What the Lucero Nazaret Case Tells Us (+Opposition Violence)

By Misión Verdad – Jul 31, 2024

The story of Lucero Nazaret, a Venezuelan woman who participated in a protest in support of Edmundo González and María Corina Machado in Catia La Mar last Monday, has gone viral in the last few hours. As has been usual in other similar occasions, what begins as an apparently peaceful demonstration ends in violent actions led by hooded men and criminals. This was the case of Nazaret, who perhaps thought that the opposition had called for its supporters to bang pots and pans, shout slogans, and then return to normality. This was not the case.

Her small business was looted when a group broke into the Catia La Mar Community Market to vandalize it. The video went viral for logical reasons. The woman’s desperate reaction to the destruction of her only source of income could be understood as a collective reflex of a country that has had a hard time recovering economically in recent years. In that sense, her situation summed up the widespread fear of losing everything they had worked hard to achieve.

Está joven es de Catia La Mar, estado La Guaira se encontraba acompañando a los protestantes y ellos le pagan así pic.twitter.com/dkpAdgyErX
— Desde _Mi_Ventana (@MiVentanana) July 30, 2024

Her case, much discussed and commented on in recent days on social media, demonstrated how ordinary people who depend economically on their ability to generate income day after day are the main target of the opposition violence, and in different ways, direct and indirect. The vandalism of health centers, food stores, or popular pharmacies is directly aimed at violating the basic rights of all those like Luceros Nazaret who live throughout Venezuela.

As has been usual in other similar incidents, the Venezuelan government’s reparation policy came into play. The business was fully recovered within a few hours, along with other entrepreneurs from the community market who were also victimized by the looting, through microcredits to get their economic projects back on track.

Para que sepan: Gobierno Revolucionario a través del Banco Digital del Trabajador, Atendiendo Caso Viral de Vandalismo Mercado Comunitario de Catia la mar. Yernelys Medina junto a 6 Casos Más. Ellos Destruyen y Nosotros Construimos pic.twitter.com/zO3Bffa05d
— pedro karvajalino (@PedroKonductaz) July 30, 2024

This case has been powerful in the symbolic realm, as it has provided a tangible and representative example of the classist nature of the recently deployed agenda of violence and its hostility even towards its own supporters, who are not exempt from suffering the consequences of destabilization, violence, and destruction of property.