October 31, 1999
Though I have named my article "Venezuela & Hugo Chávez Frías," this is not really about one person for one country, in this case Venezuela one of the Latin American countries. On the contrary, what makes a country is not just its president, but its people. We talk a lot about democracy in the USA, but do we really know the meaning of it? Most of you may say that yes, you know all about democracy because this is your political foundation, and indeed your belief. Yet I do also have my belief. My belief tells me that things are not just black and white. By the way, the colors allusion is not about people’s skin color. This is just a term referring that we should not look at life with one glass spectrum. Democracy is like a pot luck. All of the contributions are voluntarily. Everybody has a vote. Is this reality? Absolutely the answer is NO. We may talk a lot, write a lot and debate a lot. In the end we may not be heard by our politicians, just like in any communist country. At times, in those communist countries people may be heard a lot more closely than we indeed presume in our so-called perfect system.
José Vicente Rangel is a Venezuelan politician for whom I have a lot respect. He said something when I was a teenager that I would never ever forget. "Who cares if you have freedom of speech if no one listens to what you have to say." For the first time, I found an honest politician saying what I had felt, indeed what perhaps many Venezuelans had felt. It is a terrible feeling when you know that you are in a democratic system, but sensing futilely most of the time. José Vicente Rangel spoke about injustices which gave some sorts of privileges to the wrong people. He represented the MAS party. MAS translates Movement Toward Socialism, and in Spanish "Movimiento Al Socialismo." His speeches were few, but his actions were great. Personally, I do not think that he has been totally perfect. On the other hand, his good intentions have meant a lot. Honest or true politicians are scarce, almost out of existence.
USA’s & World’s Democracy
In most democratic countries, democracy has proven to be
partial—biased—or limited if you may give it so much credit. One day
when I was driving to my place of work, I saw along the way many shanty
houses. I asked myself, "Why, why does this happen in a country that is
supposed to be so rich and organized? Why is there so much inequality?
Why do I see so many well prepared, educated, people holding two or at
worst three jobs in order to have a decent life? Why does this happen in
the USA?" As you may guess, I got zero answers. Yet, when I go to
Venezuela, I do not ask myself those questions because I know that there
has been a giant corruption acting like the machinery that has ran our
political and economic entities. So there I seem to have an answer for
those undesirable patterns. Certainly if we go and check out other
democratic countries, we may find the same disproportion among their
citizens’ social statues. It is as if you were born poor with little
chances of succeeding. Of course, we know about many cases of people who
were born poor, but have succeeded somehow. I understand that life is
one struggle after another. It is as if we must confront bitterness
before really tasting the world’s sweetness.
What about Venezuela?
Recently I have gotten some e-mail from the USA and Venezuela. Some of
the mail is about the economic and political situation of the tropical
country of Venezuela. The other part is about people wanting to know
more about Venezuela and Hugo Chávez Frías, the Venezuelan president.
What should I say and what should I not say? Some of the
e-mail coming from Venezuela is a bit discouraging. North American
missionaries are a bit concerned for some of the crimes that are taking
place due to a new law that the government recently implanted. This new
law tries to take care of old legal cases that have not been solved. So
let’s say that some people have been in jail for five years, though
their crime really deserved two years. Yet they have been waiting in
jail just to have a trial. Those are sad situations besides harsh. The
law has been implemented, so many people got their freedom. The time
that they spent in jail, was not to get reform, or to better themselves.
On the contrary, many of them have been holding their enrage toward the
system and the country as a whole.
Jail in General & Latin American Jails
Let me spend another small paragraph telling you what you already know.
To be in jail, whether here or in Latin America, is not a nice
experience, without taking into consideration the amount of time. Many
of the prisoners in those Latin American jails have a harder time than
the inmates have in the USA’s jails since Latin jails are a lot more
precarious than it is in the USA. Some of them do not seem to have a
chance even if they try to do what is right in jail or outside. So the
more crime there is in Venezuela; the more difficult it gets for them,
those already in jail. This is because they get overpopulated, causing
the less of everything that helps them to survive their sentences. There
are piles of cases waiting to be solved, at least waiting for a verdict.
So there had not been so many mistrials or appellations since there have
not been so many trials after all. Mr. Hugo Chávez has decided that this
is not going to take place anymore. He is giving his best shots in order
to stop this horrible occurrences. He had to take a decision, had to
release the people who he felt the system has failed them for not giving
them a trial, or even a fair trial. Some of those people are one word
CROOKS! Some of them have taken advantage of their freedom to do the
right things that life and freedom offer them.
Case Example, USA 18th Constitutional Amendment, 16 January 1919 About what was this amendment? It was about prohibiting the selling or the buying of alcohol. Yet what did this amendment cause? Let’s start by examining the two encouraging known facts.
Two positive results:
#1. North Americans’ savings accounts rose.
#2. North Americans decreased absenteeism at work.
Hey, are not those two results super wonderful? I think that you think so just like I do. The amendment helped the USA a lot. People kind of felt that this was a better way of living. Yet was it all pink and rosy? No, it was not. Billions of dollars were offered to those who illegally were willing to make some whiskey. There were more volunteers than there was money. This took place here in the USA. The alcohol prohibition created a silent chaos. With time the law changed; the North Americans found it intolerable. By that time, people thought that to drink was not a crime, though the law made it like a night-dark crime. This gave a false impression since not all drinkers were alcoholic people. Some of them were just social drinkers, just from time to time flavoring some whiskey, wine, etc,. This case example is to show that new laws are at times wise. At other times they are not so wise. On this earth nothing is so pure and clean. Everything seems to bring some good and some bad. It is almost impossible to have control over all the possible variables, not matter how much time it is invested. Certainly practice makes the master!
