How it hurts my Latin America, how it hurts to see our hopes betrayed, our people hungry while those who appropriated the power wallow in fortune.
How it hurts my Latin America when democratically elected rulers remain silent hidden behind embarrassing statements that do not call to action when it is time to act – “we are highly concerned” –, when they should be demanding democracy as we demanded it when we were the ones persecuted by another dictatorship.
How the past hurts when Maduro, with an insolence that is unmatched, appropriates from our past, our struggles, our principles, and after a coup –because you have to name things by name–, dares to declare “we cannot act to feed old wounds or so ideologically intolerant and exclusive schemes are imposed. Venezuela calls for inclusive schemes, absolute respect, and dialogue”. “No one can come to judge a model because otherwise, we would enter into a world of Earth with nothing and no one.” “If we judge “x” country because of “x” circumstances, then that would be the last straw,” he sentenced.
To remain silent today is to be an accomplice, it is to accept that a coup can happen, that a mediocre ruler, a populist ruler could become a dictator with impunity.
How it hurts the future when we ponder about how to explain to future generations that Maduro in Venezuela and Ortega in Nicaragua do not represent our ideals of a more just, equitable society in which values and principles are respected; that it is the sovereign people alone who can elect a President or remove it in the upcoming elections; that those who cling to power do not represent us; that those who take over the powers of the State begin to walk the path to dictatorship.
You, Maduro, you have given a coup in Venezuela, and this is not a solution to the current situation of your country, on the contrary, you, Maduro you just made things worse for yourself. You are calling one, to isolate Venezuela from the concert of Latin America; or two, promoting that Venezuelan military gives another coup d’Etat and assume power; or three, you are calling for a popular uprising, and there would be a clash of immeasurable consequences.
No, Mr. Maduro, it is not us who walk down the 19th century which divided us, it is you who returned to those obscure roads that we believed finished, those of autocracy and dictatorship.
And just as it hurts Nicaragua, oh!, Nicaragua, Nicaragüita, today it hurts Venezuela, oh! Venezuela, Venezuelita.