8,191,132 rapists

/ November 23, 2012

Brave lady

Yesterday we learned that Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni, Hugo Chávez’s most visible political prisoner, was tortured and raped while in jail. She bravely told her story in a book by Venezuelan journalist Francisco Olivares.

The situation at the INOF women’s prison – where sexual assault and prostitution are the norm – is nothing short of horrific.

But you know what the saddest part about this is? That the institutions will simply yawn while our red “public sphere” will not care.

Luisa Estella Morales will surely cast doubt on Afiuni’s words. Luisa Ortega Díaz will probably launch an investigation … on the journalist.

And the voters? Bien gracias. They couldn’t care less about Afiuni and the other political prisoners. Why, they have *rewarded* Hugo Chávez for locking them up!

These “citizens” are not mere passers-by. They cannot say “we like Chávez, but we don’t approve of this.”

Chavismo IS chaos. Chavismo IS tolerance toward crime. Chavismo IS a system that empowers criminals.This is not some regrettable side-effect we are talking about.

By voting for Chávez, they become accomplices of a system that dehumanizes innocent people, and even guilty ones. They are giving the thugs the tools to carry out their deeds with total impunity.

I have no qualms in accusing them – by rubber-stamping the rape and torture of Maria Lourdes Afiuni, they are also guilty.

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71 thoughts on “8,191,132 rapists”

  2. It’s heartbreaking. Another proof that this is the land of Pedro Carujo and not of Jose M Vargas.

    Valentin Santana, Pistoleros de Puente Llaguno, Rodriguez Chacin and many other thugs are out there thanks to their rojo rojita “get out of jail” card. And let’s not forget the infamous case of INTI President Gral. Motta Dominguez: http://www.el-nacional.com/sucesos/Liberado-cuarta-general-Motta-Dominguez_0_66593395.html

    I wonder what would Hannah Arendt think about this clusterfuck we are in…

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    • This two practitioners of ‘justice’ mentioned are examples of the banality of evil in its most recognizable form.

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  3. Funny this story came out now, she been out of jail and on house arrest for awhile, should have never been released for her corruption and as also for all the oppo’s , the ones sitting in Miami and Doral, the Boli-bourgeois, capitalists and their supporters and the coup makers and supporters on this site who never went .

    You speak of the rule of law while y”all broke it and raped the country for decades, what hypocrites!

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    • If you don’t understand why holding someone without charges for several years—guilty or not—is wrong, then I’m not sure you belong in the 21st century. The rest of your post was whiny drivel.

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    • Funny? Don’t you think it would have been even ‘funnier’ before the election? what point are you trying to make? What’s funny is how you lump any and all expat Venezuelan as a capitalist…that’s not an insult you goon.

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  4. Juan Cristóbal, you missed a seemingly insignificant detail: she became pregnant from her rapist and miscarried. Puta vida!

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    • and this (from the Runrunes account): Paradójico que los únicos que han tenido acceso al expediente que cuenta su terrible paso por el antro de perdición que es solo una de las tantas cárceles venezolanas, hayan sido el propio Presidente Hugo Chávez Frías y la Comisión de los Derechos Humanos en la oficina de Naciones Unidas en Ginebra.

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      • And now, to add insult to injury, the former director of the INOF (women’s prison) opens up the possibility of a slander/defamation suit against judge Afiuni. In Hugo Chávez’s country that was this could easily lead to further deterioration of Afiuni’s situation/rights.

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  5. Chavismo IS chaos. Chavismo IS tolerance toward crime. Chavismo IS a system that empowers criminals.This is not some regrettable side-effect we are talking about.

    Powerful words: good post. Sadly I have indirect (not blood) family who I regrettably have to include amongst the accused.

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  6. I’m a little confused. It seems from the articles you linked to that the guilty ones were her fellow prisoners and guards. There’s a big difference between that and military dictatorship Argentina-style rape and torture that happened in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Clearly what happened to her was horrific and the government’s continued failure to rectify the prison crisis is a clear and disgusting violation of human rights, but it doesn’t seem like the government sponsored her “torture and rape.” I’d fix your language a bit.

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          • I’ve not heard an answer on this, so I will give it a shot:

            How about:

            It happens all the time in Venezuelan prisons, so how can you say the Venezuelan state is responsible?

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          • I don’t think “torture” is the correct word. It’s just that when I first read it I thought “wow, he’s gone Argentina on us” which he hasn’t. CLEARLY the state of Venezuelan prisons is probably the most blatant way that human rights are threatened in the country, but there is a difference between the state imprisoning, torturing and raping people for political reasons and political prisoners getting caught up in pre-existing prison violence. A BIG difference. One gets you a one-way ticket to the Hague. The other just makes you a terrible president who turns a blind eye to human rights abuses.

