Help Venezuela!
I would like to start by saying that my analysis of the situation in Venezuela is based on facts and a permanent live connection on the pulse of the country. As a US/French citizen married to a beautiful Venezuelan lady, father to the sweetest Venezuelan girl, I am in constant communication with family and business associates to try and objectively understand what is going on.
The reality today is that the Venezuelan people are on the streets of Venezuela, fighting for their survival and the future of their children, and it seems that the international media is not paying much attention. I urge you to read it, share it, and take action in any way you can to help Venezuelans lead their country out of darkness and into a bright future.
Venezuela, home to 30 million people, is one of the most enchanting countries in the world. Its people are warm and loving. Its geography is diverse and often impressive. Its history is rich and fascinating. Its natural resources are substantial; oil, natural gas, iron, gold and minerals. It also has large tracts of arable land and water. Add in the fact that Venezuela is a neighbor to the world’s largest economy, the United States, and the Venezuelan people should enjoy the benefits and a vibrant economy, a safe environment, and a bright future for their children.
So what happened?
“The overwhelming presence of oil did act, indirectly, to deform the economy and national life. Privileged sectors of the population began to acquire the mining mentality of spendthrift nouveau riche. The uninterrupted flow of dollars encouraged imports and expanded trade to such a degree that the nation became primarily a consumer of foreign products. We began to look too much like that chaotic California, the paradise of adventurers and thieves, during the days of the gold rush.
Rómulo Betancourt, former president of Venezuela 1945-1948, 1959-1964.
It is safe to say that oil wealth, some call it the “oil curse,” has crippled Venezuela into an unproductive and corrupt society, with screaming inequalities, leading to extremism and the arrival of Hugo Chávez in 1999.
Chávez came to power on the premise that he would destroy the peaceful but unacceptable coexistence of wealth, poverty, inequality and social exclusion in Venezuela. He gave a voice to the poorest and had an innate ability to make them feel that he was one of them. He also used his personal charisma, backed by generous aid spending, to build an “anti-empire” designed to counter the US in its crusade for free trade, though his power lay in the revenues of the US oil and refineries
What Chávez created in Venezuela is a benevolent dictatorship; a form of government in which an authoritarian leader exercises absolute political power over the state through elected representatives, maintaining sufficient democratic decision-making to exist and maintain the illusion of “democracy”. A political genius and a charming manipulator, he managed to change the constitution, seize control of all branches of government, and control all the media.
Chávez died earlier this year, but during his 14 years in power, he crippled the economy, squandered the profits from the biggest oil boom since the 1970s, and managed to steadily reduce oil production by nationalizing PDVSA, a state-owned oil company. of the state. appoint executives and managers based on his political convictions rather than his experience.
Diagnosed with deadly cancer, Chávez chose a successor, Nicolás Maduro, a Caracas subway driver, union activist and later minister, whose only qualification for the job was to be a “Chavista” from its earliest days. Maduro assumed the presidency earlier this year in a rigged election. Unfortunately for Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro is not only a “fraud”, he is clearly incompetent, incapable of leading the country towards a better future, leading it towards economic and social implosion.
The result of the “Chavista” revolution is that Venezuela now occupies the first place in the ranking of violence worldwide. In 2013, 24,763 violent deaths were registered, breaking a record of 79 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Only in Caracas a murder occurs every hour, which makes it the most dangerous capital on the planet. In addition, Venezuela has one of the largest fiscal deficits in the world, the highest inflation rates, the worst exchange rate mismatch, the fastest growing debt, and one of the sharpest drops in productive capacity; including that of the critical oil sector.
During the Chávez era, the nation also fell to the bottom of rankings that measure international competitiveness, ease of doing business, or attractiveness to foreign investors, and rose to the top of the list of the world’s most corrupt countries; Quite a paradox for a leader whose rise to power was based on a promise to eradicate corruption and crush the oligarchy. the Bolivarian bourgeoisie; tea boliburgueses, as Venezuelans call the new oligarchy, made up of close allies of regime leaders, their families and friends, have amassed enormous wealth through corrupt dealings with the government. This too is part of the unfortunate legacy that Chávez has left behind.
Last but not least, during his 14-year reign, Chávez relentlessly tried to align Venezuela with Cuba, both politically and economically. It is now clear that he succeeded, as Venezuela currently faces multiple shortages, including food, electricity and even basic necessities like toilet paper.
The silent majority has had enough. People are suffering in their daily lives. Hope for a better future is fading and the last elections demonstrated to the majority that the democratic process is now just an illusion. Every day, people take action; mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, students and teachers, small businessmen, even the elderly are on the street risking their lives as I write these lines.
People are dying, tortured, mistreated and even raped by the National Guard (GNB). The attack on freedom of expression and Social Networks is total. Twitter announced this week that “the Venezuelan government is blocking images on its website, the latest sign of a crackdown after violent protests that killed at least three people last week.” Maduro also accused the mainstream media of creating confusion. He took Colombian radio station NTN24 off the air and yesterday in a national speech criticized Agence France Presse for “manipulating information.”
The governments of the world are relatively calm, analyzing the situation, collecting data and trying to define a course of action. Inexplicably, the world media are not covering the events as they should. It is up to us, the people, lovers of the democratic process, individual liberty and human rights to do the only thing we can; that is communicating, sharing information and making sure the truth comes out.
This article is a small piece in the ocean of information and misinformation that is circulating, but I urge you to find yourselves, seek the truth and help the children of Venezuela to have the future they deserve.
