No Asterix or Tintin to the rescue, no Superman to ensure a happy ending: comics written by designer Lucas Garcia Paris tell and denounce the numerous human rights violations in Venezuela.
A close-up of a boot breaking down a door, a screaming mother and child, a soldier with a skull under his helmet… In three vignettes from the “Path to Justice” series, Lucas Garcia Paris, 50 years old, sums up the police violence.
Venezuela has been accused of serious human rights abuses – particularly extrajudicial killings, torture – and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened an investigation into repression in 2017 that left more than a hundred people dead.
The ruler of President Nicolas Maduro, likely candidate for a third term in 2024, denies these allegations and ensures that those guilty of violations are punished.
“If you had told me ten years ago that we would be dealing with the central issues of what was happening in the country through comics, I would not have believed it,” admits Garcia Paris.
His work focuses on current or current violations, but also old cases that shocked the country, such as the “El Amparo” massacre that occurred in 1988 in a small town on the border with Colombia.
Soldiers and police then murdered 14 fishermen whom they believed were “guerrillas.” The cover and back of this black and white album are stained with blood red drops. The only two survivors are still demanding justice in a case in which no one has ever been prosecuted.
Bypass censorship
Venezuela has a long tradition of political cartoonists and cartoonists, notably Pedro León Zapata (1829-2016) and Rayma, who are famous throughout Latin America. But comics are an under-explored area.
“There were no superhero comics or great graphic novels,” emphasizes Garcia Paris.
His first comics were created in collaboration with a human rights organization that wanted to reach a wider audience according to the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
The conception of the “Rebellion Comics” series began in 2017, when a wave of demonstrations against Chavista power was harshly suppressed.
The question was: “How to explain what is happening in a simpler and more understandable way?” summarizes Marino Alvarado, director of this NGO, Provea (Venezuelan Action Program for Human Rights Education).
The aim of these free comics is to circumvent an oppressive climate of “censorship” denounced by the press union, he emphasizes.
“More empathetic”
Without being big, its success has made new collaborations possible.
“Path to Justice” summarizes the ICC prosecutors’ investigation reports. “What is told is not forgotten,” an adaptation of a book of the same name, reports on important cases and symbolic testimonies since the 1990s.
Mr. Garcia Paris has also worked with other human rights organizations such as Reacin and has just published his own book: “The Theme. A graphic treatise on human rights.
The author remembers that when he had to temporarily emigrate to Spain in 2012, at the beginning of the political and economic crisis, he donated all his books, with the exception of his comics, which he had carefully preserved since his youth.
“I used to write, but now I don't write anymore because I realized that I love making comics,” he explains.
Mr Garcia Paris believes his “perception” of human rights has “evolved” through contact with NGOs and victims.
“You become more empathetic […] “What happens to other people really starts to hurt you,” he explains, hoping his readers will experience the same metamorphosis.
“People tend to think about it [la question des droits humains] “like a problem that arises somewhere else and only affects others,” he says. “When in reality what happens to others also happens to you.”