Let Freedom Ring in Venezuela!

I was a 10-year-old boy in communist Romania, behind the newly-created Iron Curtain, that separated the communist hellhole of the Soviet Bloc from the rest of the Free World. In a few short years of oppression, my family was deprived of all human rights. It began with the aggressive expropriation of the agricultural land and real-estate property and the creation of collective farms. Within a short period, the firearms, communication tools, typewriters, cameras and many personal assets including jewelry and bank accounts were confiscated. Then, the lack of basic amenities and food supplies ensued, leading my family and millions of other Romanians into a period of deprivation and starvation. Until then, Romania had the richest natural resources, from its lush forestry to gold mines and from the Danube Delta to the largest oil fields in Europe. By 1950, no sooner the vast majority of the Romanian population was at the communist government’s mercy, an endless period of government dependency followed suit. In a matter of 10 years, that rich country had the poorest people in Europe! Romanian oligarchs had stolen blatantly and enriched themselves by stashing the loot in secret offshore banking accounts. Indeed, Communism sucks! So far, my fellow patriots does it resemble today’s Venezuela to you, 70 years later in the very technologically advanced and dynamic 21st Century? Did you know that just as Romania, 50 years ago, Venezuela was the wealthiest country on the continent, from the natural resources point of view? Back then, it was twice richer that China or Japan and the number one economy on the continent. It had a currency second only to the US Dollar in the western world! Today, just like Romania, has the poorest people and the most devastated economy! Venezuelan oligarchs copycatted the European communist regimes and stashed billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. Communism sucks! Back to my old country of Romania at the peak of the communist tyranny, as a young boy I stood in long lines daily, to buy rationed bread. I remember when the inflation and monetary devaluation made the Romanian currency, as worthless as, the Venezuelan one today. My poor mother used to give me One Million Lions (the official currency) and send me to the nearby bakery store to lineup for a loaf of bread. It was the daily ration for a family of five, as forcefully assigned by the tyrannical regime. Once I reached the counter, after a couple of hours standing in line, the rude employee would tell me that the price had doubled in one day.

Hello Venezuela! You were the richest country in South America not too long ago! Look what the communist tyranny has done to you and your good people!

With grief in my heart, I would return to the squalid apartment we all shared with another family of three, to report the bad news to my poor mother. She used to cry day in, day out and I did not seen her smile for many, many years. Without hesitation she would pull out another banknote of One Million Lions and tell me to hurry up to the baker before the price would go up again. Alas, when I arrived at the counter after lining up another hour or so, the sadistic baker would tell me that the shop had run out of bread. “Come back earlier tomorrow, comrade,” he used to say. “But make sure that you bring a few more Million Lions just in case the price goes up overnight!” Hello Venezuela! You were the richest country in South America not too long ago! Look what the communist tyranny has done to you and your good people! You’ve lost the best of your educated citizens via emigration; you have confiscated and ruined the best tropical real-estates in the Caribbean paradise; you have starved your people that remained locked up behind your borders! Your communist oligarchs are duplicating the Romanians by stealing you blind! You are now duplicating to perfection the Eastern European economic disaster of the 50s, and the Cuban tragedy of the 60s! Wake up Venezuela! The tyrannical regime promoted by Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Guevara, Allende, Sandino and the likes, did not create prosperity and equality for all. It created an oppressed society in which everyone is equally poor, miserable and hungry! …Let Freedom Ring, Venezuela!