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| Really getting the basics right |
Talk to as many Venezuelans as you can about a couple of very basic concepts. In Europe you may take them for granted, in Venezuela they were never understood.
They are
- Pluralism
- Current government versus State. On this you may particularly try using the Spanish term "gobierno de turno", something like "government for this term".
In Venezuela some have some fuzzy grasp about these concepts at best but even they think others have priority, others like "democracy". Unfortunately, you don't get any democracy without some more basic principles. one of them is pluralism and the other is the difference between state and government.
Venezuelans took democracy for granted but most never understood the basics. That's why they ended up allowing the regime in place now to prosper. If you want to help Venezuela become democratic, you need to bring forward those concepts time after time, even among people from the alternative parties. Only when the masses start to grumble about those terms and get the feeling about their meaning will we have a chance to move Venezuela to the right track.
Ps. This came after two little comments on "gobierno de turno" from Setty and me here.