Venezuelan Crisis
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with a Venezuelan immigrant about the all-around crisis in his home country. His name is David Smolansky Urosa, and he is the National Deputy responsible for Voluntad Popular and politician. His perspective on the issues current citizens of Venezuela face was eye-opening.
Mr. Smolansky spoke to our St. Albans group about the use of crowd-control as Venezuelan protests have heightened. He spoke about his personal experience over the years with protests and the response from law enforcement.
He spoke of one time years ago in which he had personally walked up to an armed and shielded line of police officers, some of whom were women, and spoke with them about how he was fighting alongside people for women's rights in the community advocating for human rights. His vulnerable and truthful interaction brought tears to the police officers eyes, he said. She and the others responded with "We only follow the orders we've been given." He reflected on that moment with us and explained how it humanized for him, the opposition he faced in his advocacy and the feeling of being torn between duties to the government and to the people.
Mr. Smolansky then transitioned to speaking of his experience in the latter years of protest, where the government had decided to do away with the line of police officers and instead implemented China-made, military grade tanks shooting tear gas grenades, spraying high volumes of water at crowds, and blaring out crowd-clearing noises. In an informative video Smolansky showed us, we learned that the techniques employed by the Venezuelan government were engineered in specifically harmful ways. For example, we learned that tear gas grenades are designed to be lobbed, in contrast to being shot directly out of the Venezuelan tanks into crowds, risking further and more serious injury to a greater amount of people.
To learn this and to hear Smolansky's firsthand experience was heart-wrenching and eye-opening beyond belief. It's one thing to see a statistic about the Venezuelan crisis on paper and a completely different thing to feel the pain in the eyes of someone who lived through human rights violations and injustice.
Having been to the Newseum, a museum celebrating the First Amendment within only a few days of this event, and learning about the lack of parallel rights in other countries really informs my experience of this knowledge. I am very interested in learning more about the topic of free speech and press in other countries, and I think I may pursue this as a potential capstone project.
Mr. Smolansky spoke to our St. Albans group about the use of crowd-control as Venezuelan protests have heightened. He spoke about his personal experience over the years with protests and the response from law enforcement.
He spoke of one time years ago in which he had personally walked up to an armed and shielded line of police officers, some of whom were women, and spoke with them about how he was fighting alongside people for women's rights in the community advocating for human rights. His vulnerable and truthful interaction brought tears to the police officers eyes, he said. She and the others responded with "We only follow the orders we've been given." He reflected on that moment with us and explained how it humanized for him, the opposition he faced in his advocacy and the feeling of being torn between duties to the government and to the people.
Mr. Smolansky then transitioned to speaking of his experience in the latter years of protest, where the government had decided to do away with the line of police officers and instead implemented China-made, military grade tanks shooting tear gas grenades, spraying high volumes of water at crowds, and blaring out crowd-clearing noises. In an informative video Smolansky showed us, we learned that the techniques employed by the Venezuelan government were engineered in specifically harmful ways. For example, we learned that tear gas grenades are designed to be lobbed, in contrast to being shot directly out of the Venezuelan tanks into crowds, risking further and more serious injury to a greater amount of people.
To learn this and to hear Smolansky's firsthand experience was heart-wrenching and eye-opening beyond belief. It's one thing to see a statistic about the Venezuelan crisis on paper and a completely different thing to feel the pain in the eyes of someone who lived through human rights violations and injustice.
Having been to the Newseum, a museum celebrating the First Amendment within only a few days of this event, and learning about the lack of parallel rights in other countries really informs my experience of this knowledge. I am very interested in learning more about the topic of free speech and press in other countries, and I think I may pursue this as a potential capstone project.
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