part of a wider and ongoing war of information on Venezuela – and central to any war of information is a war on language. Indeed, the term ‘colectivo’ can describe armed groups, which do exist in Venezuela. The corporate media has nonetheless used the most extreme examples to tar all colectivos with the same brush.

After the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998, colectivos mushroomed across Venezuela with the wide-scale devolution of power to local communities. Their demonization in the corporate media serves a distinct purpose: to delegitimize Venezuela’s grassroots democratic movements. As a social activist from Petare – which has been named “the most dangerous slum in the world” in a characteristic case of poverty porn in Venezuela – told The Canary:

Popular neighborhoods are marginalized. We’re spoken about in terms of ‘savagery’ and ‘uncivilized violence’ – the same discourse as past imperialism. That’s the only image the media paints: that’s exactly what they want to show.
As across Latin America, social organisations in Venezuela are deemed incompatible with the opposition’s US-backed neoliberal project. They are consequently dehumanized, delegitimized, and attacked by a compliant media that categorically ignore their roots, popularity, and social value.

The Bolívarian revolution marches on
Venezuela’s social movements appear far from indoctrinated and violent pro-government loyalists. Most organizers carry a dark humor about their government’s shortcomings and desire further devolution of power to local communities.

They are, nonetheless, proud of the significant social progress made over recent decades – progress that the country’s opposition threatens to dismantle. Faced with such a choice, Venezuela’s popular classes appear ready to struggle for the Bolívar revolution’s survival.

Feature image via author

John McEvoy is a global writer for the Canary. He has also written widely about recent British involvement in Colombia in the International History Review, Jacobin Magazine, and Colombia Reports.

 

Don't want to be a victim of the Algorithm?

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR WEEKLY DIGEST WITH ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VENEZUELA AND BEYOND

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

orinocotribune
Website | + posts
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a Movistal (formerly Telefonica) booth next to a telecom executive, watching a robotic dog exhibition during the FITELVEN Fair this Wednesday, September 27, 2023. Photo: Presidential Press.
    September 29, 2023
    Venezuela Approves Incentives to Strengthen Telecommunications Following Bad Service Complaints
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    An Ecopetrol refinery in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, on February 15, 2022. Photo: Ivan Valencia/Bloomberg/File photo.
    September 28, 2023
    Colombia's State Oil Company Seeks OFAC License to Conduct Business with PDVSA
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    Composite image of PA soldiers with a background of the face of Abbas and flags of the US and the Israeli settler entities. Photo: al-Carmel News.
    September 28, 2023
    Why Is Washington Arming the Palestinian Authority with Israeli Approval?
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    Headquarters of Guyana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, located in Georgetown, capital of Guyana. Photo: File photo.
    September 28, 2023
    Essequibo Dispute: Guyana Appoints New Ambassador to Venezuela, Venezuela Rejects Guyanese Misrepresentation at United Nations
Tags: Colectivos Commune media warfare Sports and Culture US Imperialism

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Continue Reading

Previous Previous post:

Bolsonaro to Netanyahu at 4-Day Tour: “I Love Israel”

Next Next post:

Zimbabwe: Gov’t Says Millions Needed to Recover, Crops Damaged

Subscribe to Weekly Digest

We keep your data private and share your data only with third parties that make this service possible. Read our Privacy Policy.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

NEWS: MOST POPULAR

Calendar

September 2023
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Aug    

Categories

OPINION: MOST POPULAR

We are on Telegram


Receive our news directly in your cell phone or PC, join us on our TELEGRAM channel.

 

We are on Discord


Join our Discord server to check our content without algorithms and to interact directly with our team.

The original content by Orinoco Tribune is free to share and it is licensed under CC BY 4.0

We are on Reddit

If you are more into REDDIT, join our Orinoco Tribune subreddit.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
  • Discord
Copyleft, No rights reserved.

W E    N E E D    Y O U R    S U P P O R T

Orinoco Tribune operates without any advertising. We are not funded by any governments, think tanks, or large institutions. Our operations are entirely funded by readers like you. Our most generous donors have been targeted by the US for supporting socialist causes or are financially struggling. As a result, their accounts have been frozen, cutting off a significant revenue stream and severely threatening the sustainability of Orinoco Tribune.

We urge our readers and supporters, especially those not currently doing so, to help us with small donation (such as US $5 or $10/month) via Patreon, via Paypal/Credit-Card/crypto or via paper checks. Readers and supporters like you will allow us to continue bringing you progressive and hard-hitting news from Latin America, the Global South, and the world.

Help us reach our goal of $650 in monthly Patreon donations. We are counting on you as our only source of financial support!