The headlines about the Venezuelan election make me want to cry. Predictably, another presidential election has been stolen in favor of Nicolas Maduro, president since 2013, despite credible evidence that the opposition won overwhelmingly. The authoritarian regime prevailed as usual promising more of the same, political corruption and disastrous economic policies for a nation that was once heralded as a model for a democratic Latin American republic.
Venezuela was my introduction to Latin America. I first went there in December 1978 and continued to visit for the next five years. At the time the nation was enjoying prosperity from its oil revenues and Venezuelans were riding high. In 1978 there were 4.2 bolivars to the U.S. dollar, today the exchange rate is over 36.
The time I spent there straddled the good times and the beginning of the downturn that led to the election of Hugo Chavez in 2013. I remember the increase in street venders and panhandlers in Caracas that served as a barometer of how things were for regular people. The worse things got, the more motorists were besieged by people hawking merchandise, their arms covered with wrist watches.
My arrival in Venezuela coincided with the election of Luis Herrera Campins in 1979. Called “cochino” by many, Campins presided over the demise of the good times when many middle class Venezuelans still enjoyed second homes in Aruba and shopped in Miami. It was the beginning of the end for the Venezuela I knew when it was safe to walk the streets in Maracaibo and the expression “los Maracuchos son volado” ( the people fly or are happy crazy) spoke to their joie de vivre. Most of my Venezuelan friends with the means or fluent in English moved to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. To date over 3 million Venezuelans have fled their country and more are threatening to leave if Maduro remains in power. For them, the economy is in shambles, crime is rampant and there is no hope for the future.
Venezuela is beautiful from Pico Bolivar in the Andes to the Parque Nacional Canaima with its iconic Angel Falls, the Orinoco River, and the beaches and many islands along the Caribbean coast. Further Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world as well as the llanos, a vast tropical grassland used for pasture and agriculture.
Today the headlines tell the story. Venezuela is broke, oil production is down dramatically and most people live in poverty. The Bolivarian revolution promised by Hugo Chavez that initially helped the people turned into an authoritarian regime interested only in enriching itself and making common cause with communist and socialist countries, including Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia.
Many of my Venezuelan friends left homes and businesses behind as well as family and cultural ties. Today, millions more who cannot leave are subjected to brutal conditions trying to get by day to day. And increasingly many continue to leave, many risking their lives to come to the United States via the tortuous Darien Gap.
Don’t forget Venezuela.