Venezuela's recall: Some reasons for the “SI”
by Alberto Barreda*
Because I want to live differently. Because I need to get back my street, my corner, my neighborhood, my city, because I want to walk distracted, without the risk of death. Because I reject a country where fear is an important part of the national identity. Because I want to live in a country without stray bullets, without Mondays with a bloody dawn.
Because I want to stop a Government that has wasted the largest windfall that has come into this country in its history. Because I want to know whatever happened with all that money, with the thousands of millions of dollars that do not belong to the Bolivarian revolution, but to all Venezuelans. Because I feel the same way as when we confronted any of the previous Governments. Because the fifth republic seems to want to prove that they are faster, that in almost six years they can achieve the same decadence that it took the other forty years. Because I yearn for a Government that the people can control.
Because I want to watch TV in peace, without all of a sudden the President appearing repeating the usual, as usual.
Because I am tired of those that think that I am confused, dizzy, cheated. Because if I am in the opposition it is because I have some sort of gas stuck in my brain. That I am dumb if I can’t say why I believe in “Si”. Because it is a brainy and emotional “Si”. A “Si” that also rejects Bush and Carlos Andres Perez. A “Si” that is not manipulated, it’s totally mine. A “Si” that thinks, analyzes, discusses, that decides.
Because I want the military to go back to being the military and reporters to go back to being reporters.
Because I think it is boring to live glued to polls. As if polls were our new scriptures. Because, among other things, if what polls close to the opposition say its true, if what polls close to the Government say its true, if the picture those polls that are supposedly the most objective is reality…then, beyond the concrete result of August 15th. , there is a deeper and more evident result: neither of the two sides can govern without the other. Because I don’t believe a referendum is a closing, nor a form of elimination.
Because I get irritated with know it alls, the arrogance of all those that think that they are the only ones that know until when they will stay in power. Because I reject anyone that behaves as if they had already won, as if my vote does not count, as if my power was not needed. Because I want to teach the President that to say 2021 first he has to ask the permission of a majority of all Venezuelans.
Because we have to say yes to honesty, against blackmail. Which is the same as saying that you are going to sign and not lose your job, “Si”, you can elect and their will be no retaliation, “Si” you can be yourself and we are not going to screw you. Because only the “Si” calls for hope and rejects exclusion. Because threats are irrelevant, the “Si” is within us.
Because I want to live with transparency and I have the illusion of living in a country where confidence is possible. Because I need to know that someone is guilty for the deaths all of these years. Because I don’t want my country to be an enclosure of impunity. Because I want to know what happens with the detained and improbable paramilitary force. Because I want some results to come out of all of the supposed attempts of assassination. Because I do not understand why a city Mayor is in jail without a clear reason and a corrupt person, with proofs denounced and published, goes around free. Because I find it intolerable that nothing is ever resolved, that we are a scandal without ending, always with events under development.
Because I am sick and tired of Simon Bolivar, of Ezequiel Zamora and of Maisanta. Because the song of Florentino and the devil always seemed to me to be very long and boring shit. Because I am tired of people that want to teach me about patriotism and where supposedly paradise is.
Because I don’t share that interpretation of the country that is also Chavismo. Because I feel that it is a political dynamic that can only exist in the midst of waste. Because Chavismo is a form of enjoying the wealth, but not producing the wealth. Because this Government only reinforces what is worst about our tragic relationship with abundance. Because, unfortunately, it is only an extension of the “ta barato dame dos” (That’s cheap, give me two), without controls and evaluations, illuminated now by the great ills of the revolution.
Because I want labels to be eliminated in Venezuela. Because I want more Pedros, Eliases, Marias and Williams than officialists or squalids. Because I like to add. Because we did not elect this Government to divide citizens, to confront neighbors, to turn friends into enemies, to divide families. Because I want a Government that understands that we don’t have patriots and anti patriots. That we are all people.
Because I agree with any immediate help to cover the emergencies of the poorest, like the Missions for example, but I prefer a Government that, instead of always inventing new activities out of its own programs, confronts its job and takes charge in a continuous and responsible manner, hospitals, public safety, elementary and high schools and jump starting the economy. Because I want a state with plans and evaluations, in permanent combat against misery and not a sporadic producer of special effects.
Because, in reality, I am also tired of all these people that want to save the country, that want to save us all Venezuelans. I only want to be the savior of my private life, a martyr of my conflicts and anxieties, a hero of those I love, of what gives me pleasure and gets me close to that which is called happiness.
*Translated by Miguel Octavio
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