The heaviest burden is... the image of the most intense fullness of life. The heavier the burden, the more grounded our life will be, the more real and true it will be.
Milan Kundera
When I first read that sentence in a novel by the Czechoslovak author Milan Kundera (1), it had a great impact on me. And even more so when the novelist wondered what we should choose when, on the contrary, lightness would detach us from the earth, making us superficial and irrelevant. And my preference in that case was always the burden, even if it was uncomfortable. Of course, what I didn't say there was whether we would make the same decision if the burden was imposed by the actions of another. In any case, it will still stick you to the ground, whether you want it to or not, making life more real and true, as Kundera pointed out.
It is enough for us to live in today's Venezuela to feel that the burden imposed on Venezuelans by the actions of some criminals is true, which suddenly brought us down from the cloud, to a cruel reality imposed from that rich country we thought we were many years ago. That "narrative" that indicated that every Venezuelan was born with an oil well in the backyard of his house and could buy the world, flowed to all corners of the planet. And that is why we were very generous with every country in the world with political and economic problems since we had that wealth that did not come from our work. Some came to make family, but others came to live us and leave, but they all enjoyed our levity - quoting Kundera - which now, generally speaking, they conveniently forget.
What people believe about the Venezuelan story is of utmost importance,
especially those who can have a decisive influence on what will happen in our
country. In other words, what people perceive of our reality comes from a
"narrative" that is repeated and repeated ad nauseam, and that ends
up being what people believe, even if it is not true. I have dealt with this
subject in a previous note (see in Spanish, La percepción es realidad, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2016/08/la-percepcion-es-realidad.html).
It is important then that we define well the term
"Narrative", starting with what the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish
Academy (DRAE) says: Narrativo, va: There are 4 meanings: "1. adj. Pertaining or relating to narration. Genre, narrative
style. 2. f. A literary genre consisting of the novel, the short novel and the
short story. 3. f. p. us. narration (‖ action of narrating). 4. f. p. us. Ability
or skill in narrating or telling something. It has great narrative"
(see in Spanish DRAE, Narrativo, va, in https://dle.rae.es/narrativo#QGmJhdD)
If we go to the concept, "Narrative is understood as the oral or written description of an event, real or fictitious, with the purpose of persuading and entertaining the spectator, who may be a reader or a listener" (see in Spanish Qué es narrativa, in https://www.significados.com/narrativa/). The term "narrative" was borrowed from literature by politics "to refer to the set of ideas, values and relationships that are proposed from a conception or model of a country, and that are based on a specific relationship with the past and the future, that is to say, that propose a story in their own way" (see in Spanish Narrativa, in https://concepto.de/narrativa/).
From the above we deduce that it is a prose style - the story, then - that is thrown out into the world about a perceived political reality. And if it is desired that this reality be perceived in a different way, the story is simply varied, and depending on the conditions and means at one's disposal, it will be perceived as a truth bigger than a temple.
And if the international partners of the regime have anything at their disposal, it is the resources to distort a reality and make it "true" to suit their interests, making the world perceive something else. And we already know that perception is reality.
That is why, in an attempt to distort reality, the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, says in his Summit that "You (addressing Maduro) know very well what is the narrative that has been built with respect to Venezuela, of authoritarianism, of anti-democracy. You have to destroy that narrative by showing your own narrative so that the people change their minds" (see in Spanish El Nacional, in https://bitlysdowssl-aws.com/venezuela/construya-su-propio-discurso-lula-da-silva-dice-que-autoritarismo-en-venezuela-es-una-narrativa-construida-por-enemigos/).
But beware! Despite the reactions to this speech by democratic Presidents, such as Luis Lacalle Pou, from Uruguay, and Gabriel Boric, from Chile, who stated that in Venezuela there is no democracy and we are in the hands of an authoritarianism that cannot hide behind "narratives", on the contrary, they accept that free, fair and verifiable elections can be held in our country in the midst of a dreadful tyranny.
How can this be understood? Then Lula da Silva's perception of reality is not very far from the truth. What would be needed would be for Maduro's self-serving "narrative" to finish imposing itself when in the midst of an electoral fraud, such as the one occurred in Brazil, the regime is legitimized before the International Community, especially the Latin American one, which is already desperate to put an end to the "discomfort" of a Venezuela that is an exporter of migrants.
Latin American governments are deluding themselves if they think that by legitimizing Maduro's regime through elections controlled by him, the exodus of Venezuelans will end, because this is nothing more than the consequence of a regime that has institutionally destroyed Venezuela in all aspects.
Then, necessarily, Venezuelan democrats have and must build another narrative and mobilize it at the international level, explaining that it is NOT POSSIBLE a solution that addresses the problem of the migration of Venezuelans to the continent, without the Venezuelan people expressing themselves freely and without a tyranny ruling the country.
ANCO has expressed countless times that this solution does not involve the election of a savior of the homeland and even less with the tyranny of Maduro controlling the Venezuelan electoral system, but through the election of representatives of the people to an Original National Constituent Assembly, with the International Community as an impartial arbiter, supporting this process.
However, it is very clear that the regime will not be willing to such a solution as long as the international "narrative" imposed is that we will "get out" of the regime, and the exodus, as a consequence, if we hold elections in 2024, legitimizing the tyranny. But it seems to me that the countries of the continent will wait for the new "narrative" of Maduro suggested by Lula da Silva, against a reality that indicates a criminal regime of Humanity.
Is there time to impose another course of action derived from a new narrative for the benefit of Venezuelans? I do not know. What I do know is that it is a good time to start working on it and to start influencing the ears of presidents, former presidents of countries, international organizations, or any other "influencer" with power in the international arena so that a new narrative is imposed. I am sure that this would be more convenient for Latin American countries, even if they do not know it yet. That is why I conclude with another sentence by Kundera: "the contradiction between weight and lightness is the most mysterious and equivocal of all contradictions"...
Caracas, June 1st, 2023
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
(1) La
insoportable levedad del ser, Milán Kundera, Colección Andanzas, Tuskets
Editores, 1985.
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