In Venezuela: "I hope nothing happens"

***** A SUNDAY REFLECTION

Several of my friends in Washington, including political science experts of the best local think tanks, say to me, regarding the Venezuelan situation: “I hope nothing happens”. And I know they mean well. They wish that no violence takes place in the country, that “differences” can be solved through dialogue, that Venezuelans will find a painless way to get back to a normal, civilized existence.

But, while I hear them, I keep wishing for the very opposite, that things do happen in Venezuela, that my countrymen and women find it in their hearts to stand up and rebel openly against the gang of gangsters that has destroyed the country both materially and spiritually.  There are situations in life that cannot be resolved as if both sides shared the same principles and values. We cannot dialogue with the thug that assaults us in the street, nor can we keep a civilized exchange with a political regime intent in imposing their abusive will on the population.

The destruction of the Venezuelan economy, the increasing scarcity of the most basic foods and medicines, the collapse of the services, the rhetoric full of hatred of the leaders of the regime during these last 15 years has been amply documented in all international fora and in the world’s media. And yet, inexplicably, many well-informed international observers keep looking at the Venezuelan situation as a simple case of solvable differences or nuances between the population and the political groups in power. Much of this political astigmatism is induced by ideological reasons, a few are mercenaries, but – by and large – the tolerance of the good guys for the horrors taking place in Venezuela can only be explained by indifference. There are, surely, worse problems around the globe.

The silent tolerance of the Venezuelan tragedy in regional organizations such as the OAS and by many of the hemispheric political leadership, as well as by numerous Latin American observers in the U.S., will certainly be recorded as one of the worse examples of lack of democratic solidarity in recent history.  Together with the tolerance and acceptance of the Cuban regime by many of the same actors, these attitudinal postures make up two of the ugliest examples of moral decay among the political and social leadership of the western hemisphere.