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  7. My only issue with your post here is to blame the voters. Yes, we should all be outraged. In fact, I am looking at the newspapers today, and there are many cries of outrage, call for investigations, etc. We can’t blame the voters anytime we don’t like what the government does. It is the same as saying we are complicit here in the States for the wars the US has embarked on, for example.

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      • That’s an argument I’ve heard for celebrating the events of 9/11, despite the deaths being of civilians. They even include the ones that did not vote for the warmonger because, they say, they are still part of the system that got the warmonger elected.

        Unhealthy slippery slope…

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          • Not saying anyone is celebrating these events, I’m saying the same argument is used by those celebrating other events.

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            • I don’t think it’s the same argument. One is a democratic dispute, the other a military one. One says: “you are responsible for your decisions,” the other says: “you deserve retribution.”

              I can agree that they are similar arguments, but there is a clear step taken from argument #1 to argument #2.

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              • I disagree on the difference between democratic and military in this case. I am talking about people in Iran dancing in the streets with the events of 9/11. When interviewed, they explained that those were not “innocent” civilians, at all, but rather responsible for the actions taken by the system and the warmonger causing so many deaths in their world, and therefore fair targets for retribution.

                And am glad you mention retribution, my outrage with JCN’s position is precisely how close he seems to be getting to calling for a retribution against all these “guilty” people.

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              • I see what you mean, of course. I just don’t think it’s fair to go from saying “you are dangerously close” to “you are there.” For example, I think you can hardly compare Juan’s stance with celebration.

                The poor and down-trodden may need help severely, but they won’t get it until they vote for it. If they want to keep voting for the bully instead, they are responsible for it.

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              • Faust,

                Again, I didn’t say Juan was there nor that he was celebrating; I said he was using the same argument that those who are there and celebrating.

                As to their not getting the help they need until they vote for it requires that they understand that the alternative to the bully is better for them, and they don’t. And someone who does not know that cannot be blamed for the consequences the same way someone opening Schroedinger’s Cat’s box is not to be blamed for killing the cat, unless they’ve been told what’s inside.

                Like I’ve said before, if one cannot be expected to make the “right” choice without education, why are you blaming them for the “wrong” choice? From their perspective, there would have been a greater and closer injustice if they had voted Capriles.

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      • Yes, but in this case the voters learned about the crime AFTER they had already voted, so they’re simply not guilty in the sense Nagel implies. We have more than enough reasons to be outraged, but be should never let rage dictate us these posts.

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        • By Nagel’s logic, the voters knew about other crimes BEFORE they voted for chavismo, so by extension they would be guilty.

          But then, where does that leave the abstentionists?

          Guilty, as well.

          And what about those who voted for the opposition, but only raise a hue in cry from a safe distance?

          Guilty for not doing enough.

          How far does one take this, without entering Absurdistan?

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  8. Juan, do you know of a US government since the 19th century that has not been involved in an armed conflict? Guess, all voters in the US since then are for warmongering. C’mon, man. Stop blaming the voters for the sins of their governments.

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      • As are those who voted against the warmonger for participating in the system, thus validating it? As are those who abstained for not participating against the winners?

        Basically, all non chavistas are responsible for all past injustice, and the current generations lack the sufficient education to think like you do, then for all present and future injustices, too. While we’re at it, let’s blame the colonizers, and democracy and capitalism. Oh, wait, that just makes us chavistas.

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        • What? Fuck that, chavistas don’t have a monopoly on imperialism-hating.

          Im just sayin’ man, just because it’s very uncomfortable doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Maybe all those responsibilities you mentioned are real…

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          • Since when is going to war always a sin? Seems to me FDR going to war was … protecting his own country.

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          • lol No, they don’t have a monopoly, but that’s been their chant of late so I was just making a point, that basically all non chavistas are as guilty as the chavistas of any current injustices for being a part of the past system that produced the current one.

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      • Oh, come on, one can not predict the future behavior of who one votes for. There is a nice essay on “collective guilt” at Wikipedia. Also, things tend to change rather quickly when the option is death.

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    • “Either we rebel or we become accomplices.” That does not do Afiuni honor. Do you honestly believe that all those millions of people who voted for chavez would state without exception that she deserved the rape or that they don’t care that she got raped? Don’t let the anger render you senseless; that’s exactly what makes chavismo successful. If you ask me, you become an accomplice of the deterioration of society if you let your mind justify the deterioration of your soul so as to start seeing the millions of voters as either rebelious or accomplicies.

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      • Ditto on the well said. Why is it that venezolanos so love to get outraged. But only for a few hours, at best? Case in point: what happened to the collective ‘shock and horror’ (Except for Quico who simply was outraged at the young journalist) when Aponte spilled the beans on how justice is really conducted in Venezuela?

