Rodríguez Torres and the super-marijuana

Camps set up by students in several plazas of Caracas were raided early this morning by the National Guard and the Policía Nacional Bolivariana. Interior Minister Rodríguez Torres reported that 243 students have been arrested in the raids and that “drugs, weapons, explosives, mortars, and tear gas grenades,” had been found.

Yesterday before the raids, in an interview for Venevision, Rodríguez Torres warned that the parents of the students participating in the protest camps should be concerned because “drugs such as cripy, perico, or the super-marijuana” are being freely handed out to the students.

The Minister has said before that student protesters are being given drugs in order to overexcite them [exaltarles los ánimos.]

Murder of chavista leader was a State crime

President Maduro and Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres have argued that the murder of chavista leader Eliezer Otaiza was part of conspiracy plotted from Miami.

But the Spanish newspaper ABC has published a story about an alternative conspiracy theory: Venezuelan opposition politician Pablo Medina believes that Otaiza, as well as Danilo Anderson, Lina Ron, and William Lara before him, were all killed by the Venezuelan government in order to cover up other political crimes or inconvenient revelations these leaders were about to make public.

“As in the case of the murder of Danilo Anderson, everything points to a State crime. There have been comments in government corridors that Otayza was about to tell international media the truth about the fraudulent death of Chávez,” declared Medina     

They will attack our soldiers and steal their weapons

Interior, Peace and Justice Minister, Miguel Rodríguez Torres added yesterday an important new piece of information on the conspiracy by the “extreme right” which he has decoded (descifrada according to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias.)

The Minister participated in the President’s radio show “En contacto con Maduro”, and told his host that the conspirators are activating a new violent phase of their plan, which would consist in “attacks against our soldiers [centinelas] of the Bolivarian Armed Forces in order to steal their weapons and then use those weapons against the soldiers and the people.” 

Rodríguez Torres also explained how he has come about this new of information: “through intelligence work, specialized units, and the denunciations made by the Venezuelan people.” But he added that anti-conspiracy work is still needed in order to make the task of informants more effective: “we have to make available more lines of communication so that the people can make their denunciations. We all need to work together so that we can dismantle these residual fascist groups that are still around and that are now turning into insurgent groups.”

Use previous conspiracy theories as evidence for new conspiracy theories

If you lack the evidence to support your conspiracy theory, you only need to quote your old conspiracy theories, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t show any evidence for those previous theories at the time you first presented them.

You can also quote other conspiracy theorist –such José Vicente Rangel, for example, as supporting authorities, it doesn’t matter if they have shown no evidence either.

Finally you can appeal to common knowledge, since everybody knows that the Empire is always conspiring.

Take all the material compiled in the previous steps and put it up on a powerpoint presentation, be sure to include as many links as possible, and add a long list of names of opposition leaders, human rights activists, journalists, foreign political leaders, business people, and just ordinary citizens. Claim that this powerpoint presentation is, in itself, a “document” proving your theory.

The result of these self-referential rhetorical devices is a sense of compounding evidence that “speaks for itself”. You can now use your new conspiracy theory as evidence for future conspiracy theories.

Read the note published by the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias on yesterday’s interview to Interior, Justice and Peace Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres. The title of the note is “Putschist plans date back 10 years, Interior Minister says.”

Cuando las teorías de la conspiración nos tocan tan de cerca

“El aviador”, acusado por el Presidente Maduro, y ahora por el Ministro Rodríguez Torres, de ser el “cerebro” detrás de las guarimbas, no es otro que el padre de nuestra querida amiga y colega Lissette González.

Lissette es una respetada profesora de la Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, dedicada desde hace años al estudio de los temas de estratificación, desigualdad y pobreza. Es autora de un popular blog sobre temas sociales venezolanos y columnista de varios periódicos nacionales. El tono de sus artículos es crítico pero siempre moderado y equilibrado.

El señor Rodolfo González es un piloto retirado y la madre de Lisette trabaja en una pequeña agencia de viajes propiedad de la familia ubicada en Chacao. Carecen de medios y fortuna como para financiar a “mercenarios y francotiradores”, tal como les acusa el gobierno.

A lo largo de un año he intentado en este blog mantener, no siempre con éxito, un tono desprendido y objetivo en torno a al tema de las teorías de la conspiración, tratando de evitar juzgar la verdad o falsedad de esta teorías. Pero nunca había tenido acceso tan personal y cercano a evidencias de que una de las acusaciones conspirativas del gobierno es pura y simple mentira.

He sostenido que una las consecuencias del uso político de las teorías de la conspiración es la deshumanización del otro. El oponente deja de ser entendido como un adversario político que protesta, violentamente o no, por motivos legítimos o no, y pasa a ser presentado (en cadena nacional) como un agente de malignos poderes extranjeros. Venezolanos inocentes como el señor Rodolfo González son las más recientes víctimas de una fantasía delirante construida sobre la base a un proyecto político religioso paranoico.