\u201cHe was still just a boy,\u201d said the woman who raised him, his aunt, Nivea Pisani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are murderers \u2026 demons,\u201d she said of her nephew\u2019s killers. \u201cHe just went out to protest because we are going hungry. How many more will die if we carry on like this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pisani, an unemployed 45-year-old, is still waiting for an official explanation about who shot her nephew and why. His death certificate states he died from a firearm injury but offers no hint of the weapon used \u2013 or the motive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But she believes his killers were from Faes, a shadowy and fearsome special forces unit activists suspect Maduro has tasked with pacifying the city\u2019s impoverished redbrick barrios<\/em> in a bid to snuff out protest in areas once considered the cradle of Chavismo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe poor areas are where most people live \u2013 and since we don\u2019t support them any more I guess they want to kill us all,\u201d said Pisani, who says witnesses told her Faes agents arrived at the protest shortly before her nephew was shot in the arm and chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hugo Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> first took office in January 1999 \u2013 just a few months before Alixon Pisani was born \u2013 vowing to blaze a Boilvarian trail for Venezuela\u2019s long-forgotten poor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In his first post-election speech, the comandante<\/em> promised he would not rest while there were still children in the streets and families going hungry. \u201cToday a new battle starts for the salvation of Venezuela<\/a>,\u201d Ch\u00e1vez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early years of Chavismo, its leader won global accolades and a cult following for his crusade to help Venezuela\u2019s poor. Social projects known as misiones<\/em> brought healthcare and education to millions of disenfranchised citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[Ch\u00e1vez] showed us there is a different and a better way of doing things: it\u2019s called socialism, it\u2019s called social justice,\u201d Labour leader JeremyCorbyn said<\/a>in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But two decades after Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s rise to power, Venezuela is on its knees<\/a>, and many who were once loyalists have lost faith in his successor. And, increasingly, they are taking to the streets to demand change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve never had protests here in Catia \u2013 this is new,\u201d said Pisani, attributing the shift to the country\u2019s economic and social collapse under Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s heir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBefore, I\u2019d open my fridge and see ham, cheese, eggs, meat, chicken. These days there\u2019s nothing but water \u2013 and sometimes we don\u2019t even have that. It\u2019s insanity \u2013 we never thought we\u2019d be living like this,\u201d she said.Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day he died, Alixon Pisani \u2013 who worked in a local bakery \u2013 had gone out to protest the \u201cbeggary\u201d into which their oil-rich nation has been plunged. \u201cIt\u2019s as if there is no government in this country,\u201d Pisani complained. \u201cHow can you not<\/em> go out to protest?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across town, in a sprawling eastern neighbourhood called Jos\u00e9 F\u00e9lix Ribas, Venezuela\u2019s special forces have also made their deadly presence felt in an apparent bid to crush dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve attacked with so much force,\u201d said one local woman, too scared to be named, as she and other residents described a series of war-like operations<\/a> in the days after opposition leader Juan Guaid\u00f3<\/a>sparked the current political crisis by declaring himself Venezuela\u2019s rightful president on 23 January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second woman recalled balaclava-wearing, rifle-toting troops swarming into the labyrinthine community like an army of \u201clittle black ants\u201d, kicking down doors and shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe heard the bangs: tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka-tacka. It was horrible,\u201d said the woman, whose home was stormed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey want to silence the barrios<\/em> because we are the most affected [by the crisis],\u201d she added. \u201cThey want to silence the barrios \u2013 <\/em>but it\u2019s impossible because people have had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven the Chavistas around here don\u2019t agree with Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>,\u201d said her 18-year-old son, who described narrowly escaping death during one operation, sprinting over rooftops and down alleys as the agents opened fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The teenager, who now sleeps in another part of Caracas for fear of being killed, agreed the repression was designed to dissuade the urban poor from leaving their hilltop homes to join the revolt. \u201cIf the barrio<\/em> goes down it will be like a nuclear bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things