Despite government’s threats, Venezuelans remain hopeful

Image by Scoobay, courtesy of Creative Commons.

Mariana Nava/Staff Writer

I know that a bunch of articles and opinion pieces about the current situation Venezuela is going through have been written lately. However, I want to focus more on the human side of it than the reasons why the protests are taking place. A few days ago, I got to know the most terrifying threat that the Venezuelan government has come up with. The government told all the protesters to stop making a mess on the streets and to get rid of the so-called “barricadas” or blockades that have been built there otherwise they would go to their houses and kill everyone since they have all of them identified. Even though I didn’t get to know this from any news source but from a family member, it sounded like a message this government would definitely deliver.

The first thing I thought was: “Seriously? Killing everyone? Is that the best thing they can come up with when more than the half of the nation has turned against them?” First of all, it is an act of cowardice not to fight the battle with the same amount and type of resources, and just kill whoever comes their way. On the other hand, it is completely proven that as long as restrictions exist, there are always going to be people that will jump over them. Therefore, there is nothing they can do to stop the strength and conviction of protesters but by killing a great part of the nation, which just will make the impunity the Venezuelan government has been carrying out for more than ten years now even more obvious.

Now, the truth in all this is that Venezuelans are tired of the dictatorial regime Hugo Chavez implemented and left in the hands of unprepared people who don’t even know the current status of the country, which is, in fact, extremely worrying. The fact that Venezuela doesn’t have the president it truly deserves, but a clown named Nicolas Maduro, is not only frustrating but also insulting. Moreover, I found out that the opposition party is neither afraid nor concerned about threats made by the government. They had been stopped before because they felt they were going to be fired from their jobs, lose their families, or be killed in attempting to take the country out of the government’s hands. However, today, Venezuela has exploded, and it seems that the idea of freedom won’t be easily erased from the protesters’ minds. The Venezuelans who are fighting to save their country give a very sad but not hopeless response to these threats: “We prefer to die than living under dictatorship for the rest of our lives.”

I am one of those Venezuelans that hope to see our beautiful country walking towards freedom and a better political system. So now the question is: “Is it worth fighting for freedom and a better future for Venezuela?” and the answer is: “Yes.” It might take a long time to get our country back, but each day counts. Despite all the lives that have been taken away since Feb. 12, 2014, the students and the brave people that have joined them, including people from other countries, are invincible now, and that is the reason why we are getting as close as we have never been before to the end of this disguised dictatorship.