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  10. For those who do not understand why “the blaming on the 8 million” well in part Chavez and Chavismo, has been taken as a norm that the other has no human rights, that we are the enemy…and in many cases, the answers from people from chavizmo is “wel it happens all the time in jail to other people, or they robbed before, so what is the problem?” Well that is the problem…A society that do not look for improvement and that is so full of resentment that anything wrong, it does not matter because before was made by other governments, or other people suffer the same in jail… And I have an Isuue with that…it should not happen to Alfiuni, and the “revolution”should care about every one of those in jail, and do not let this things happened…especially since they are screaming y rasgandose las vestiduras for what happens in Gaza!!!! And it is the same why 7O the elction was lost, the insecurity, the robbing the kidnappings is somethngthat already is there…so I just want to solve what is affecting my right now….

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  11. Premise A: “8,191,132 rapists” + “they are also guilty”
    Premise B: Código penal, art. 374 “el responsable será castigado, como imputado de violación, con la pena de prisión de diez años a quince años.”
    “Parágrafo Único: Quienes resulten implicados en cualquiera de los supuestos expresados, no tendrán derecho a gozar de los beneficios procesales de ley, ni a la aplicación de medidas alternativas del cumplimiento de la pena.”

    Additionally:
    C: “Chavismo IS tolerance toward crime”
    D: Juan Cristobal is “anti-chavismo”, so
    => corollary E: “In our (JC-Nagelismo?) regime, crime will not be tolerated”

    Thus, A + E and B => G: 8,191,132 criminals (rapists, guilty) must be imprisoned between 10-15 years under a JC government.

    Because convicted criminals will lost their political rights => H: People who vote for Chávez will be disqualified to vote, and finally Juan Cristobal, “unelectablty” issue is solved!! (QED)

    PD: Juan Cristobal, put 8M people in jail is very (very) expensive. There are some other practical issues. Could you please detail your government plan for this?

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    • Thank you for your logic, ctj.
      One related question: are those who signed up for free housing, before being roped into voting for Chávez, also guilty?

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  12. I do not know about some of you, friends, but I have been and remain outraged for 14 years now. Outrage for me is not a matter of a few days or weeks. And I do say that in our Venezuela of today we are either rebels or accomplices, there is no middle ground, unless you want to be a NINI.
    ExTorres says that one thing is voting for Chavez, another is approving of Afiuni’s rape. What I am saying is that those who keep silent in the face of this crime are accomplices. Or are you ready to accept a selective definition of immorality?
    As for the lady Greene, she apparently does not know the real reason Cedeño was put in prison. Let her find out. It had little to do with justice or banking, for heaven’s sake.

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    • Gustavo Coronel, you make a slightly different point than the main post. Yours takes it to a 2-dimensional level by first stating “No Venezuelan can remain indifferent.” Then you divide in two: one of us against them, or one of them against which we stand.

      I’m glad to hear of your consistency in outrage for 14 years. I’m sad to learn it is only 14. My outrage has been for decades more, since I started becoming aware of the realities of poverty and inequality in Venezuela, especially given the context of oil. I did not support chavez because I saw through him, but I was not surprised at all by the support for him by others. Quite simply he made them realize that for almost 40 years they had been suffering injustices, mention of which seemed to have been falling on deaf ears for decades. If you weren’t rebelling then, were you an accomplice? Chavez woke them up to the idea that , yes, you were.

      Guess what, you were either with him against the others, or were one of their targets. That is the mentality that is his cancer. That is the mentality you are promoting. This is my outrage with your position; chavez is being successful in promoting his cancerous mentality to someone with your values! Using Afiuni’s case to such end is like trying to justify a war in name of Ghandi.

      Do not let the anger lead to hate. That’s Dark Side stuff. The key is to end the injustices for all, not just for some. The key in this case is to acknowledge that most of those who support chavez, not only have suffered injustices themselves, but are also result of said injustices, especially educationally. I keep hearing from many that education is the crucial for development. Well, if education is that critical and it leads to thinking against chavismo then it excuses the uneducated from supporting chavez. If not, then we can expect the uneducated to think just like we do against chavismo which makes them fair gaim for supporting chavez. You can’t have it both ways.

      Sorry, GC, but I am neither calling for rebelliousness, nor am I an accomplice. I am calling for third way, as I am sure there are countless other ways. Trying to reduce it all to two buckets is falling for chavez’s cancerous thinking. Snap out of it.

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  13. Gustavo: Your point is different from Juan’s. although you fall in the same intellectual trap. As St. Thomas Moore said: “Silent is consent.” Indeed, but this is true to the extent that we know and understand the issues. We here have voted against Chavez because we understand that he violates the rule of law. Most Venezuelans who voted for Chavez don’t understand what violating the rule of law means. (hell, I am not sure that those who voted against it understand it either). Moreover, we all know for a fact that corruption was a fact of life before Chavez, yet we voted for one party of another before Chavez. So, were we all complicit in corruption? Really, let’s get away from this silly argument of blaming the victim of the Chaverment. After all, the voters unwittingly are victims of the government abuses. Let’s go back and focus our attention like a laser on those truly responsible–Chavez and his minions. They do know what the rule of law means, and they conspire daily to violate it.

