The grave misconception about Venezuela

[TomSea]

The author is a first year student from Venezuela at Princeton.

The grave misconception about Venezuela
By Guest Contributor | Apr 22, 2019

When I received a notification for a Facebook event a month ago, I found myself feeling something that I never thought I would feel prompted by a student event: frustration and despair. The event in question was a “vigil” to protest against “war in Venezuela” hosted by the Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA). When I saw this, I couldn’t help but feel angry, misunderstood, and disregarded. I thought the world was finally listening to the voice of the people of Venezuela, but I saw in that event a grave misconception that risks robbing Venezuela of the support that we need to attain freedom. Such support has to come in the form of foreign intervention.

I grew up in Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela. I saw the gradual decline brought upon by the pseudo-socialist government of Hugo Chávez and his cronies. Furthermore, I witnessed how the international community kept turning a blind eye with every corrupt action that he and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, orchestrated to consolidate their power. I saw how once-vibrant neighborhoods turned into poverty-ridden slums and how supermarkets and stores dwindled in supplies and closed as prices skyrocketed. I saw how people resorted to obtain water from contaminated sewers, and food from the garbage outside restaurants and wealthier homes.

Less than a year ago, I was living without the ability to go out to the streets whenever I wanted to, at risk of being murdered because of rampant crime. Water and electrical supply to my house weren’t guaranteed, inflation was going up, and people grew poorer and more conformist. All hope for change seemed to be lost, until now.

Juan José López Haddad is a first-year from Caracas, Venezuela. He can be reached at jhaddad@princeton.edu.

Read more at: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2019/04/the-grave-misconception-about-venezuela

A bit lengthy, I guess, this comes from Princeton, U or town paper but it's actually a pretty good analysis and opinion piece on what is going on there. It's just a bit long. The author is from Venezuela, a college student.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

I sympathize with that student, and understand completely why he and many other Venezuelans want intervention by the U.S..  Still doesn't make it a good idea for us, because we'll be dealing with the anti-American blowback from such an operation for the next 50 years.

Latin Americans have to wean themselves away from the "man on horseback" view of politics that has dominated that continent.  Nobody else can do it for them.

[kidd]

Unfortunately,  Guaidó is also a socialist.
And unfortunately, the vast majority of Venezuelans blame Maduro for their mess, not socialism.

[thackney]

Unfortunately,  Guaidó is also a socialist.
And unfortunately, the vast majority of Venezuelans blame Maduro for their mess, not socialism.

They have a long way to go before they understand Reagan.

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."

[Restored]

The ONLY reason that "students" are concerned with Venezuela is that Trump criticized Maduro. This faux concern is just the usual politics. I'm surprised these "students" aren't volunteering to go down there and help with the Revolucion. That would be quite the education.
Irony: Trump is Putin's hand puppet but Putin is propping up the "students" hero, Maduro. So is Putin bad or good?

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Unfortunately,  Guaidó is also a socialist.
And unfortunately, the vast majority of Venezuelans blame Maduro for their mess, not socialism.

Right.  Some of the ones who got out early hate Chavez with a passion, but a lot of others just believe that Guaido ruined Chavez' good thing.

[Absalom]

A reflection, as the core problem is far more deadly than socialism.
Man's earliest social order was tribal.
Then w/the birth of the Fertile Crescent some 5,000+ years ago,
Man began to develop a sense of self which led to the earliest
structured cultures/societies.
Over time, this concept migrated west to Greece, then Rome;
the creators of western civilization, whose hallmark was the
primacy of the individual, the driver of creativity.
Look about the globe and ask; where is this impulse largely non-existent?
Certainly in Africa, virtually all of Latin America and large parts of Asia;
as the tribal mentality trumps individualism.
The mentality of the Aztec, the Inca, the Toltec and Maya still rule in the
minds of the Latins and that is the very essence of the problem.