By Luis Manuel Aguana
There was an interesting discussion in the
Pío Tamayo Chair on March 9, in response to my statement, supported by academic
studies carried out by researchers from a recognized academic institution, that
a characteristic that defines the Venezuelan is that he is incapable of
confronting, hence I concluded that because of this condition is under the
arbitrariness of the criminals who govern the country and under the control of
those who still claim to represent them as their opposition (see The silence of
the lambs, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/p/the-silence-of-de-lambs.html). It therefore seeks to get out of the serious problem we have in the
country by peaceful means, trying to use means that can only be valid and
successful with civilised interlocutors, and that definitely do not work with a
drug-criminal mafia. And the opposition leaderships, avoiding confrontation for
one reason or another, most of them associated with corruption, negotiate with
the regime ways out that perpetuate it in power, to the detriment of those I compared
to lambs ready for slaughter, recycling themselves in every election.
Indeed, until today's sun, Venezuelans have
NOT CONFRONTED this regime, in the internationally known terms, that is, in a
violent manner. I say this with all responsibility. A confrontation of this
type occurs when two sides confront each other in the traditional manner: with
armed troops. What has happened here is that hundreds of Venezuelans have taken
to the streets to protest, being massacred by the regime's security forces and
its paramilitary gangs. This has happened since 2002 with the April 11 massacre
on Baralt Avenue, and has not stopped so far.
Real armed confrontations have occurred and
continue to occur in Latin America. It happened at the end of the last century
with the movement of the "contras" of Nicaragua, and the until now
Colombian guerrilla of the FARC, ELN, etc., financed by the drug trafficking.
All of them are alive in Venezuela because 21st century socialism has been
their refuge since our tragedy began with Hugo Chávez as President of the
Republic. Those guerrilla movements, which at their best had more than 60,000
armed troops, confronted and continue to confront the Armed Forces of the
legitimate Colombian government in order to take it out of power by violent
means, without any success.
The question we are rightly asking ourselves
in Venezuela is why, with the gravity of what has happened in the country, with
the levels of destruction of our institutions and infrastructure, added to
levels of corruption never before seen on the planet, Venezuelans still behave
like lambs ready for slaughter. From that Venezuelan who bravely went out of
the borders to liberate 4 nations apart from his own, we have become a flock
easily manipulated by those who in bad times represent us. What happened to us?
I could even say that of those legendary parties that assumed an active
clandestinity of truth against the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, with
leaders of the stature of Alberto Carnevali, what remains is a sad puppet that
lends itself to continue the narco-terrorism. I ask
myself again, what happened there?
I want to make it clear that my question is
purely theoretical. I am not posing it with the avant-garde intention that a
careless reader might imagine to turn Venezuela into a bloody powder keg. I am
asking it precisely because what could be happening is that this level of meek
tolerance may be reaching its limit. It cannot be that in the face of so much
iniquity there does not begin from one moment to the next to be a response that
is consistent with the violence that is being applied to us.
We Venezuelans have lived a peaceful time for
more than 100 years. Our last armed confrontations were ended by General Juan
Vicente Gómez when he unified the country more than a century ago. Before that,
our political differences were resolved with gunshots, and whoever had the
greatest strength of arms was right. Years of forced peace, at the beginning by
27 years of an iron dictatorship like that of Gomez, and after a brief
democratic period, another dictatorship, that of Perez Jimenez, forced us to
change our way of approaching the struggle, exchanging weapons for peaceful
political confrontation.
Not even under the dictatorship of Marcos
Pérez Jiménez did anyone in Venezuela consider building an army to take power.
There were even clandestine armed movements of outlawed parties whose members
refused to accept the regime's impositions. However, during the Gomez
dictatorship, the movements did go in that direction. The case of the Falke
invasion was one of them. It should be noted that with time this inclination
has been lost.
Already after 1958, another level of
confrontation was definitely established in Venezuela, and despite the interest
of Castro-communism in taking us down this violent path by convincing some
young Venezuelans of the possibility of assaulting power by force of arms, the
extraordinary quality and capacity of the political leadership that our country
possessed prevailed. Romulo Betancourt's hands did not tremble to apply all the
violence that a State can have to the armed incursions that Fidel Castro's
Cubans dared to make on Venezuelan soil.
Perhaps very few Venezuelans are aware of the
existence of the Vargas Swamp Monument in Boyacá, Colombia, erected to
commemorate the battle that sealed the victory of the liberating army for the
independence of New Granada, today's Colombia. That monument was raised in
gratitude of the Colombian people to the 15 lancers, led by a Venezuelan
Llanero from the State of Guarico, named Juan Jose Rondon, responsible for
breaking the Spanish battle lines with only 15 men, putting the enemy in
retreat. The Liberator skillfully takes advantage of this opportunity to
consolidate the victory of his army. They were only people who were up to the
historic moment. Do you think that a people like the Venezuelan, who crossed
the Páramo de Pisba on foot, badly dressed, and on a plateau at more than 2,600
meters, performs the feat of facing a structured army as the Spanish army was
at that time, and come out victorious, are not capable of facing with the
response due to this mafia of drug criminals? What is the difference? I am
convinced that the difference is found in the leaders.
Before, they were our liberators as in the
example of the Vargas Swamp, and then, our best political class in democracy.
Both led Venezuelans to victory over what I always try to impose on the freedom
of our country. With the same material, two artists, one mediocre and one
excellent, are capable of making, the first a bad work without quality and the
second an extraordinary and imperishable one. The material has nothing to do
with it! The difference is in the artist. Those who lead the people have the
responsibility to make the difference between freedom and slavery.
And just as I remembered in a previous note
the film "Silence of the Lambs", I now remember the - "Robin
Hood" by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe. The protagonist is lucky to
get a sword that has the following inscription: "Rise and rise again until
lambs become lions". He does not understand its meaning until he is
reminded that as a child his father is responsible for the act of commitment of
the rulers to their people, and that they are obliged to rise and rise again
until they become lions so that they may fulfill that commitment. That costs
him his life. How interesting! Lambs turned into lions! But that conversion
doesn't come out on its own, it requires first-rate political leadership.
So we have some lambs that a mediocre
leadership wants to take back to a slaughterhouse, and not just an electoral
one. From this herd of lambs, a new leadership must emerge that will impose
itself, from new leaders who are capable of rising up and becoming extraordinary
artists, turning this herd of lambs into lions. I am not saying that it is easy
but it is definitely and absolutely necessary if we want to get out of this
hell.
Caracas, March 16, 2020
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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