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      • Ok, but we should be talking about THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS, not the ones who stayed home about it, or the ones who shrugged it off, or the ones who remained indifferent. Forget about the ones who can’t make up their minds: the fat man in the palace said he would have shot her, he threw her into jail, he made sure she was harrassed, and finally someone, following orders or interpreting them, raped her. Then someone pu the topping on the ice cream and performed an histerectomy on her.

        Don’t focus your your anger on those who stayed at home and did nothing; focus on the ones who DID AND SAID THINGS, which are even on record, which led to this.

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        • I think there are people shopping in Sambil this weekend who might reflect a little.

          The way it happened, reported well before this week’s news and the elections, is they left her cell unlocked. That is, the people with the keys, left her cell unlocked around the clock. And people could circulate freely in her cell block. That was special treatment this judge got. If there is any doubt as to who is responsible.

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    • Well said, the issue is educating voters on these issues, so they can make an informed choice. Sadly that is very difficult in Venezuela today.

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    • Not only are voters victims of government abuses but they also also beneficiaries of government social programs. At least put some balance into your scribblings, you halfwit!

      This: “They do know what the rule of law means, and they conspire daily to violate it” also applies to the opposition which you admit in your post so don’t make your self look even more stupid by contradicting yourself in the last phrase of your inanity.

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  14. It is embarassed to read this site. I feel awful about what happened to the Judge. But calling over 8 million Venezuelans rapists is just beyond the pale. All of you are fucked up.

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    • “By voting for Chávez, they become accomplices of a system that dehumanizes innocent people, and even guilty ones. They are giving the thugs the tools to carry out their deeds with total impunity.”

      The title was provocative, but can you disagree with this statement?

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      • Speaking of sliding into shit:

        (Caracas, 23 de noviembre – Noticias24).- La directora de Relaciones Internacionales y Derechos Humanos del Ministerio para el Servicio Penitenciario, Laila Tajeldine, resaltó que la ex jueza María Lourdes Afiuni gozaba de “privilegios” pues ella estaba sola en una celda. Aseguró que Afiuni dijo que fue violada con la intención de “vender el libro”.

        “Las compañeras le hacían la comida y todo, nos entrevistamos con ellas y dijeron que nunca escucharon un grito, nunca ella había dicho que fue violada, comentaron cómo la familia la visitaba y estaban dentro de la celda”, afirmó.

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    • The Defensora del Pueblo passed judgment on this today in a VTV studio with, among other things, the observation that Afiuni never posted anything on Twitter about this before (evidently, in her assessment, a sign of duplicity). I mean….Twitter? Is the bolivarian standard going to be, you’ve got to put your rape story on social media in a timely fashion to merit an INVESTIGATION?

      They are monsters dressed up like office workers.

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  16. Truth be said, I have been outraged for soon 40 years, ever since in 1974, in the Venezuelan Investment Fund, as a “Gerente de diversificacion”, I was instructed, on a Monday, to prepare the investment analysis of Plan IV Sidor, 2 billion dollars, and have it ready for approval on Friday.

    Each society learns to accept thinks it should not accept because of “facts of life”. A society that concentrates so much power in government as we do with the “resultas petroleras” have of course a much larger abundance of “facts of life”, which makes it accept many more unacceptable things than a society where power is more dispersed.

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    • There’s one of my observations on excessive government power and democracy, readily condensed. The last 14 years are a sad consequence, rather than something that came out of the blue (hindsight is 20/20 and we did not think anybody would dare change the 1961 Constitution!). Yes, Venezuelans gave the keys to all their wealth to a single organization, and now the “fact that defines their whole life” is that the organization owns them more than they can possibly own it. Now under personal ownership!

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  17. i think/fell that the title of the book says it all: “la presa del comandante” does anything else need to be said??
    of course her rape and torture was sanctioned by the chavernment… to set an example. which other judge would dare to go against him? hah! this is a country run by pranes and the pran mayor is chavez. of course all those 8 million y pico sold their soul to the devil por a washing machine y una bequita. why elese. they couldn’t look a the PP in the eyes. much less into afiuni’s. why a country that behaves like a pran rules hell hole of a prison be accepted in the UN security council is really beyond me.

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  18. The fact that this “violation of human rights” has only just been reported strips it of all credibility. JC – you are just sloding into hysteria with this headline and should know better. Just because Nelson Mezerhane is a crook does not mean that the 6.5 million people who voted for Capriles are crooks as well.

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