The socialist regime of Venezuela launched a brutal campaign against dissidents this weekend, branding their homes to scare them out of continuing to protest and forcing detained individuals to issue heavily edited “apologies” on social media spliced with media from Hollywood horror movies.
The regime, led by dictator Nicolás Maduro, is presently conducting a brutal repressive campaign against dissidents and peaceful protesters in the wake of the July 28 sham election. The Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE), an arm of the regime, declared Maduro the “winner” but refuses to publish documentation to corroborate the claimed results.
WATCH: Billboard of Maduro Set Ablaze During Venezuelan Election Protests:
Maduro’s attempts to cling to power once again for an additional six years have been met with growing international condemnation and nationwide protests against the ruling socialists, who have maintained control of Venezuela since 1999. Maduro has responded to the protests with a massive crackdown campaign using his regime’s repressive security forces.
As of last week, the Maduro regime’s repression of protests has resulted in the deaths of at least 24 individuals and the arbitrary arrests of more than 2,000 individuals, who Maduro announced would be forced into “reeducation.”
The Maduro regime also relaunched Operation Tun Tun (“Knock Knock”), a crackdown campaign that began in 2017 to hunt dissidents who protest or publish social media content against the socialist regime. After security forces “knock” on their homes, the targets are arrested and sometimes forced to issue “apologies” to Maduro and his regime.
The outlet Armando.info released a report Sunday after collecting and analyzing footage of some 20 videos that the Maduro regime has recently forced dissidents to record as part of Operation Knock Knock.
Police aim at protesters demonstrating against the official election results after electoral authorities certified President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 29, 2024, the day after the vote. (Fernando Vergara/AP)
The outlet found that the Operation Knock Knock videos, which are heavily edited and spliced with “special effects,” feature imagery and other media taken from Hollywood horror movie characters and franchises such as Chucky from the Child’s Play movies or Billy the Puppet from the Saw franchise. The videos appear to originate with members of the Venezuela military and then go viral.
Armando.info also found that several of the videos reviewed end with visual effects that deform and caricaturize the faces of the detainees, who are “locked” behind virtual bars while musical themes from the soundtrack of horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street play.
The outlet mentions the arrest of Venezuelan opposition leader María Oropeza, who was arbitrarily detained by Venezuelan state security forces last week.
Oropeza was able to hold a live broadcast on her Instagram account that showed the moment the regime’s security officials breached into her residence to detain her.
The Maduro regime took footage from Oropeza’s broadcast and edited it with a Spanish version of a song from A Nightmare on Elm Street, showing footage of the opposition leader being transported out of a plane and into a detention center before being “locked” behind bars.
“Operation Knock Knock continues,” the video says at the end.
Watch video:
The outlet also cited the case of a Venezuelan woman identified as Iris Margarita Rincón Villasmil, recently arrested by Venezuelan National Guard officials after she published a video on TikTok that denounced Maduro.
Rincón Villasmil was forced to issue an “apology” to Maduro after being detained. The video of her “apology” was published on Instagram by an account belonging to a Venezuelan National Guard regional detachment.
“On July 28 [when the sham presidential election took place] I let myself be influenced by a person of Colombian identity who paid me 50 dollars to make a video and upload it to TikTok offending our president Nicolás Maduro,” Rincón Villasmil says in her “apology.”
“I receive all the benefits he [Maduro] gives us. I am in the command of the Bolivarian National Guard, detachment 111, port of Maracaibo. I ask forgiveness to my president Nicolás Maduro and to the country,” she continued.
“In the Bolivarian Republic, hate is now being played; intelligence agencies are taking advantage of technology and social networks to identify and monitor their opponents through new mechanisms of massive repression,” Armando.info denounced.
The outlet claimed that it was able to obtain a copy of a document prepared in March by the Maduro regime’s Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) that “confirms the importance that this security body gives to social media.”
Similarly, the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported on Saturday that the colectivos — armed socialist gangs that directly serve Maduro — have begun branding the homes of Venezuelans who have peacefully protested against Maduro and the sham election’s claimed “results.”
An unnamed source confirmed to El Nacional that several homes located in 23 de Enero, a low-income neighborhood located in the capital city of Caracas, were marked with a black-colored “X” by colectivos.
The branded homes, according to El Nacional, are located in a territory controlled by La Piedrita, one of the largest and most powerful colectivo gangs in 23 de Enero.
“That’s too many houses. That indicates that there is an anti-government crowd in the colectivo area itself,” an unnamed source told El Nacional.
Although 23 de Enero’s inhabitants have been historically sympathetic to the ruling socialist regime, peaceful protests against Maduro have recently taken place in the neighborhood following the July 28 sham presidential election.
Es de la zona del 23 de Enero, Caracas, Venezuela
En esa zona daban Cacerolazos en protesta al robo de la elecciones por Maduro, y los colectivos arremetieron con ellos y marcaron las casas tipo Nazis.
Ahora está Prohibido protestar incluso en las casas, ya no pueden porque… pic.twitter.com/xxDAiwAB8S
— Boris Sancho (@borissanchotv) August 10, 2024
“Knock knock knock. Like Nazis, they mark the houses with an x,” an unidentified man who recorded the branded homes said in a video circulating on social media.
Venezuelan human rights attorney Tamara Suju announced on Sunday that the recent branding of the homes of Venezuelan protesters has been reported to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is presently conducting a lengthy investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity committed by Maduro and his regime in the past.
“We denounce before the ICC the vandalization of houses in the 23 de Enero neighborhood, which have been marked with an X to identify opponents or demonstrators,” Suju’s message read. “Let’s remember that the Subversive Group La Piedrita, led by Valentín Santana, acts in this neighborhood.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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