By Carola Chavez – Aug 27, 2020
When Obama issued his nefarious executive order, they celebrated, celebrated as if they had won the lottery. When we warned of its consequences, they mocked and countered that the only consequences would be suffered by Maduro, Diosdado and, well, the Chavistas, who well deserve it for “supporting this misfortune.”
Around the same time, Lorenzo Mendoza (Polar), in perfect sync with the State Department, declared himself at war. And they (anti-Chavistas) were all Lorenzo (for a couple of days), who, poor thing, was producing at loss because of the evil government that only gave him 5 billion dollars to make his corn flour.
And they enjoyed the bachaqueros, buying from them in bulk what Lorenzo’s war denied the people. And they lacked nothing, because they could pay for everything.
With full bellies, they went out to photograph children asking for bread in the street, taking selfies with them with glycerine tear flowing. And every time we tried to denounce the blockade (unofficial but effective) of Venezuela, they came back with the sadistic mockery, “Maduro’s fault, all Maduro’s fault, he has to go now.”
When Maduro invented CLAPs to save us from the hunger they imposed on us, the poison sprouted: fake news with weevils, poisonings, radioactive lentils, because the hunger of the other did not matter, it never mattered, what mattered was to overthrow Maduro and at that moment they were ousting him with indignant photos of people eating garbage and the CLAP program ruined that photo.
The sanctions were made official, and the media and opposition political operators applauded them as a victory, and at each turn of the screw they applauded with more emotion. And when they said that the sanctions would only affect the Maduro government, it was because they knew that they would hit the people, the poorest, the most vulnerable, those who have always been despised by anti-Chavismo. They were counting on that, bent over with hunger, desperatation, they (the Chavistas) would give them that social outburst that they awaited salivating and it did not come, it did not come and it does not come …
“Damn lazy and scoundrel people that satisfied itself with a bag of lentils!” They commented from a bodegón in the east of the East, where they bought peanut butter and other Miami snacks of prime necessity. And with bags full, with their lives based on dollars, they used the “bodegones” (grocery store for imported items) as irrefutable proof that the sanctions do not harm people. As if the importer of Nutella was the Ministry of Food! Cynicism is good for that and so is stupidity.
Squeeze, squeeze, and they enjoy and enjoy. Playing at being charitable souls, they promote searches for drugs that this evil government does not want to supply. They tweet sadly photos of children with cancer whose medicines, until yesterday, were given for free and that today we continue to deliver, with our finger nails, to almost everyone we can reach, while a ship with medicines is turned back because the gringos said no. “Culpemaduro’ (Blame Maduro), El Efecto Tuyuyo (right wing news outlet Efecto Cocuyo) emphasizes in a tearful and twisted report dictated by James Story (US virtual ambassador to Venezuela) from Bogotá.
The sanctions that only affect Maduro left us without gasoline. “Inefficiency, lack of investment and corruption,” they repeated like a mantra, ignoring that we do not even want to invest millions and millions, because the sanctions freeze the funds that we intend to move to pay for supplies and spare parts. Leaving aside that our oil company was tailored by the gringos, so much so that their brain was in Houston; that every nut, every button, everything goes through them and they are not going to sell them to us. Obviating that PDVSA is like the F-16s that the gringos sold us and later denied us the possibility of keeping them operational.
We warn of the danger of sanctions. They, from their arrogance “mayamera” (proto Yankee), did not listen, they applauded and asked for more. Now they queue for gasoline, whatever they say, believe what they believe, they have to survive the queue that was only for Nicolas.
And it is no longer just that queue, it is the real fear of what may come. This week, journalists, economic experts, advisers, analysts, felt that cold shiver down their back that we who know of the criminal effect of sanctions have been feeling for years. They felt that this time the sanctions were going to reach them.
Given the announcement of the diesel blockade for the month of October, just before the gringo elections, in time to disrupt our parliamentary elections, those who have been playing for the gringos for years and their plan to asphyxiate in the hope of getting Chavismo out, begin to feel the lack of air and the anguish that belongs to everyone. Without diesel, there will be no “bodegon’ that resists, or a private power generator to light your house during blackouts.
“Diesel moves 80% of food transport in Venezuela and feeds I do not know how many electricity generators,” writes one of those journalists who did not have to say these things, but others such as expressing her disappointment because Tibisay Lucena (former CNE president), being a woman, was not as insulted and harassed as she deserved. Another columnist in Runrunes, a gringo propaganda outlet that celebrated each sanction with popcorn and cynical giggles, denounced the crime and suffering that the diesel blockade would entail. Like them, economists aspiring to be ministers for (Enrique) Capriles or (Henri) Falcón, analysts, pollsters, all belonging to the opposition, asking the void to stop the possibility that they strangle us even more. They know that not even with all the money in the world will they be able to evade, as they have done so far, the effects of this criminal scenario.
Sadistic David Smolansky gloats and answers the anguished journalist with an ambiguity and hand washing. Julio Borges salivates with pleasure imagining the suffering that the journalist who supported him now fears. Guaidó draws a road map to nowhere. The soulless gringos have them in their hands.
Now they do understand, it seems. Now yes, because they feel that suffering is going to touch them. That they can be the protagonists of the dramatic photos that they once took of others, as trophies, as flags against Maduro. Now the blockade is bad and it is not Maduro’s fault. Now yes, after so many tens of thousands of deaths that they ignored. Now yes . . .
I cannot say that I am happy that the reality that I did not want for my country, or for anyone, has reached them. But I am glad that, even out of fear of their own suffering, they have realized the crime that is being committed against our people and that they join our voice of rejection, even if it is from their selfishness, but that they join. That they understand once and for all that we are in the same boat and that if one side sinks, we all sink. Let them understand, even for a little while, that when we affirm that we will win, that victory of ours includes them and also protects them.
And when we overcome this announced juncture, when others announce that they, from their calculations and selfishness, do not want to denounce, know that our voice will always be raised to defend the country of all and that whatever they do, we will overcome!
Featured image: Photo by Reuters.
Translation: OT/JRE/EF
Carola Chavez
Carola Chavez is a Venezuelan Chavista activist that lived most of her life in the US and is currently base in Margarita Island (Venezuela). She is a twitter influencer and a regular writer for "Con el Mazo Dando" website, Ultimas Noticias and many other Venezuelan outlets.
