Hugo, the Revolution, and I
When I see our industrial cemetery where because of a stupidly negotiated trade deal and stupid foreign-exchange policies so many Venezuelan illusions lie with nothing else to show for except more unemployment, I know that Hugo and I wish for a revolution.
When I see that the United States places an effective 60% protective duty on orange-juice concentrate and allows importing only the absolute best quality, while Venezuela applies only a 20% duty, and is drowned in imports of the worst-quality leftovers, and thereby sentences our orange groves to death, I know that Hugo and I wish for a revolution.
When I see our country sign treaties on intellectual-property rights that oblige us to respect what amounts to renewable sources of income of the developed world, while we only get 25 dollars for sacrificing our nonrenewable barrel of oil, though in some places the consumer pays the equivalent of 150 dollars per barrel because of the local gasoline taxes, I know that Hugo and I wish for a revolution.
When I see the very unjust income distribution in my country, the horrendous inefficiencies of our fiscal spending, and see how the efforts to collect income taxes are abandoned for sales and other indirect taxes just because they are easier to collect, I know that Hugo and I wish for a revolution.
When with bad conscience, I reflect on how through decades we have kept silence about a lousy education system and about the obscene and violent programs through which our TV channels indoctrinate our youth, I know that Hugo and I wish for a revolution.
When I see my Venezuela submerged in anarchy without any authorities capable of or willing to control the small percentage of abusers, I know that Hugo and I wish for a revolution.
But when Hugo calls his revolution a daughter of the Chinese or the Cuban revolution, I also know quite well that Hugo and I don’t speak of the same revolution.
My revolution would pursue only the humble goals of providing a decent and good government for the Venezuelans, and of seeing that, if it makes mistakes, it would assure that these would at least occur while trying to favor our country. My revolution would gladly welcome the foreign investor, but would be happy only when it manages to retain the Venezuelan investor. In my revolution—except for strengthening the OPEC by extending it to gas and inviting new members—achieving a pragmatic solidification of the Colombia-Venezuela relations, and working toward a rational environmental solidarity with the world, we would not have resources or time to spend on any other geopolitical considerations.
Even though I feel that selling Cuba some 53 thousand barrels of oil per day in too generous conditions is a venial sin compared to the not-so-long-ago proposals of selling 5 million barrels to the world at only 7 dollars a barrel, the fact is that as long as a Venezuelan dies of hunger, does not get a good education or a decent health service, my revolution would not give anything to anyone, except of course for what could be expected from human solidarity in emergencies like tsunamis and hurricanes.
Hugo has an amazing talent to communicate pedagogically Venezuelan messages to our nation and, in this respect, for those who believe that the future requires building many bridges of understanding he is an extremely valuable asset. Therefore, anyone who has access to Hugo, please beg of him not to waste his talent talking to his “Sovereign People” in Chinese with a Cuban accent.
