Venezuela's Students Speak—Reports and Photo Essay

On May 27 in Caracas, the students of Venezuela began protesting in huge numbers, peacefully walking the streets of Venezuela's capital. While these protests were triggered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of Venezuela's most popular TV station, RCTV, they are clearly about much more than a broadcasting license.

Since the students began protesting they have endured attacks with tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets. One student has died from gunshot wounds suffered while she was protesting (the Chavez regime claims this murder had no relation to the unrest; some students claim they saw the police murder her), and there are other reports of students being hit by gunfire.

Inside Venezuela the students feel the media has almost been silenced. According to the students, only one very weak TV station still broadcasts honest reports about the situation there. A number of the students have e-mailed The Epoch Times, looking for the opportunity to tell the world why they have taken to the streets. This weekend, Chavez shut down two internet sites that were reporting on the protests: Radio Caracas (the internet site for RCTV) and Radionexx.

Chavez also ordered his followers to stage counter-demonstrations on Sunday. The students, wishing to avoid any potential for conflict, decided to suspend their public protest on Sunday. Instead, they gathered on a highway that is always closed on Sunday mornings for pedestrian traffic, and there they spelled out the word "Freedom." Showing the goal of their protests. They plan to be back on Caracas' streets on Monday, and to continue protesting until the situation changes.

We publish excerpts from several of their e-mails below, with each section drawn from a different student's e-mail. We have not published the authors' names in order to protect them from the possibility of reprisal. For the same reason, we don't provide the names of the photographers of the accompanying pictures.

"The peaceful students are protesting because our freedom is in jeopardy. We are not political people, we are college students with one motivation: our country. The peaceful movement of Venezuelan students has one objective, to stand before our government, a government that wants to end our right to think, our right to be different, our right to be Venezuelans.

We say it out loud, we are not protesting for RCTV, we are protesting for our freedom to think differently than the president and his comrades. Our unique motivation is our country. We don't want a civil war. We don't want the spilling of the blood of the innocent people in Venezuela. We only want a free country."