Tragedy: Conductor is assassinated in Venezuela

Tragedy: Conductor is assassinated in Venezuela

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norman lebrecht

March 11, 2016

El Universal reports: The body of Larry Salinas, director of the orchestra for special children in Ciudad Guayana, was found at dawn at kilometre 17. It had three gunshot wounds. His vehicle was missing.

According to a local report, the body was found by children as they walked to school.

Larry had spent 20 years teaching children, providing them with music opportunities.

He was 48 years old.

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Lawlessness rules in Venezuela.

Comments

  • Juancho says:

    Larry Salinas was a kind and generous musician that led the Integrated Children’s Choir of Guayana, which was composed of kids with very intense special educational needs like Down’s syndrome and autism. He gave these kids a degree of happiness and a sense of self-worth that, unfortunately, they could not find anywhere else.

    I see some English people saying El Sistema does not work, especially because it is difficult to understand how a programme that helps kids stay away from drugs and crime can coexist with the level of violence we have in Venezuela. There are about 3 million people that have been a part of El Sistema; the population of Venezuela is 30 million. I don’t know of any case of a Sistema musician being arrested for a crime, but that doesn’t mean that they are not attacked by criminals.

    El Sistema, like any big institution, especially in a chaotic country like Venezuela, is not perfect. Gustavo Dudamel supporting the tyrant Nicolás Maduro (while doing publicity for Rolex) does not help the image of El Sistema. I wish that when people think about El Sistema they don’t think about Dudamel, but they visualize people like Larry Salinas, of which there are thousands in Venezuela, working every day with very bad salaries but a huge love for the children they help.

    • john humphreys says:

      Bravo….well said.

    • Warren says:

      Juancho: Very touching. Larry Salinas and others who have similar roles as he did, will be the people I think about when El System comes to mind. I am saddened that the ‘useful idiots’ still support the Chavistas.

    • Hernan says:

      I take exception to your reference of President Maduro as a tyrant. He is not. He is the elected president of Venezuela. The sad murder of this dedicated public servant is the result of a vicious campaign to de “regime” change spearheaded by the Venezuelan oligarchy and their supporters in Colombia and the US. There is an active and covert intervention coming out of Colombia who has recruited its criminals and assassins to murder who are supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution.

      • Vorpal says:

        Excuse me, sir. Tyrants are elected, too, especially when they have at their disposal the means through which they can commit electoral fraud. The fact that a tyrant ascended to power through an election does not change the fact that he is a tyrant.

    • Hernan says:

      Juancho. Self serving crocodile tears. Gustavo Dudamel is a patriot at the service of the Venezuelan people, and I know that the powerful Venezuelan oligarchs hate him for that.

      • Pablo Romero says:

        Gustavo Dudamel is a comrade patriot in Maduro’s fight against commodities such as food in supermarkets, clean water and toilet paper. Long live the citizen’s revolution- currently performing revolutions around the toilet bowl and preparing to take the final plunge!

  • Novagerio says:

    Touching words Juancho. Gracias.

  • Sam McElroy says:

    When Chavez took over, the annual murder rate was around 4,000. However:

    19,336 murders in 2011
    21,692 murders in 2012
    24,763 murders in 2013
    24,980 murders in 2014
    27,875 murders in 2015

    That’s 118,646 murders in 5 years, according to the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence.

    For perspective, 57,000 US soldiers dies in a decade of war in Vietnam.

    • Hernan says:

      Murder and crime in Venezuela is not unique. There is also a destabilizing campaign from the US and Colombia similar to what has happened in the Ukraine and Syria and Libya.

  • Manuel HS says:

    Bravo Juancho. Absolutely agree with you.

  • Hernan says:

    Larry Salinas is a martyr of the Bolivarian Revolution. He was a dedicated public servant in the best sense of the word. The enemies of the Bolivarian Revolution are to be held responsible for this horrendous crime. Larry Salinas was a Venezuelan patriot and revolutionary always at the service of the poorest and most humble members of society. These servants of the people have become targets of counter revolutionary mercenaries at the service of the Venezuelan and Colombian oligarchies. This murder is the face of the Venezuelan so called “opposition”.

  • M2N2K says:

    A typical trolling tune: instead of seeking solutions to their multitudes of problems, all of them are always blamed on somebody else with US being the most popular alleged main culprit. This was the norm in the dearly departed Socialist bloc for several decades in the last century and it will continue to be the favorite MO for all would-be Socialist paradises as long as they desperately keep trying to survive in this one.

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