The people of Venezuela will not be silenced

Linda Rios/ Contributing Writer

After the Venezuelan government put a stop to the referendum to have the government revoque Nicolas Maduro from the presidency, citizens have found the strength to keep on fighting for their freedom.

Throughout the past couple of months, Venezuelans signed several petitions to remove Nicolas Maduro from his presidency and restore some peace and stability to the collapsing country. Several judicial courts, on the other hand, had been trying to stop the referendum by any means necessary.

On Thursday, Oct. 20, more than five judges got together and succeeded in stopping the referendum. This means that the election the people have been demanding this year, to free themselves from the government, has been denied.

After the order was given, it was announced that the government would now be an official dictatorship. It has been called worse than the preceding dictatorship in Cuba.

When hearing some Cuban people talk in the streets concerning Venezuela’s situation, it’s surprising to hear that they’d rather go back to their birth country than step one foot in Venezuela.

But Wednesday, Oct. 26 was a special day for Venezuela because even though Maduro demanded the people to stay home and not walk the streets, more than 100,000 citizens joined a strike all around the country to force the president to resign his position as commander of the country.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed a couple of residents, one of them being Henry Ramos, the head of the National Assembly.

“We’re going to declare unconstitutionality in the streets,” said Ramos.

Henrique Capriles, who ran for the presidency in 2014, said to The Wall Street Journal: “We as Venezuelans need to start thinking of the day after Maduro resigns.” During the strike, Capriles also told the people present that “this government has already lost what’s most important: the people.”

A similar strike was attempted in 2002, but it wasn’t successful because the severity of the political climate had not yet been evident to all citizens.

Throughout this week alone, more than 90 deaths have already been reported by news sources, namely Telemundo, as a consequence of the actions the Venezuelan government took late October.

On Friday Oct. 28, two days after the first strike, the entire country united once more to stay home rather than going out on the streets. This would stop production in Venezuela and put the entire country in a standstill.

No shopping mall, stores, or any center of entertainment or necessary companies worked on this day, including cemeteries and morgues.  

Having friends and family still living in those horrible conditions and risking their lives when going to school or work is heartbreaking because there’s that constant fear of not knowing if today will be the last time I hear from them.

The rest of the country has to be able to realize what situation they are in and have to make sure that a change occurs in order to improve the country’s condition.

It’s unbelievable how after 18 years, people still have the will to fight, maybe it’s because they want to leave the country or because of their lack of desire to leave the place they were brought up in, but something still remains. Venezuela is strong, and no matter what, the people will continue to fight for their freedom.

 

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