The Deal of Being a Country’s President
Mr. Hugo Chávez is doing what he thinks is right. He is getting help
from many educated and wise people. Yet they are not perfect; they are
like us at work, trying their best. For a president it is impossible to
practice his presidency since it is a one time shot. Yes, you get
prepare for it. You do some campaigning. You may have been a governor
previously, or having any other type of political background. Yet your
first day as a president is your first day at work without being there
before, unless we are talking about a reelected president. Then we are
talking about a totally different picture since the president should be
familiar with the drills that the job brings. The deal of being a
country’s president is the knowledge that he or she must have to bring
up a good economy for the country. The president must improve all the
government’s services to help out its citizens. The president must study
carefully those laws that are of a public matter, whether for a few
citizens or for many. The case is to cover all those areas that are
needed plus to uncover all the crookedness that may be surrounding some
governmental and private areas of a given country. Mr. H. Chávez has
been doing all that.
Mr. Hugo Chávez Resembles Mr. Fidel Castro?
I read a web-page written by Mr. Mark Falcoff. There he compares and
differentiates Mr. H. Chávez and Mr. F. Castro, the Cuban president. He
points out that both of them seem to have a socialistic point of view.
They both tried to overthrow the so-called dishonest presidents and
political parties, each one in his respective country. Mr. M. Falcoff
states that each of these presidents have replaced their civil ministers
or government employees with military ministers, or military employees
in different areas. If you were a preacher, you more likely will favor
those who attend church with regularity plus seem to have a great degree
of faithfulness. Therefore, Mr. H. Chávez prefers those with whom he has
already spent a considerable time. They have shown him respect toward
the country; this is to say the country’s people. They have demonstrated
him an unmeasured desire to do good toward the country. Those military
people seem to have character and disposition plus a giant freshness to
act upon what is being needed, and even more neglected by the cupidity
of so many politicians who have polluted the country of Venezuela for so
many years. Thus Mr. Hugo Chávez is a fine man for a very fine country.
A Closer View, Mr. H. Chávez & Mr. F. Castro
I honestly admire two aspects of Mr. F. Castro; those are the following:
His tenacity and vigor. Mr. F. Castro after four decades as the
president of Cuba remains standing. With the passing time, he has proven
to manage being a president in power, not a self ambitious president. He
has made it evident that there are some deals that he will not take or
even trade because of his belief in socialism. Of course, the other side
of the coin presents that Mr. F. Castro’s lack of compromising has
brought him many, perhaps, avoidable problems nationally and
internationally tragedies. The truth is that all of us pay a price for
what we do, say, or even think. Cuba’s international isolation has been
one of the many prices that Mr. F. Castro has had to pay. This has not
only included Mr. F. Castro, but the Cuban people. Some of the Cuban
people have resented Mr. F. Castro for this isolation; other Cubans have
been very glad to pay this price. So, as funny as it may seem, they have
had two common choices like any other people from any other country, the
choice of rejection toward such system, or the choice of being part of
the whole process. Whichever they opt to pursue, they must fight for it.
There is not an easy answer in either case. Both are still hard calls to
take.
More about H. Chávez & F. Castro
It is not true that Mr. H. Chávez is like a copy of Mr. F. Castro. The
scenarios are different as well as their backgrounds, though with some
sort of similarity in what overthrowing their countries’ presidents is
concerned. The reasons are similar. Both of them got tired of their
corrupted presidents and governments’ services. Both of them analyzed
and lived the many privileges that some important few had during those
years of cupidity. They knew that they had to take action. Otherwise,
their Latin American countries would have remained mere histories, or at
worst tales. In spite of all these similarities they are in different
places, fighting for different reasons. For instance, Mr. H. Chávez
trusts and thinks that this is what Simón Bolivar would have liked and
fought for since he gave freedom to five Latin American Nations from the
subjugation of the Spaniard people. The only detail is that this time
Spain is not the issue. Spain has remained for a long time disjoined to
the Latin American troubles or virtues since it is what the Latin
American people have wanted and fought with much determination.
This time the problems are homemade deals that have impoverish Latin nations as it is the case with Venezuela and even Cuba. The other detail is that Mr. H. Chávez is not Simón Bolivar. Thus he is not fighting with foreigner, but against the crooked politicians of his own nation. This time is not about getting physical freedom, but physical and mental relieve from many Venezuelans’ wrong doings. When I write Venezuelans, I am trying to make it clear that yes, politicians have a giant part in all of the Venezuelan people’s problems. Nevertheless, many Venezuelans have forgotten their values as well as the purpose of their freedom. Freedom means improvement, sadly but without improvement there is not freedom. It is not just in Venezuela, though they have believed it too, that their political parties will take care of their needs. Of course, the truth is that in Venezuela and all around the world politicians will not act with goodness of their heart, unless the respective nations pay close attention to what they are saying, offering, and doing. If politicians are not held accountable, they will get out of their embarrassing and badly managed programs without any kind of penalty. If something you might remember from this article; it should be that freedom means improvement!
Conclusion
Show me democracy, and I show you justice. I don’t bite the lies because
I don’t spend my time chewing them. I have tried to present you a clear
picture of what’s taking place in Venezuela, a bit of Cuba’s past and
present background, and some insides of the USA. I thank you for your
attention, so much thanks.
Copyright © 1999