Urban Arson

Hugo Chavez looks for a clue.

Hugo Chavez won a referendum last night which allows him unlimited term limits as “President” of Venezuela. Why a non-dictator would feel the need to extend his term indefinitely is beyond me. Well it isn’t beyond me so much as I understand it completely and I’m making a loosely veiled attempt at sarcasm. That is to say I whole heartedly believe Hugo Chavez, “President” of Venezuela, to be the tyrannical dictator of a country which is badly in need of a Revolution.

My mother is from Venezuela and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 13. She graduated high school at 16 and went to Rice University where she met and married my father. My mother and I have been to Venezuela several times together and while she continues to return every few months or so, I haven’t been in years. I’m afraid that I will never again see the cool blue waters which wave in and out of its shores. By the time they realize their mistakes that cool blue will be a murky oily brown with beaches too polluted to sustain life.

I refuse to return to Venezuela until this man is out of power. I cannot in good conscience return to a country full of people who in the face of such tyranny, continue to party and carry on like nothing is happening to their beautiful homeland. Their rights slowly diminishing, Chavez continues to make small yet meticulous strides, every day removing liberties and striking more freedoms from their Constitution. 

Venezuela is going bankrupt and will soon be in the socialist/communist toilet of its cousins, USSR, China and Cuba with bread (arepa) lines forming at the crack of dawn and extending until all the bread i sold 20 minutes after going on sale. A population of 25 million, (75% of which live in shacks as big as a bathroom made from scrap metal, particle board, and cardboard) will drop to 15 million, the entire population living in said shacks.

The country was very poor when I used to visit and it’s worse now. Chavez is mishandling their economy and making enemies, not friends with the world. Venezuela will continue to go down the tubes until some brave souls rise up to fight their oppressors. Please remove the chains of bondage which this man has cast upon you over these 10 years and return your country to its proper owners; a united Venezuela for and by its people.