Venezuela: A Tired People

Caridad

HAVANA TIMES – An extreme tiredness is evident on the faces of many people in Venezuela. Most comments on the street coincide in one detail; we are fed up with the extremes. We are fed up with the manipulations of the government, its inefficiency, its corruption; We are fed up with the delusions of the traditional opposition parties. The vast majority don’t want to relive the sad and harsh experiences of 2014, the year of the “guarimbas” violence.

But for those in the middle of the struggle for power, and for a group of low-paid fanatics, violence is the perfect breeding ground for their aspirations.

While most of us who live in this country conclude each day exhausted from work and the search for the essentials to live; While a few try to carry out projects for the good of the community or our environment; While others went on vacation or to fulfill their religious obligations during Holy Week; The senior government representative presented “evidence” of an alleged coup in progress. Some evidence that, instead, reveals him as a violator of human rights.

Also sad is the fact that those who protest on the street do it in the worst ways, violating the rights of their fellow citizens, and even of animals in some cases.

The extremes are touching each other more and more in their atrocities. Both sides look for a greater part of the Venezuelan people to join them in this vicious circle.

Maduro throws wood into the fire bringing in hundreds of militiamen from other states and announcing the delivery of arms to each of them, so that they remain in Caracas. More guns? More blood?

As always there are the dead. Personal revenges take advantage of the turmoil, repressed cravings and frustrations are released with stones or weapons in their hands. It no longer matters what is defended or why one fights. The human being always ends up forgetting these things when the blood begins to color his pupils and his hands.

The driver of a van voices in distress that a good president would grab all the extremists of one side and the other, put them in a stadium and shoot them in front of everyone. In this way, for him, this anguishing polarization would end.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to eat properly. Common folk continue to lose weight, the symptoms of the sick grow and there are epidemics that were thought to be eliminated. Children, the elderly and women carry the worst burden in families, when it comes to poor diet, overwork or family violence. Economic crises exacerbate domestic violence.

While one part of the opposition rushes forward violently, the other waits crouching.

The merger between the two sides of power is increasingly clear.