Today it was Guiria, a town near my hometown, mourning 19 lives lost at sea, tomorrow it can be any other town. Venezuelans keep taking extreme risks in their attempt to leave a country that promises nothing but misery. You can read here the TT press version of the story
I was planning to post on a different topic (lots of pending project now on the list), but I could not get the images of the drown men, women and children out of my head. My need to leave a record of these events on the #blockchain became more pressing after hours passed and no government official made any statement about it. Trinidad and Tobago has been contributing to the violation of Venezuelans' human rights for years now in the name of a complicity relation that government has with the maduro tirany. Even though there have been abuses in every country Venezuelans have migrated to, the ones committed by TT have been so far the most outrageous. The proximity with the town of Guiria and other big towns, like Irapa, has made Trinidad a first choice destination for those whose particular situations force them to leave. Their desperation has fed all kinds of murky business, like in any other border around the world (from drug to human trafficking), which has given both the Trinidarian and Venezuelan governments excuses to ignore or minimize these kinds of tragedies.
Last month a boat full of children and some adults was sent back to Venezuela even after a Trinitarian court had issued a resolution demanding the protection of the minors and the issuance of documentation to regularize their migration status. The Trinitarian government justified the deportation of the children under the excuse that they were protecting their sovereignty.
The worst part of this tragedy is that there are still plenty of people around the world attributing all these issues to the alleged blockade the American government has allegedly imposed on Venezuela. I can’t emphasize this enough: the so-called blockade has been nothing but sanctions against human rights violators and institutions or companies that have contributed with their money to their actions. The Venezuelan government has been able to import anything they want whenever they want, including gasoline from Iran, which is another country under “heavy sanctions”. How can they talk about a blockade when all government officials still manage to enjoy all kinds of luxuries (from imported liquor to imported cars and jewels)? The drug money that still sustains the Venezuela government is now circulating freely allowing money laundering to flourish in the form of fancy stores full of all kinds of delicatessens the average Venezuelan cannot afford. How can they talk about blockade when the destruction of our economy started in 2008 with the first monetary reconversion that only accelerated the decline of our currency? There was not a single sanction back then and the wave of migration that now accounts for more than 5 million Venezuelans spread all over the world started just then, becoming unstoppable in 2013 (still no sanctions).
The global double discourse made it possible for the corrupt members of the chavez and then maduro's administration to take their dirty money and invest in places as diverse as Andorra, Spain, France, Germany, the USA, China, Rusia,or the Dominican Republic. Many of them still live confortably; their children attending the best universities in the world, while the average Venezuelan, even college graduates, are treated like shit. Those lives do not seem to matter for many who allegedly fight for human rights.
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The tragedy of Guiria will be trending topic on the Social Media for some hours, then it will make room for another even,not necessarily another tragedy. People do not want to overload themselves with negative energy. They need joy and hope, illusions and triviality to lighten up their daily challenges. They need to continue believing that if they remain possitive, if they look away, the monster will not see them and will not touch them. I will probably do the same. But let the record show that I cared, that I felt deeply affected because I am fully aware that it could have been me or my chidlren floating on those waters o rotting by a road in the Colombian or Ecuatorian mountains.
The Venezuelan tragedy is only warming up as the whole world keeps veering towards stupidity, corruption, and injustice. Governments around the world keep profiting from human tragedy. If their economic interests are at stake they do not mind to look the other way to either ignore crimes and human rights violations or to protect or even support those directly involved in such violations.
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Aún estoy aturdida con este acontecimiento.
Ningún venezolano esta ajeno a esta desgracia. Aún con los riesgos de muerte, yo creo que hechos como este volverán a pasar porque es preferible morir en el intento que quedarse con los brazos cruzados. La desesperación por huir del gobierno venezolano es cada día mayor.
Como venezolana estoy agradecida a tu pluma honesta, y a tu temple, por escribir esta publicación.
Un gran abrazo @hlezama
Me crié en la costa de Paria. Mi papá era Guardia Nacional y mi familia llegó a vivir en Irapa y Guiria. Era una zona campestre, "atrasada", pero paradisiaca. Eran los trinitarios quienes llegaban muy humildemente a nuestros pueblos en busca de la prosperidad y afecto que nuestra tierra les brindaba a brazos abiertos.
Es duro que en tan poco tiempo haya ocurrido una inversión tan descomunal y que tengamos que presenciar casi que maniatados esta locura en que se ha convertido nuestro país.
Ya el minsiterio del interior emitió un comunicado vomitivo donde atribuye la culpa al crimen organizado, que al parecer, me entero, está al servicio de la oposición. Una oposición bien complice entonces, considerando el poder de fuego que tienen las bandas que operan en la costa de Paria, cortesia de la gloriosa fuerza armada bolivariana.
No importa por donde se le mire, la responsabilidad de la tirania de maduro es evidente.Gracias, @marcybetancourt
I grew up on the coast of Paria. My father was a National Guard and my family came to live in Irapa and Guiria. It was a rural area, "backward", but heavenly. It was the Trinitarians who came very humbly to our towns in search of the prosperity and affection that our land offered them with open arms. It is hard that in such a short time such a huge turnaround has occurred and that we have to witness, almost handcuffed, this madness that our country has become. Already the interior ministry issued an emetic statement where it attributes the blame to organized crime, which apparently, news to me, is at the service of the opposition. A very complicit opposition then, considering the firepower that the gangs operating on the coast of Paria have, courtesy of the glorious Bolivarian armed force. No matter how you look at it, the responsibility for Maduro's tyranny is clear.¡Una situación desesperante! Mirar la historia de Cuba nos indica que este tipo de noticia será lo normal de ahora en adelante, bajo el asombro de millones y la acción de evitarlo de ninuno.
This was a difficult read. You are so right: the social media will be awash with indignation for 5 minutes and then move on. Human nature, as you observe. There is so much I do not understand about how people can be so cruel to others. It's like they don't see their fellows as human. Greed, avarice is a rapacious, starving, never satisfied, monster.
Best to you and your family
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My best wishes for you and your family too.Thanks for taking the time to read it, @fionasfavourites. I know this is not the kind of text anyone would rather read.
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