Venezuela: Maria Corina, Beware!
HAVANA TIMES – I feel a deep admiration for those who fight for their convictions and rights, people always willing to face real risks without fear of the consequences, which, fortunately for those of us who love freedom and the enjoyment of our citizen prerogatives, are never lacking.
The most recent display of heroism, with a tragic result, was exemplified by the candidate for the presidency of Ecuador Fernando Villavicencio, who, in the face of the numerous threats to which he was subjected, said: “The only thing they can do is kill me, and with that we liberate an entire people.” This was an example of exceptional value, because he was aware that he was going to be killed.
The murder of Villavicencio did not intimidate other Ecuadorian candidates and freedom fighters. Nor those who, in other countries – such as María Corina Machado in Venezuela – are immersed in an electoral campaign in which the assassins are also the referees.
The fiefdoms of Castro-Chavism are oiling their weapons. In Nicaragua, the nefarious Ortega-Murillo couple has increased repression against priests and other citizens. However, the resistance is not extinguished, as demonstrated, among others, by Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lago.
In Cuba, with almost sixty-five years of resistance, there are 1,047 political prisoners according to Prisoner Defenders. Among them, José Daniel Ferrer and families such as the Navarros – father and daughter in prison – Félix and Sayli, whose mother is a Lady in White. The same happens in Bolivia, where the recycling implemented by Evo Morales and Luis Arce Catacora has raised the number of political prisoners to more than 200, including former president Jeanine Áñez.
Venezuela, one of the countries where the opposition suffers the most, is in the middle of an electoral campaign, facing all the obstacles that the autocrats of organized crime are capable of. Specifically, the almost-certain electoral fraud. There are, according to reports from the Criminal Forum of Venezuela, at least 282 political prisoners, including the former student leader and former deputy Juan Requesen, who suffers the harassment and abuses of the henchmen of the Castro-Chavista dictatorship who, evidently, share the common denominator of violating the human rights of those imprisoned.
However, opponents of dictatorships do not cease in their struggle for freedom, as evidenced by the presidential candidate María Corina Machado, who, over the years, has reliably demonstrated that she has plenty of moral integrity, talent and willingness to face the dangers that Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello or any of his henchmen put on the path of the struggle for freedom.
Her participation in the civil organization Súmate – of which she was one of the founders and executive director – demonstrated a great capacity for work and the necessary courage to insist on the defense of constitutional rights, including electoral rights, always threatened by the scam of the so-called socialism of the 21st century. In addition, she faces the constant manipulation of the National Electoral Council executed by Chávez, of which Maduro has demonstrated a supreme mastery.
It is possible that, as never before in the past – and although they have always been present – women feel the threat that the proposals of the despots of Castro-Chavism mean to the integrity of the family, dangers in the face of which they have taken transcendental steps that have led them to the leadership positions to which they are entitled.
The constant and unlimited participation of women in these libertarian movements has been on a par with that of men. Consequently, in the electoral processes, the one that can best serve must receive the greatest popular support, without gender having any relevance.
The engineer and former deputy Machado is the favorite candidate of the Venezuelan electorate. She has always shown a firm attitude, without capitulation to Chavismo, which has led the henchmen of the despots to beat her and threaten her numerous times.
María Corina Machado has always been a stone in the shoes of the despots of her country, just like other women in Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba who have never given up the fight. This has been done for decades by Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello and the aforementioned political prisoner Sayli Navarro, who, since childhood, when her father went to prison, has denounced Cuban totalitarianism.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba