North of the South

I am a Venezuelan citizen, I was born in this country 49 years ago in the city of Maracaibo, which with the exception of the school year 83-84 has been my city of residence throughout my life, I love this country but I am extremely ashamed of those who we inhabit I have, to say it somehow, political consciousness from the presidential quinquennium of Luis Herrera Campins, a period that was carried out by the so-called Black Friday, which was no more than the first devaluation of our currency which until that time was one of the strongest of the entire American continent and much of the world. A large majority of my generation and of previous generations, agree that the economic meltdown of Venezuela began, almost always in any political conversation among Venezuelans on foot, we talk about the causes of my economic situation. country, the majority blames the governments of the last almost 50 years of what we live today, but it is of my thinking that the problem goes beyond the political and economic decisions made in the last 5 decades, the responsibility falls on all citizenship, either by execution or complicity in the infamous "Viveza Criolla".

I remember perfectly the words of my father many years ago, I was a teenager and in a conversation he said "this country is killing is the attitude of its people, it is very unfortunate that what sets the tone in the way to face the day to day here is the phrase, Every day an idiot comes out to the street, the one who gets it is from him ", and that is what is destroying us as a nation.
I think that one of the great executors of this ill-named "viveza criolla" is undoubtedly the late President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, only that he did not see an idiot in the street and decided to take advantage of him, if not he saw more 30 million Venezuelans to a string of idiots to take advantage of and unfortunately I succeed. The Venezuelans, not all of them clear, but if a large number, they are always looking for opportunities, but not to develop, educate or grow, if not take advantage, take advantage, stay with a slice, etc. I remember a sketch of a comic program that alluded to this with the phrase that was repeated every time they transmitted "And how much is there" while the character in question rubbed the fingers of one hand, making it clear that the only important of any project that was thought was how long it would stay, how can grow and develop a country with many of its citizens thinking so. This Hugo Chavez saw very clearly, I do not say that from the beginning his project was that, that from the time of his conspiracy in the armed forces to give a coup his impulse was to take advantage of a conjuncture of social, moral and economic, because he was part of that conjuncture and what moved him was revenge and the impotence of seeing how a political and economic elite was enriched while poverty increased every day more throughout Venezuela, and that was what Despite being the leader of a military insurrection that left several hundred dead, a large part of the population saw their actions with good eyes, because they interpreted what they also felt, impotence, wear and thirst for revenge towards that politico-economic elite.

I must confess that I was one of the many Venezuelans that we were represented by Chávez, that we believed in a project, in a speech, in a flag that after 7 years of being trampled and spit at will, yes, from the beginning of his second six-year term is that Hugo Chávez begins to show his true life project, stay in power for the rest of his existence, this no matter what he had to do and as a good interpreter of the Machiavellian saying "the end justifies the means" , he used any kind of trickery, trap, crime and society with anyone outside God or devil to help him achieve his goal.
Chavez in his campaign used something that clearly worked, tell people what they want to hear, after we bewitched them with their guile and achievement that many not only followed him, but that they practically fell in love with him, they saw him as a savior, a messiah, someone who understood their needs and desires, which ones? The "How much is there that". Through dadivas was falling in love with many and those were his great allies for when everything changed, he told us clearly and scraped as we say here, and on several occasions. Shortly after taking office at a popular street event with the leader and President of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro, he said these words, I promise that in less than 20 years we will be sailing the same seas of happiness of Cuba, for which are not aware in 2017 several boats were seen sailing full of Venezuelans heading to Aruba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, etc, just like the famous boats that arrive on the coast of Florida in the United States full of Cubans looking of a better life, several years later in another popular act Chávez said these words "it does not matter that we walk barefoot, it does not matter that we do not have to eat, here it is about defending the revolution at the cost of whatever", 2016 and 2017 extreme poverty, malnutrition, lack of medicines, shortages of food, etc; has grown to levels never seen in any South American country. Chavez could spend up to 7 hours standing on a stage talking to the people, and between one story and another that delighted people, he threw those popcorn that many of us insisted on interpreting and saying things like "is that what he meant was this this other ", but in reality what he wanted to say was exactly what he was saying. Of course, many must be thinking, but he is not the one responsible for the global financial economic crisis of 2008, nor the collapse of oil prices, nor many other factors that could have an impact on the crisis we are experiencing today, but the if he is guilty of not making the effort to change the opportunist mentality of the Venezuelan, nor of changing the single producer economy that he criticized so much in his campaign of '98 and that today we are more dependent on oil revenues than in the entire republican history of the country, convert many Venezuelans into unproductive vagrants by waiting for the government's gifts, he is guilty of having geometrically multiplied the mentality of "Criolla live" by putting us against each other in our house. Surely they will be thinking but Chávez has already died, 5 years ago this is Maduro, gentlemen, Nicolás Maduro himself has said it repeatedly, "I am the son of Chávez and we are living the legacy he left us".

Unfortunately my country is on the way to collapse, many of us have tried to correct our mistake by voting for Chávez in 1998, believing that a change would be made for the better, but we were wrong and now we have participated in opposition marches, campaigning in favor of a change, we have tried to change the mentality of many who still support this aberration that we are living, but we are getting tired, every day we find it more difficult to get out of this situation with an opposition that pacts with the ruling parties at the most crucial, with the complicit gaze of the rest of the nations that make up this continent. We are at the mercy of a group made up of criminals, opportunists, drug traffickers, murderers and a group of cowards who may not be entirely in agreement with the situation, but they managed to take advantage of this and therefore they conform, since they are vivitos criollos.

It saddens me to have to admit that the only way out that I see to find a better life for my wife, my daughter and I, is to leave here for another country. We are already at a point where we can not help our country if we do not help ourselves first, every day that passes the possibilities of doing so are less. I have made many mistakes in my life, and added to situations that have been totally out of my control have led me to a serious crisis situation, in case my belongings are few, I do not have my own home, we live in an annex built in the ceiling of the house of my in-laws, the only asset of something of value with which I count is a car with which I work as a taxi, which by the way is increasingly deteriorated because what I can produce barely enough to buy food. I do not know where I'll get the money to pay for the transfer to the country I'm targeting, but I hope that life gives me the opportunity to do so, and I pray to God that one day I can see my country healthy and its inhabitants working for the development and the peace that we need so much, and so we return to this piece of land located in the North of the South.