Criminal history of "collective" Chavez: Cuba, the Spanish Podemos, weapons and drugs of the last guardians of Nicolás Maduro

Twenty years ago, in Venezuela, people said "public transport buses"collective"or in terms of work, we were talking about signing"collective contracts"with guilds or unions, today the word"collective"in Venezuela it is synonymous with terror, repression and brutal violence in the service of the regime.

The history of Latin America teaches that dictatorships tend to rely on irregular groups for their defense and to perform dirty tasks that they would engage the armed forces and the police or that they just did not want to perform. Haiti, at the time of Duvallier and his son "Baby Doc" had his fear "uncle macoute"Manuel Noriega's Panama was counting on his"macheteros"and"Dobermans"and the government of Nicolás Maduro tends to rely more and more on their"collective"But how has the term" collective "changed in the political sphere? In Spain, this term badociated with politics has been used since 1985. The Communist Party of Peoples of Spain, recently legalized, PCPE, has created the youth organization "Young Communist Colectivo" and these organizations, under the name of "colectivos", are reproduced in the provinces of Asturias and Galicia.

Since his first presidency in 1998, Hugo Chávez has promoted thehot corners", areas of cities in which the dissidents and opponents were forbidden to pbad, were harbaded, insulted and sometimes badaulted with sticks or stones.

In the years 2000 and 2001, the political confrontation intensifies. Seeking to break up and change social structures, the executive promotes the "Bolivarian circles"among its followers, to structure and give a legal form to extremists and "malandros" who nestled in the hot corners. After the events of April 2002 that led to the departure of President Hugo Chávez from the government for a few days, the revolutionary process is becoming more radical and all sorts of measures are being taken to strengthen power. The first and perhaps the most serious will be the delivery of pistols and revolvers to the more radical "Bolivarian circles". The person in charge of this task is the general Miguel Rodríguez Torres, at the time director of DISIP, the political police, predecessor of the dreaded SEBIN today. Rodriguez Torres travels to depots of firearms and revolvers in disuse or confiscated, mainly at Fort Tiuna, the main military base in Caracas, so that there is no evidence left. deletes and deletes all existing physical and digital records. Years later, this general will see them with the armed groups that he helped to create.

On the other hand, the opinion of the government of President Chávez to the Spanish CEPS organization begins. They come to work in Venezuela Pablo Iglesias, Iñigo Errejón and Juan Carlos Monederos, nursery of what will later be the party Can. This group has widely used the name "collective"as forms of political and social grouping in the Spanish scenario, either because the Spaniards introduced the term, or because the idea arose from these" consultative "meetings, Collectives as a form of political, social or cultural badociation are starting to be used forcefully in Venezuela.

In parallel, as a revolutionary vanguard, it was created on June 29, 2003, jointly founded in Havana by the commanders. Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, the Francisco de Miranda front. A first contingent of young peoplee form in Cuba. According to some information, between 2003 and 2007, they were allegedly 12 courses in Cuba with the participation of 1,000 young Venezuelans of both bades.
A third element involved in the configuration of what is now called "colectivos" constitutes groups of the Venezuelan far left. After a long armed struggle, culminating in a military defeat and a process of political pacification in 1969, some leaders joined or created legal political parties, some of the semi-clandestine social movements, such as Tupamaros and the group The Piedrita, both settled in the popular parish and still unruly "January 23"From the west of the capital, these movements are regrouping, radicalizing and actively moving in the violent spontaneous demonstrations of February 28, 1989, the so-called Caracazo. Later, they have contacts with the conspiratorial officers and participate, as a civil counterpart, in the unsuccessful attempts of coup d'etat of 1992.

This agglomeration of political structures, ideological formation, controlled territories, support and resources, firearms and a "brand" of identification will be the seed of the "beloved collectives", shock groups that will become the "uncle macoute" Nicolás Maduro.

In 2004, when the mayor of Caracas won the title of journalist chaviste Juan Barreto, Legal and clandestine resources flow to social organizations and the formalization of collectives, identified with the revolutionary process, is multiplying. Remove the "Bolivarian circles" and begin to promote and support the "collective" more and more numerous. The groups of the parish "January 23", in which stands the Museum of Military History, transformed in 2013 into mausoleum Hugo Chávez, occupies a strategic geographical position in the city, even near the palace of Miraflores, seat of the government.They will be the first to enjoy abundance of resources, not only financial, but also motorcycles, communication equipment and more weapons. The main groups in this populated area, with clearly defined territories, are the Tupamaros, Alexis Vive, La Piedrita, Montaraz, Tres Raices, José Leonardo Chirinos, Carapaica and the coordinator Simón Bolívar.

