Is it too late?

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On Friday, two people lost their lives protesting the reforms passed by chavez’s puppet congress. Nevertheless, on Saturday, freedom loving Venezuelans poured out into the streets again to continue voicing their opposition to this obvious attempt by the macaco mayor to seize power permanently.

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Although it is good to see that the Venezuelan people have finally woken up and realized they are about to fall into the dark abyss of a totalitarian dictatorship, I have to wonder if it is perhaps too late for them. The constitutional referendum giving chavez virtual power for life will be voted on by the Venezuelan public on December 2. However, we all know how corrupt the voting system in Venezuela is, and if past experience is any indication, I cannot imagine chavez allowing a voting result other than a resounding “YES” for the gutting of the country’s democratic constitution. Regardless of how many people vote “NO” — and the tens of thousands that have protested indicate that the reforms would not stand a chance in a fair vote — chavez is going to make sure the results indicate otherwise.
So what do the Venezuelan people do then on December 3rd? They can protest the corrupt voting system, but the world’s media will ignore their pleas. The macaco mayor will have some high-ranking useful idiot like Jimmy Carter proclaim the vote valid, and the rest of the world will follow along like good little revolutionaries. The crowds will be portrayed as lawless hooligans who want to bring back the days of imperialistic oppression of the proletariat. Then, little by little, their numbers will dwindle as the days turn into weeks, the weeks turn into months, and before they know it, forty-eight years will pass in a blink of an eye.
I hate to sound so pessimistic because right now our Venezuelan brothers and sisters need our support more than ever. I just wish they would have listened to us years ago because from what we can see, this monkey on their back has got a death grip on them.

10 thoughts on “Is it too late?”

  1. Sadly, I agree – too little,too late. I visited Venezuela many times and actually worked there for a while on assignment. I remember being told by my Venezuelan friends I was “paranoid” because of my Cuban experience. “That will never happen here – we have a constitution, etc., etc.”. . . I saw them flirt with many anti-American groups and was told it was the new world order and that I was too right-wing. I was even told on more than one occasion: “If you Cubans want Fidel out – why don’t you all revolt?”. Now, like us “paranoid Cubans”, Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, we all have something in common. . .Again, sadly.

  2. I remeber this one vensuelan girl in college in 2000 when she was so proud of Chavez. “He is going to change the country from the corrupt present Gov.” she said, “You dont know how much they need to be taken out of power.”
    She was soooooo mistaken. Besides that era una come meilda. I told her what was going to happen y te digo que soy un profeta because here it is.
    She was so stupid I am glad I was right but I am sad for those still in the country due to Mini-Fifo.

  6. Watching from a distance, my take is that the Venezuelan “oposicion” is gutless. The students may not be afraid to go on the streets (it’s their future and their hide, after all), but the statements and initiative of the opposition’s no-leader-“leadership” is pitiful. Blah blah blah, tons of hot air, no real substance over the past dozen months or so. And I’ve read some of their statements; they’ve capitulated. Perhaps been bought. None of them wants to put up a fight, really – not that I can see. You can end up dead, you know. Or jailed with bogus charges against you, as some of the local elected officials have been.
    When the strike too place way back when, and the oil rigs were unmanned, and people marched everyday, I had high hopes. But that disintegrated quickly because there was no SUSTAINED will to fight. I think the people still thought they had a chance to effect change with their institutions; they didn’t see they were sinking deeper each day. After all, many countries in Latin America still believe Cuba is a paradise, although nobody is rushing to move there.
    I’m sure there are idiosycrasies that I don’t undertand. But I really thought the Venezuelans were not going to reach this point, I thought they were getting this yoke off their necks. I’m not that convinced anymore, and God knows I hope I am wrong.

  7. A good question is: what can WE do to help? I would love to try to help out somehow but I don’t know how. Does anyone have any suggestions? Even the simple act of writing emails to some officials is better than doing nothing, right?

  9. Dave,
    You ask what we CA’s can do to help. We have been warning for years what was going to happen, step by step, how their rights would be taken away, their institutions of democracy neutralized. They have not listened. They did not want to believe. What is happening in Venezuela happened already in Cuba. Unfortunately for us, we had no warning. Venezuelans can’t claim ignorance. Their enslavement is occuring in slow motion. They’ve had many opportunities to stop it, and have not.
    As one commenter above stated, supposedly educated people even thought Hugo was “a good thing” despite the very obvious signs to anyone who was not completely blind or foolish. I am not sure there is more that we, as a community, can do. I am very pessimistic about that situation. That, in turn, does not bode well for Cuba’s immediate future.

  10. Venezuelans not only had Cuba’s disaster as an example and a warning, they also had Cuban exiles loudly warning them from Day 1. They have not only needlessly screwed themselves, but they have also screwed Cuba (and if there’s one thing Cuba didn’t need, was to be screwed yet AGAIN). I am too angry to feel much sympathy. What the hell is wrong with these people, and the Nicaraguans, and the Bolivians, and on and on and on? How difficult is it to see the blatantly obvious?

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