Venezuela witnessed Thursday an unprecedented episode in its history when the National Assembly opened its doors to give the floor to university students who favour and oppose the decision of not renewing the license of private TV broadcaster Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), property of the oligarchic group 1 Broadcasting Caracas (1BC). Opposition groups have used the Venezuelan government’s decision to not renew RCTV’s license as an excuse to mount a new coup against the administration of Hugo Chavez, this time using CIA methods that were applied in former socialist countries in Eastern Europe.
With practically all the nation’s radio and TV stations broadcasting live from the National Assembly floor, ten students from both sides of the argument voiced their opinions in front of the legislative chamber regarding various issues of the country’s political reality, among them freedom of speech. However, Venezuelans were sorely disappointed when this unique opportunity was wasted by those same students who had been demonstrating on the streets against the government for more than a week.
Once the debate started, the first speaker was one of the leaders of the opposition protest, Douglas Barrios, a student from the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas. Barrios read a pamphlet openly advocating for the right of the oligarchy to not recognize decisions made by the majority and to invoke “university autonomy,” to protect the interests of the wealthy to have the exclusive right of obtaining a university degree.
The second to take the floor was Adreina Terrazona, a student from the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV). She gave Barrios and his friends a class in ethics and history, of civility and courage, and told the country about how a group of students and their teachers had lent themselves to be used by the leaders of the opposition at the service of imperialist and corporate interests, who “are doing their best to rid themselves of Chavez,” this time using the CIA devised technique of “soft coup” and “peaceful resistance.”
It became clear that those young men and women serving as “useful fools” of the opposition and without any arguments or alternatives for the country would have a difficult round two. When Yon Goicochea, a student from the Andres Bello Catholic University and one of the leaders of the conspiracy, took the floor instead of presenting his arguments he said he was leaving to “open the debate, not in the Assembly, but among the people of Venezuela, in the universities and in any forum.”
Previous to the debate, the opposition had repeatedly asked for the right to speak to the National Assembly. Responding to Goicochea’s decision to not address the assembly, Cilia Flores, president of the National Assembly, said:” We do not want to think that you have nothing else to say. How can we describe this attitude, when you have been granted this space in a very democratic fashion, when you have been allowed to express yourselves freely, and now withdraw? This behaviour leaves no doubt about the link between the demonstrations and the destabilization plan implemented by the fascist Venezuelan opposition.
“How are we not to believe that the fascists are behind these students? To come to the National Assembly and continue with their destabilization plans leaves them in a very awkward situation, we might think that they did not make the decision to leave, but that they were told to do so.“
Robert Serra, a student from the Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV), presented a film demonstrating how those students, who describe themselves independent from the opposition parties, were chanting those organizations´ political slogans in marches they described as “apolitical.” Serra, who pays $2,000 US a year for studying Law, demanded that university authorities reimburse his money for the classes he has missed.
“We have just witnessed,” said Serra, “a similar attitude to that of Condoleezza Rice in the OAS General Assembly. We have to speak out and say it; they march on the streets, they demand “freedom of speech” and when it is granted to them, they back down.”