The slaves destroyed tirelessly. From their masters they had known rape, torture, degradation, and, at the slightest provocation, death . . .  they did as they had been taught. And yet they were surprisingly moderate. far more humane than their masters had been or would ever be to them. The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than the revenges of poverty and oppression.
 — C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins

Venezuela’s Jacobins are in the news again. Whether in the commemorations of the first year since the death of Hugo Chávez — a veritable Toussaint — or in Nicolás Maduro’s recent interview with Christiane Amanpour, discussions of Venezuela continue to center on the towering heights of political power. To some extent this is defensive: in recent weeks, those seeking to restore the feudal privileges of the deposed Venezuelan ancien régime have attempted to harness largely middle-class student protests to depose the Maduro government, and the international community has heeded their call.

Well-heeled domestic elites (whose English shows no trace of an accent) have taken to Twitter and the international media to mobilize solidarities. They have been well-received by the US press and a slew of naïve celebrities, who eagerly regurgitate exaggerations, misrepresentations, and outright lies about so-called “human rights’ abuses” at the hands of the Maduro government. These attempts to seamlessly stitch “violence” to the “revolution,” however, have fallen increasingly flat as the days pass and the anti-Chavistas grow increasingly desperate and divided.