Sean Penn has this love affair with whatever is American( as in the United States of), and adopted Venezuela as his pet country a few years a go during the Bush era, having a bromance with then Dictator in General Hugo Chavez. Now that Hugo's successor has unleashed ultra-violence on the innocent people of Venezuela, Senior Penn is very quiet and all around absent on the subject. President Maduro blames the CIA of course for people being unhappy, when in fact they are very unhappy with him and his predecessor and they thought true reforms would come after the death of Chavez when in reality it has become a whole lot worse for them.
I borrowed this from the AP as I doubt CNN or MSNBC talk about this at all, let alone Mr. Penn;
President Nicolas Maduro has done nothing to publicly discourage the violence by armed pro-government militants, loosely known as "colectivos," which are also blamed for scores more cases of beatings and intimidation in multiple cities. That includes a March 19 incursion into the architecture academy at the Central University of Venezuela in the capital in which some 40 masked men and women identifying themselves as government defenders bloodied at least a dozen students.
In fact, since the protests began, Maduro and his vice president have each welcomed pro-government "motorizados," or motorcyclists, to separate events at the presidential palace -- a Feb. 24 rally and a "peace conference" on March 13.
At the latter gathering, Vice President Jorge Arreaza told his guests, "If there has been exemplary behavior it has been the behavior of the motorcycle colectivos that are with the Bolivarian revolution." He claimed the CIA was behind a propaganda campaign to discredit the colectivos.
Yet a week into the protest wave, Maduro said his government would not accept "the campaign to demonize Venezuelan colectivos," which he said "have organized to protect their communities."
That's certainly not what the masked attackers who identified themselves as colectivos were doing when they corralled about 40 male and female architecture students in a first-floor hall at the Central University of Venezuela for nearly an hour on March 19, ordering them at gunpoint to disrobe and robbing them of their belongings.
"They put a pistol in my face and said they were going to kill me," said Jhonny Medrano, a 21-year-old student, describing how he and several classmates were beaten with sticks, pipes and pistols by the attackers, whom he quoted as saying, "We are the ones who are defending the government. We are Chavez. We are Maduro."
The students said they were made to walk through a line of attackers, some of whom wore university firefighters uniforms, while they were beaten. As they left, the attackers filled the building with tear gas.
"This can't keep happening," architecture professor Hernan Zamora told the AP, crying inconsolably as he recalled the terror he felt. "This can't keep happening."
I borrowed this from the AP as I doubt CNN or MSNBC talk about this at all, let alone Mr. Penn;
President Nicolas Maduro has done nothing to publicly discourage the violence by armed pro-government militants, loosely known as "colectivos," which are also blamed for scores more cases of beatings and intimidation in multiple cities. That includes a March 19 incursion into the architecture academy at the Central University of Venezuela in the capital in which some 40 masked men and women identifying themselves as government defenders bloodied at least a dozen students.
In fact, since the protests began, Maduro and his vice president have each welcomed pro-government "motorizados," or motorcyclists, to separate events at the presidential palace -- a Feb. 24 rally and a "peace conference" on March 13.
At the latter gathering, Vice President Jorge Arreaza told his guests, "If there has been exemplary behavior it has been the behavior of the motorcycle colectivos that are with the Bolivarian revolution." He claimed the CIA was behind a propaganda campaign to discredit the colectivos.
Yet a week into the protest wave, Maduro said his government would not accept "the campaign to demonize Venezuelan colectivos," which he said "have organized to protect their communities."
That's certainly not what the masked attackers who identified themselves as colectivos were doing when they corralled about 40 male and female architecture students in a first-floor hall at the Central University of Venezuela for nearly an hour on March 19, ordering them at gunpoint to disrobe and robbing them of their belongings.
"They put a pistol in my face and said they were going to kill me," said Jhonny Medrano, a 21-year-old student, describing how he and several classmates were beaten with sticks, pipes and pistols by the attackers, whom he quoted as saying, "We are the ones who are defending the government. We are Chavez. We are Maduro."
The students said they were made to walk through a line of attackers, some of whom wore university firefighters uniforms, while they were beaten. As they left, the attackers filled the building with tear gas.
"This can't keep happening," architecture professor Hernan Zamora told the AP, crying inconsolably as he recalled the terror he felt. "This can't keep happening."
