Venezuelan Cartoonists: The Heroes Fighting Misinformation War
Greetings, Dear Steemians.
I meant to post about this yesterday, but for many reasons I was unable to. I am outraged; I feel very frustrated. This feels like a horrible déjà vu (you can check my post about the assassination of my niece here: https://steemit.com/ulog/@hlezama/ulog-004 and here https://steemit.com/ulogs/@hlezama/u-log-012-or-justice-for-edith-nakary ), anyone can be a victim of the Venezuelan dictatorship and nothing happens. No act of cruelty, no violation of human rights seems to be enough to cause a massive national and international reaction that would rid us of this turbulent times.
Amid so much governmental corruption, censorship and opacity, Venezuelan cartoonist, such as Weil, Rayma, Edo, Pinilla and marvinfiguerroat, among many other talented and brave artists, have provided a critical vision of the most outrageous scandals in the country in the last two decades. Even though their works tends to be funny or satirical, they have become something more. They encapsulate the naked truth corporate interests and international politics and diplomacy tend to hide or worse yet, ignore.
"Oops, I suicided it!"
The mysterious death of town councilman, Fernando Albán, which screams fouldplay everywhere, is going to be the most outrageous act of Maduro's dictatorship thus far. The councilman, member of the party Primero Justicia (Justice First), had been acused of participating in the alleged assassination attempt of President Maduro on August 4.
"I know it is suicide because those big bad boys who were guarding him told me so."
Attorney General, Tarek William Saab stated on Monday, October 8th that Albán had asked for a bathroom and once he was allowed to enter one, he jumped off the window of that bathroom located on a tenth floor. "Councilman Fernando Albán was still alive at the moment of impact and did not show any signs ofphysical abuse previous to the fall". This is the official version offered by Saab, on Wednesday October 10th.
Saab anounced two days later that Albán “ran towards a panoramic window of the tenth floor and jumped out of it”.
"Oops, he killed himself!"
In the meantime, the minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace (I'm not making this up, that the ministry's real denomination), Néstor Reverol, stated, VIA TWITTER, that Albán “was on his way to being transferred to the court house, [and while being] in a waiting room at the SEBIN (Bolivarian Service of National Intelligence, by its spanish acronym ), he jumped out of a window of the facility falling off to certain death”.
"He killed himself!"
This was Fernando Albán:
From a statement by CARD. BALTAZAR ENRIQUE PORRAS CARDOZO, "a Councilman of the “Comission of Cult, Promotion and Boostof of Good Living” for the Santa Rosalía, San Pedro, El Recreo and San Agustín Parishes. A man compromised with social actions of the Catholic Church with Cáritas, “La Olla Solidaria” (solidarity pot), in the most humble barrios and “El kilo de amor” (the kilo of love) for poor people. Up until yesterday (sunday 7th), it was known that he was serene and quiet--he even sent his team some guidelines to keep the work in favor of the poor".
Albán and the Dictorship's Death Continuum
Since the unprecedented firing of about 20 thousand employees from Venezuela’s main oil company, PDVSA, back in 2002, the revolution had set it clear that they were ruthless and reckless. The resentment that served as motivation for the leaders of that movement (motorized by Hugo Chavez and godfathered by Fidel Castro) would not stop at anything to humiliate anyone who represented interests other than theirs.
From the death of Franklin Brito (August 30 2010), a humble landowner from Rio Caribe (a small town in Arismendy Municipality, State of Sucre) who was left to die in a hunger strike demanding his lands title Deed,
to the brutal slaughtering of Oscar Perez and his rebel group (January 15 2018), **Venezuelans have seen a display of unprecedented institutionalized violence that threatens anyone and goes unpunished. In between, hundreds of Venezuelans of all ages and ways of life are imprisoned, thousands have died in different but equally horrendous ways, and millions hve left the country just for fighting against a failed government that has ruined a country, is cynically and openly inept, is immersed in all kinds of corruption scandals, has been linked to drug trafficking and is causing turmoil in the whole continent.
In the mean time, the world is waiting for the death toll to get to…
Hello @hlezama, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Thank you very much for your suport, @creativecrypto.
Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Our purpose is to encourage posts discussing Information War, Propaganda, Disinformation and other false narratives. We currently have over 7,500 Steem Power and 20+ people following the curation trail to support our mission.
Join our discord and chat with 250+ fellow Informationwar Activists.
Join our brand new reddit! and start sharing your Steemit posts directly to The_IW, via the share button on your Steemit post!!!
Connect with fellow Informationwar writers in our Roll Call! InformationWar - Leadership/Contributing Writers/Supporters: Roll Call
Ways you can help the @informationwar
Thank you very much for your support, @informationwar.
Hi @hlezama, I'm @checky ! While checking the mentions made in this post I noticed that @marvinfiguerroat doesn't exist on Steem. Maybe you made a typo ?
If you found this comment useful, consider upvoting it to help keep this bot running. You can see a list of all available commands by replying with
!help.This is such intense and frightening information, @hlezama. I'm glad you're educating others about what is happening. (As long as you are not putting yourself at risk!)
We are all at risk here, @jayna, whether we speak up or remain silent. We can be victims of government persecution or we can be killed by malaria (because treatments are not available now, after 20 years or having been erradicated); we can be killed by criminals who operate under the blessing of the men in uniform or we can be killed by the men in uniform (for not giving them something they may at some point want from us); we can starve or die trying to get food (people have died in the horrible lines that every day are formed in front of certain supermarkets, either of heart attacks or by the violence generated in such chaotic envirnment). So, I figured, I'd rather speak up.
A life of vicissitudes, humiliation and docility is not worth living.
gracias