On The Streets of Caracas

"Senior officials of the Maduro regime were flatly agreeing that Maduro had to go. They had documents they were prepared to sign with opposition leader Juan Guaido that would embody their agreement and the steps that would be taken."
White House national security adviser John Bolton

"As long as we are mobilized and united, we are very close to achieving our freedom."
"Can't tell you a specific date or time. Working on transition."
"Democracy has always taken time."
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido

Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader, talking to supporters in Caracas on Tuesday.    CreditCarlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

"When you have more than half of the ministries controlled by the army, and they control the oil, the diamonds, the coal, the minerals, the gasoline and the justice and economic system, you have to understand that fundamentally the regime is military. So what has to collapse is the regime itself."
"[Venezuela has become] a criminal state controlled by mafia and narco-traffickers [and it] will not come out of this without the use of force."
"I hope it will be our armed forces, and we don't need to appeal to outside. [Events of the past two days] mark the end [of Maduro's ouster]."
Venezuela UN ambassador Diego Arria, former Venezuelan politician

"The day jobs that many of these people [in the colectivos] have are actually as security for government officials."
"So that gives them direct access to government resources, but also to government weapons and the rest of it."
Alejandro Velasco, associate professor, New York University

An opposition demonstrator was struck by a National Guard vehicle.   CreditUeslei Marcelino/Reuters

The parallels between Maduro's military elite and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is striking. In both countries where government terror controls the population, the military are paramount in their control of civil infrastructure and non-military assets. In both countries special militias comprised of murderous motorcycle-riding thugs used to control events where civilians congregate to protest their respective administrations strike fear into people knowing that death at their hands awaits them.

In Iran it is the Basij, the motorcycle militias given free reign to terrify and brutalize Iranians; in Venezuela it is the "colectivos", fanatics driving motorcycles and fully armed by the military who maintain 'order' at times when massive blackouts bring life to a halt, when crippling hyoerinflation besets the nation, when critical shortages of food and medicine bedevil the population that has become mired in poverty, facing starvation, mass unemployment and increasing social violence.

Troops loyal to President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela launched tear gas outside the air base where the protests were taking place.   CreditFernando Llano/Associated Press

In response to opposition leader Juan Guaido's call to Venezuelans to take to the streets in massive protests against the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro, the enforced president of the country, a call to arms was made bringing out soldiers, police, paramilitaries. Those motorcycle-driving militia members shoot from their hips driving toward or past supporters of Guaido, live rounds doing what they are meant to do.

Armoured vehicles have been deployed in the streets wherever large crowds gather and tear gas canisters are thrown, the vehicles used to ram cars out of their way, clearing roadblocks. On at least one occasion one of the armoured vehicles ran into a group of demonstrators, an event captured on video, one of the many events that Maduro anticipated, leading him to ban the presence of foreign journalists. "I call on the colectivos; the hour of resistance has arrived, active resistance in the community", said Maduro on the occasion of an earlier protest.

The colectivos dress in black, hooded, their guns often carried in shoulder bags; they storm out of the barrios across Caracas and other cities in Venezuela. They act under the direction of the Special Actions Forces, a wing of the Venezuelan police known for their brutality. The FAES is also known as "death squads". According to the NGO Provea, they were responsible for over 200 murders in 2018. The colectivos are themselves openly violent, firing indiscriminately on protesters.

According to David Smilde, an expert on Venezuela at Tulane University, "The colectivos fulfill the classic work of paramilitaries, doing violent security tasks that security agents in uniform would be held accountable for". Under Maduro these paramilitaries on motorcycles make their appearances any time anti-government rallies are  held; they dismount to mete out beatings, and fire at crowds. A rumour has circulated recently that many among them have recently been trained by National Liberation Army guerrillas from Colombia.

Government forces opened fire on protesters; a health clinic reported that dozens of people were injured, mostly by rubber bullets and tear gas.   CreditYuri Cortez/Agence France-Presse—Getty Images