The day that everything changed

Year 2014

I was 17 years old and my days were waiting for the date to enter the university, I was surprised by the sad news about the death of Héctor Moreno from ULA-Mérida and later the events of February 4 in San Cristóbal Táchira state, On February 12, Caracas joins with demonstrations called by opposition leaders hand in hand with the student movement, motivated by the scarcity of basic products, high levels of crime, censorship of national and international media, corruption, etc. Which I attended and here is a brief and sad chronology of that day.

For that fateful 12F, the mobilization left from Plaza Venezuela towards the center of Caracas along Avenida Libertador to culminate in the Public Ministry in Urdaneta Avenue. After several hours the march began to enter the center and the tension took over the environment, the pickets of the National Guard were present to prevent the advance of the demonstration to the Public Ministry but finally arrived.

At the end of the activity at the headquarters of the MP, there was a confrontation between the police and students who exercised their right to protest which resulted in attacks on the headquarters.

The mass remained in a tense calm and you could see how many of the attendees covered their faces, the message was clear: the confrontation was imminent and would happen in a matter of minutes. Young people took stones from some planters located on the sides of the street and threw them against the officials, from then on nothing would be the same again; the streets became a battlefield between the demonstrators and the forces of order.

It was 3:13 in the afternoon when the body of Bassil Alejandro Dacosta fell on the sidewalk in the Tracabordo Corner in La Candelaria.

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At that time the line of fire was in the hands of subjects identified with uniforms and vehicles of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) accompanied by others dressed in civilian clothes who fired at those who ran in the aforementioned corner.

30 minutes before Juancho Montoya is murdered a few meters from where Bassil Dacosta fell. Montoya was known as a leader of the so-called "collectives" who are groups of armed civilians close to the government. The circumstances of his death are still unclear but everything points to Montoya entering a street on a motorcycle followed by a group of motorized and is received by shots, his body falls mortally wounded and is picked up by his followers. The investigations that have been conducted point to police officers as the participants in the homicide.

The area was cleared and only the fires of several police patrols and some protesters remained.

In Hours of the night the protests continue but this time in the avenue Arturo Uslar Pietri of the Chacao municipality where Robert Redman loses his life who had attended the call of the MP hours before and helped loading Bassil Da Costa when he fell wounded in La Candelaria .

In his Twitter account @EscualidoReload he was in charge of reporting the violent events of the demonstrations in Caracas on February 12, including the moment when he is injured by a lead shot.

Later the passenger of a motorcycle shot him and the young man died in the middle of the street.

To this day his death remains unpunished.

After that 12F nothing was the same for me who at that moment began to demand my rights in the streets, year after year I remember that day with nostalgia and it is an obligation to honor them in one way or another. The struggles in the streets will continue and we will not rest until we achieve the goal.

BASSIL AND ROBERT WILL BE YOUNG ETERNALLY!