The collectives, born with the initial objective of preserving crime zones, thieves, drunkards and drugs, evolve into a difficult environment. territorial control, in which the neighbors are obliged to pay "protection" and live under his rules and his domain.

At that time, the Chávez government also created the "motorized armored bands"composed of members of collectives, policemen, radical sympathizers and some" malandraje "These bands are formed and act when the government wants intimidate, provoke terror or attack political dissent. During his successive presidencies, Hugo Chávez encouraged, encouraged, manipulated, showed them "targets"On the national television channel, but sometimes, it slows them down." The groups constantly controlling the urban areas and the "motorized bands" can be activated in a few hours, I had additional tools for institutional investors to control political dissent. Inspired by the organization of the "23 de Enero" of Caracas, the collectives will multiply throughout the country, taking advantage of the waste of available resources. But with the arrival of Nicolás Maduro to the presidency, the boundaries will be broken.

On October 8, 2014, CICPC judicial police officers investigating an abduction case enter the Manfredi building located in downtown Caracas, headquarters of the Escudo organization. de la Revolución ", a subsidiary of the Frente 5 collective of Marzo. , led by José Odreman, former sergeant of the dissolved metropolitan police of Caracas, fervent revolutionary, bald, robust, with the neck of bull and the bizarre faith which mingles discipline, gospel and revolution. The police are detained or held hostage in the building. General Miguel Rodríguez Torres, who was at the time Minister of the Interior of Nicolás Maduro, sends the group of special forces BAE CICPCP. They manage to save their comrades and shoot at three members of the collective. Outraged, Odreman goes to the Manfredi building and declares, with his particular language, the television cameras:

– Citizen of the Minister of the Interior and Justice, José Odreman lets go of no matter what, I guess and leaves the blame to you, because you do these scenarios – shows the door of the door. building – Enough to sacrifice more comrades fighters, and enough, comrade …

Half an hour later, Odreman and another member of the group are shot. The death of the leader of the collective on March 5 outrages the most fanatical supporters of the Bolivarian revolution and will mark a breaking point. Nicolás Maduro leans in favor of the collectives and separates General Miguel Rodríguez Torres from the interior wallet. The high-ranking official will start his demarcation with the "Madurai" and create a political party justifying Chávez's "original" legacy. Since March 2018, the general and former minister has been imprisoned for "accusations of acts against public peace and tranquility as well as for plots and conspiracies against the country's armed forces".

Valentín Santana, head of the collective "La Piedrita", called this week to "take up arms" to defend Maduro

From now on, the armed groups were privileged by the government of Nicolás Maduro. They are not only extinguishing the areas they control, they have expanded their range and managing the distribution and local sale of drugs, kidnapping, theft and other crimes, with impunity. As a reward and to accentuate the control of the population in the neighborhoods, Nicolás Maduro gave them the distribution and sale of the famous Claps boxes of regulated foods in their regions. In the "23 de Enero", in addition to radio stations and some companies, a clandestine casino operates under the protection of collectives. There, they are taken in armored trucks and they will play safely with the highest levels of government and "bolichicos"They made a fortune with the regime.

When they are needed, Nicolás Maduro uses them for political repression. This was the case during the 2014 and 2018 demonstrations, provoking many cases of injured and deadall unpunished During the storm and uncertain April 30 last, they also acted: they tried to approach the Altamira distributor and were chased with air chips from the blue-skinned soldiers who Juan Guaidó supported, then they had a strange confrontation with state police agents. Miranda and the night attacked demonstrators in the west of the city.

The armed groups of Nicolás Maduro do not practice the rituals of Haitian voodoo "uncle macouts", they do not need to do it, they exercise violence with the same intensity and the same cruelty. Now, they are organized crime groups that are fairly well structured, a lucrative industry in symbiosis with the regime, with integrated members of certain police forces and access to spheres of power, dedicated mostly to their daily lives and very profitable criminal activities and to the extent that the support of the security forces to Nicolás Maduro is weakened, as well as the "pranes" (leaders) of the prisons, the "megabandas" of certain regions of the country, the cocaine traffickers, the illegal exploiters of Coltan's ELN, which has more than 4,000 men in Venezuela, stands out as the regime's "reserve" armed with coltan and diamonds.

The military high command, faithful to Nicolás Maduro, still hesitates to hand over long, automatic or more powerful weapons to the collectives, because it does not want to share this resource. they have only tolerated that some members of the collectives wear the uniform of the armed forces, but the weakness of the regime or its desperation may lead to access to arsenals and military infrastructure.