“A dozen thanks for your commitment with the human being, that its what matters the most. Your attitude has shown us till the limit that for you the must important think is the human being, its life, to preserve it, to keep it”Consuelo González, woman hostage freed by Colombian rebels yesterday, thanks to the mediation my president, Hugo Chávez(The quote is a very rough translation, taken from the BBC world page, Spanish version)
What follows might sound rough for many. It is not “politically correct” for sure. Take that as a warning, and try to keep an open mind as you read…
Before Consuelo’s words (quoted above) started driving me crazy, I made the mental exercise of putting myself in her shoes. Of course, during 99,99% of my life I’ve been surrounded by most of the comfort of the western civilization: a warm bed, a hot bath, a delicious food on my table while I’m catching my favorite show on TV – cable subscription. I go on camping trips sometimes, spend a few days in the middle of nowhere, and use the waterfalls as a shower but the idea of coming back home is always present and what matters the most: it is always my decision to put myself into an extreme situation.
It was never Consuelo’s decision to spend six years getting to know the Colombian jungle in the middle of a war. And that’s for telling things as it they were a fairy tale. It was never Consuelo’s decision to spend 6 years away from her family and love ones. The FARC with absolutely no right for doing so, they took her away what I think is perhaps the most valuable thing a person can have: her freedom. For me saying “freedom” and “dignity” is like talking about two sides of the same coin.
I can’t even imagine what she experienced during those years, it was certainly not like my camping trips or field works around the rural areas of Venezuela. She lived inside a war, kept by the enemy with no realistic hope to get out of that madness. She had six years of extremely rough experiences that my spoiled girl life style makes me hard to really understand it in all its complexity. And it is just now, as I write these words, when she gets the chance to sleep not so far away from my house, finally free and safe.
So if I were her, and a president called Chávez (or Bush, or Sarkozy, or Uribe, or Lula…) makes the necessary moves to put an end to that living hell and succeeds giving me the opportunity that I never thought possible of hugging my family again; I would definitely not measure my words of gratitude to this savior. I would hug him as strong as I would hug my mom and consider him the greatest person alive on Earth despite of whatever he could have done, because he saved me.
Today, Consuelo can express her gratitude to the president but I cannot and I must explain why. It is not only because I'm not a former guerrilla hostage. Nor because I don’t recognize the succeed of this mission or because I’m so stubborn that I’m not able to admit when my political enemy has done things right. Those are things that it can be discussed later. What it matters is that Consuelo is free to express her gratitude not only because in front of her liberation all the other events are obviously mean less as far as her life is concerned (which is totally fair), but also because she missed the Bolivarian Revolution (at least the most radical years) and I did not.
While she was in captivity, she missed the revolutionary develops of the kidnapping rate inside my country and the increasing insecurity situation in general, but over all she missed the lack of political will of this man “committed to the human life” to solve this situation. Until about a few days ago Chávez was more busy making propaganda and huge revolutionary programs than worried to even mention the insecurity trouble on his speeches.
She also missed the times were many Venezuelans saw their freedom denied with no right, like her. She missed the time Nixon Moreno has spend trapped inside a building in the strangest asylum figure just because the government could not stand that he won the elections at his university. She missed the excessive repression of political demonstrations against the system during these years. She missed the attacks against the media and the food shortages.
Of course, this rough message does not go to Consuelo. So what If she missed the Bolivarian Revolution? She definitely lived much more horrible things that will chase her for the rest of her life. She missed many things I haven’t and that Chavez give her back to life as she rightfully said, so I won’t blame her for being thankful.
This entry goes to the rest, to whoever might be reading this. To you, because you probably were not trapped in the jungle madness while the Bolivarian Revolution showed its true colors. I hope you are not stupid enough to buy all this media charade and sign on for giving to my president the Nobel Peace Prize. Yesterday’s events do not only show Chavez success on this release operation, but possible also inconvenient connections with the FARC and without doubt the fact that my president will always put his international media image and prestige first so any stupid dreamer ready to believe it because “he stands up to the empire”.
And then comes the Venezuelans (if they ever actually come), waiting patiently to the day their president will look at their sorrows and troubles, emergency and demands for real, at least once. Because, after being cheered by the world, Chavez always comes back home with empty hands. And that’s something it cannot be hidden forever, no matter how many special camera effects Oliver Stone uses for the next piece of fine political propaganda.
