Written from a state that is heavily Afro-Venezuelan.
At 6 a.m., people began to gather in the plaza of San José de Barlovento, a town at the forefront of the Afro-Venezuelan struggle. Individuals and groups representing different social missions and municipal agencies waited to board buses to Caracas to witness the swearing in of Nicolás Maduro Moros as president of Venezuela. It was at the end of a tense week marked by violent attacks from the right wing that left eight of Maduro’s supporters dead and a number of free clinics and subsidized supermarkets burned to the ground.
On board a bus carrying adult students, primarily women, from the Misión Ribas education program in San José, the overall attitude felt jubilant in spite of the violent week, and people listened to music from Maduro’s and Chávez’ campaigns and shared snacks, while a little girl in a red beret played with a campaign placard.
Aixa Piñango, an activist within the Afro-Venezuelan movement and municipal coordinator for Misión Ribas, said making this trip to Caracas to support Maduro and to affirm his win at the polls was extremely important—given the atmosphere of denial from the right, while its figurehead Henrique Capriles Radonski increasingly urges his supporters in the direction of another coup and the United States refuses to acknowledge Maduro as the head of state.
“They’re cooking up something,” said Piñango. “We’re on the alert.” Piñango also pointed out the importance of continuing the Bolivarian process after the passing of President Hugo Chávez last month, since “we’re barely in the process,” she explained.
On another bus from San José, organized by the Frente Francisco de Miranda Youth, Freddy Blanco, also a Black Venezuelan activist and militant in the process, pointed out the day’s significance in Venezuelan history: “Today, April 19, the act of the Declaration of Independence was signed. And today, we also affirm Nicolás Maduro Moros as president of the republic, popularly elected by the people.”
Blanco noted—“with respect to our grandmothers and grandfathers who were enslaved”—that Maduro participated in the Durban Review Conference in Switzerland in 2009. Blanco said he felt optimistic about the possibility for Maduro to work with Venezuelan communities, although the hard work ahead remains in the hands of those in the movement to ensure that issues affecting Venezuelans of the Black communities stay visibly at the forefront. Blanco feels, “This executive government will be a government of the street.” He added, “He [Maduro] has to go to the street and listen to the people in the street.”
In Caracas, fireworks and raining confetti contrasted with somber reminders of the week’s violence. A woman on the back of a motorcycle carried a sign reading: “Capriles: 7,500,338 voted Chavista. You killed 8. We’re still 7,500,330.” At least two groups of youth with aerosol cans worked on a pair of murals with the message: “socialist students promote peace.”
People packed plazas and avenues to witness Maduro’s swearing in on big screens projected above the crowds, while inside the National Assembly 17 heads of state from around the world joined the Venezuelan legislature for the proceedings. Earlier in the day, when Piñango spoke about the importance of attending the inauguration, she brought up the people’s collective oath to President Chávez and to each other to continue in the process. When Maduro raised his hand to take the oath of office, everyone in the crowd did, too.
