Venezuela: May Hope Never Die

Venezuela: May Hope Never Die / Miriam Celaya
Miriam Celaya, Translator: Unstated

There were no surprises. Chavez's victory in the recent Venezuelan
elections, though not at all "strong" or "overwhelming", as the leader
would have liked and as the official Cuban media insists on calling it,
was the most likely forecast. However, the Capriles's undeniable
summoning power and his achieving 44% at the polls, the highest in the
whole process of the "Bolivarian" revolution, shows that the opposition
is a consolidated force to be reckoned with in that nation. Henrique
Capriles remains, after the presidential election, the candidate of
hope, the promise of a possible future.

I, of course, wished Capriles his victory. Not only to turn another
irksome page of Cuba's begging and dependency under the setting of the
Castro totalitarianism, but to enjoy the end of another threat to
democracy in this hemisphere rolled into the person of the arrogant
Venezuelan president. I'm of the thinking that prolonging Chavez's stay
in the presidential armchair will not save the Cuban regime's from its
defeat, and that the solution to the Cuban problem must come from the
hands of Cubans on all shores and not from external junctures, though
they can apply their influence for or against the speed of the
decomposition of the dictatorship. Chavez, after all, is an annoying
accident that will leave the stage eventually. Maybe nature will
complete what the opposition could not accomplish this time.

Without trying to lay down guidelines, I believe, nonetheless, that
democratic Venezuelans should not be discouraged by the results of these
elections. Rather, they should understand how much they have achieved
and advanced. It would be wrong to leave the country and allow the
would-be dictator to continue squeezing it at will; it would be a shame
to solve it by taking flight or feeling defeated. Some Venezuelan
friends have written to me with deep regret, announcing that now they
would leave the country. Please don't. Let good Venezuelans look through
Cuba's mirror: stampedes are a relief for dictatorships and only succeed
in extending their time in power. Don't become, like us, a country of
migrating mourners, and don't allow them to wrench from you, as the
Castros did to Cubans, what is rightfully yours.

Yesterday, around midnight, I got a message from my friend Antonio
Rodiles on my cell phone. It read: "I thought Venezuela would turn into
a democracy first, but it seems that we will be the ones…" It was an
encouraging message that reminded me of the importance of keeping the
faith and fighting for what we want. Democracy continues to be the dream
that Venezuelans and Cubans pursue. I would tell free Venezuelans today:
Don't dismay, only you can prevent the triumph of authoritarianism… the
polls spoke loud and clear about you. May it be so.

October 8 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/venezuela-may-hope-never-die-miriam-celaya/