PS: I'm not sure if the links I provided are the best to sustain my stances, I can give you a much better list of links if you ask for it in the comments section but my blog is more based on personal experiences.
What follows might sound rough for many. It is not “politically correct” for sure. Take that as a warning, and try to keep an open mind as you read…
Before Consuelo’s words (quoted above) started driving me crazy, I made the mental exercise of putting myself in her shoes. Of course, during 99,99% of my life I’ve been surrounded by most of the comfort of the western civilization: a warm bed, a hot bath, a delicious food on my table while I’m catching my favorite show on TV – cable subscription. I go on camping trips sometimes, spend a few days in the middle of nowhere, and use the waterfalls as a shower but the idea of coming back home is always present and what matters the most: it is always my decision to put myself into an extreme situation.
It was never Consuelo’s decision to spend six years getting to know the Colombian jungle in the middle of a war. And that’s for telling things as it they were a fairy tale. It was never Consuelo’s decision to spend 6 years away from her family and love ones. The FARC with absolutely no right for doing so, they took her away what I think is perhaps the most valuable thing a person can have: her freedom. For me saying “freedom” and “dignity” is like talking about two sides of the same coin.
I can’t even imagine what she experienced during those years, it was certainly not like my camping trips or field works around the rural areas of Venezuela. She lived inside a war, kept by the enemy with no realistic hope to get out of that madness. She had six years of extremely rough experiences that my spoiled girl life style makes me hard to really understand it in all its complexity. And it is just now, as I write these words, when she gets the chance to sleep not so far away from my house, finally free and safe.
So if I were her, and a president called Chávez (or Bush, or Sarkozy, or Uribe, or Lula…) makes the necessary moves to put an end to that living hell and succeeds giving me the opportunity that I never thought possible of hugging my family again; I would definitely not measure my words of gratitude to this savior. I would hug him as strong as I would hug my mom and consider him the greatest person alive on Earth despite of whatever he could have done, because he saved me.
Today, Consuelo can express her gratitude to the president but I cannot and I must explain why. It is not only because I'm not a former guerrilla hostage. Nor because I don’t recognize the succeed of this mission or because I’m so stubborn that I’m not able to admit when my political enemy has done things right. Those are things that it can be discussed later. What it matters is that Consuelo is free to express her gratitude not only because in front of her liberation all the other events are obviously mean less as far as her life is concerned (which is totally fair), but also because she missed the Bolivarian Revolution (at least the most radical years) and I did not.
While she was in captivity, she missed the revolutionary develops of the kidnapping rate inside my country and the increasing insecurity situation in general, but over all she missed the lack of political will of this man “committed to the human life” to solve this situation. Until about a few days ago Chávez was more busy making propaganda and huge revolutionary programs than worried to even mention the insecurity trouble on his speeches.
She also missed the times were many Venezuelans saw their freedom denied with no right, like her. She missed the time Nixon Moreno has spend trapped inside a building in the strangest asylum figure just because the government could not stand that he won the elections at his university. She missed the excessive repression of political demonstrations against the system during these years. She missed the attacks against the media and the food shortages.
Of course, this rough message does not go to Consuelo. So what If she missed the Bolivarian Revolution? She definitely lived much more horrible things that will chase her for the rest of her life. She missed many things I haven’t and that Chavez give her back to life as she rightfully said, so I won’t blame her for being thankful.
This entry goes to the rest, to whoever might be reading this. To you, because you probably were not trapped in the jungle madness while the Bolivarian Revolution showed its true colors. I hope you are not stupid enough to buy all this media charade and sign on for giving to my president the Nobel Peace Prize. Yesterday’s events do not only show Chavez success on this release operation, but possible also inconvenient connections with the FARC and without doubt the fact that my president will always put his international media image and prestige first so any stupid dreamer ready to believe it because “he stands up to the empire”.
And then comes the Venezuelans (if they ever actually come), waiting patiently to the day their president will look at their sorrows and troubles, emergency and demands for real, at least once. Because, after being cheered by the world, Chavez always comes back home with empty hands. And that’s something it cannot be hidden forever, no matter how many special camera effects Oliver Stone uses for the next piece of fine political propaganda.
PS: I'm not sure if the links I provided are the best to sustain my stances, I can give you a much better list of links if you ask for it in the comments section but my blog is more based on personal experiences.