Venezuelan Students Say 'Better Naked Than Without Liberty'

@SamanthaLlovera/Twitter

Venezuelan students are getting naked on Twitter to protest the stripping and beating of an anti-government protester at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) last week. Using the hashtag #MejorDesnudosQueSinLibertad, which translates to "better naked than without liberty," the campaign aims to draw attention to the ongoing repression and police brutality under President Nicolas Maduro.

Nicolas Davalillo/Twitter

Last Friday, an anti-government march at Caracas-based UCV, the country's largest university, was interrupted by armed and masked assailants. The intruders prevented student protesters from leaving campus and publicly stripped and beat one (unidentified) young man.

According to Fox News Latino, these masked assailants were pro-government militants, known as "colectivos," who are responsible for violence and intimidation across Venezuela (including the March beating of at least 12 UCV students). President Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez, "has done nothing to publicly discourage the violence," according to Fox.

According to Reuters, the colectivos "view themselves as the defenders of revolutionary socialism but are denounced by opponents as thugs." 

@PattaMendez/Twitter

After the violence at UCV on Friday, Ricardo Cie, vice president of a Venezuelan marketing firm, tweeted: "If you are the one whom they tried to humiliate by taking off your clothes, I hope you see this social media initiative," along with a nude photo of himself and the hashtag #DesnudosConLaUCV.

Since then, Venezuelans have been posting their own nude photos to Twitter and Facebook, using the hashtags #MejorDesnudosQueSinLibertad, #DesnudosConLaUCV, and #MejorDesnudosQue ("better naked than").

Comments

[grrizzly]

Elizabeth seems to have a better taste in men.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Venezuelan government hears them loud and clear: shut down social media.

[Paul.]

So, question, any predictions on how the New York Times will spin the current goings-on in Venezuela as democratic, righteous and fair?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

CIA plants, all of them. Funded by corporations. The heroic people of Venezuela are justified in doing what is necessary to stamp out the cancerous blight of Yanquis imperialism in Latin America.

//Oliver Stone op-ed

[Paul.]

President Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez, “has done nothing to publicly discourage the violence,” according to Fox.

Well, yeah, Fox. Everyone knows what side of the issue Fox comes down on.

[hotsy totsy]

Like saying “Adolf Hitler has done nothing publicly to discourage the vandalism of Jewish businesses on Kristalnacht.” And believe me there’s cellphone video of these colectivos being PAID. Just wait until Maduro runs out of money to pay these little fuckers.

[paranoid android]

I guess they have a couple options:

1. Insinuate the whole thing is fabricated by the CIA

2. Suggest that the protesters are just “anxious about the bad economy” without even a cursory analysis of causes that led to the bad economy

3. Find some man on the street who thinks Maduro is a swell guy sticking it to the capitalists and oligarchs and put this forth as wholly representative of the views of “the people”.

My money’s on number 2 (insert toilet paper joke here).

[R C Dean]

You left out number 4:

Name the unmutual perpetrators, and sic the mob on them.

My money’s on number 4.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Those who would sacrifice toilet paper for equality deserve neither and will lose both.

[Tommy_Grand]

Cops, SWAT teams, Feds, and other pro-government militants beat up plenty of folk right here in the US. Why do young american women lack the courage displayed by their brave Venezuelan comrades?

[Doghouse Reilly]

This. This right here. The time for solidarity is now.

[R C Dean]

Speaking of banan republics:

LA cops vandalize their own cars to disable monitoring equipment.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-po…..trol-cars/

[Paul.]

And LAPD isn’t interested in knowing who did it.

[Invisible Finger]

These naked pictures really don’t convey any information on who is being affected by the toilet paper shortage.

[hotsy totsy]

Maduro recently had to devalue the bolivar to better match up with the black market exchange. This, however, effectively lowered the minimum wage to the equivalent of 25 cents an hour, lower than Haiti’s. Only Cuba’s is lower. And he has the nerve to say that if Simon Bolivar didn’t need toilet paper, why should they? Pure comedy gold.

[JD the elder]

I love that protesters responded to the regime with a Twitter hashtag that amounts to “Chavistas wipe their asses with the constitution/fatherland/flag/etc.”

[Doghouse Reilly]

Saw the first picture, thought, “Hell yes!” Saw the second picture, thought, “AUGH DAMN IT WAIT NO.”