were not always thus, a group of locals explained as they sat around a wooden table in a kitchen equipped with nothing but a broken stove and an almost bare pantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCh\u00e1vez would go into the barrios<\/em>, into any house, and whichever house Ch\u00e1vez went into they\u2019d say: \u2018Have a little cup of coffee, my presidente,<\/em>\u2019\u201d said the 18-year-old. \u201cThey adored him. They loved him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what if Maduro came calling today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019d hit him with a chair,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019d keep him here for a week eating what we have to eat \u2013 lentils and beans \u2013 to see if he liked it,\u201d his mother chuckled sarcastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWithout any salt,\u201d chipped in a third woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faes \u2013 the special action force \u2013 has earned notoriety since the uprising against Maduro began last month. Graffiti artists have daubed Caracas\u2019 walls with messages denouncing its operatives as \u201cmurderers of the people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But little is known about the elite group\u2019s inner workings or even who exactly commands it. In a recent report<\/a>, the Venezuelan human rights group Provea said Faes was created by Maduro in 2017 to fight \u201corganized crime and terrorism\u201d and was part of Venezuela\u2019s national police force, although some stories<\/a> in state-run media outlets describe it as being under the command of the Venezuelan military. By last year it boasted almost 1,300 agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a recent post on its Instagram account<\/a> the group said its role was to \u201cguarantee security, tranquility and peace\u201d for all Venezuelans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But activists say it has taken on an explicitly political role since the most severe challenge to Maduro\u2019s rule erupted last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one Instagram video<\/a>, a Faes commander urges troops to show \u201cabsolute loyalty to Maduro\u201d given the \u201cextremely difficult moments\u201d his administration was facing. \u201cAs soldiers who are faithful to the revolution, let\u2019s go for it, let\u2019s really go for it \u2013 without hesitation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Provea\u2019s coordinator, Rafael Uzc\u00e1tegui, said: \u201cWhat the government is trying to do is contain the discontent, to contain the anger \u2013 not by addressing the citizens\u2019 concerns but by instilling terror and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Uzc\u00e1tegui said his group had counted 43 killings linked to the protests. It had not been possible to identify the perpetrators of each death but he believed Faes was the number one culprit, followed by the pro-government paramilitary groups known as colectivos<\/em>. Faes\u2019 role appeared to be \u201cneutralizing the greatest possible number of people\u201d, not bringing criminals to justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked about alleged Faes killings on Venezuelan television last week, the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, said the criminal responsibility for such acts was \u201cindividual. Those who commit violations … will be prosecuted, whichever part of the police they are from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, as she prepared for the last of nine evenings of mourning, Pisani said she felt uneasy about the prospect of foreign military intervention to unseat Maduro, but was adamant he had to step down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want him to go. He must realize this country is a disaster,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of all, though, she wanted answers about the masked gunmen who had condemned her nephew to an unmarked concrete grave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy did they kill him? What for?\u201d she asked. \u201cHis life had hardly even begun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Activists suspect Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has tasked Faes with pacifying the city\u2019s barrios in bid to snuff out protest in areas once considered the cradle of Chavism A flickering candle and 19 rose petals \u2013 one for every year he lived \u2013 adorn a shrine in what used to be the home of Alixon Pisani. \u201cWe love you,\u201d reads a note… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3045,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions\/3045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1a5e591142fc87471126809b3d6b6a1eec03f40f\/0_175_4032_2739\/master\/4032.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5e6391fdcaf6fc97432a744d44ab1c2a\")
<\/a>![\"Nivea](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/07732cd998f7392c57ca2542400cc3b8a899676d\/0_190_4032_2419\/master\/4032.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d0b8e423a0cef028b30a3f302b7ea1d4\")
<\/a>![\"A](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/5b4908fea8b9b0d3f346c089933528c464dc6aa0\/0_274_4108_2465\/master\/4108.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4f8aca125bb4de621a6459ad0f37e33c\")
<\/a>What next for Venezuela? The four most likely outcomes<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n