myriam-h;3971851 a dit :
Je pense pas qu'on va faire deux articles sur Hugo Chávez, mais tu peux m'envoyer la lettre pour que je la traduise et je la posterai ici en te mentionnant !
tessy;3971247 a dit :
@lysalice : j'avais pas vu ton message, moi ça m'intéresserait énormément de lire ça! Mais une question: quand tu dis "vénézuelienne expatriée", ça entend quoi, elle vit aux Etats-Unis depuis combien de temps?
Je reviens ici assez tard mais mon amie m'avait demandé d'attendre un peu car la situation au Venezuela était assez tendue et elle voulait sortir du pays d'abord car son passeport allait expirer et ils ne voulaient pas lui renouveler étant donné qu'elle était de l'opposition... C'est maintenant chose faite
Je ne sais pas combien de temps elle a vécu aux US car elle était une connaissance plus qu'une vraie amie (on avait 2 cours ensemble et on papotait mais on ne s'est jamais vues en dehors des cours).
Voilà donc sa lettre: "Dear Mr. President Hugo Chavez Frias,
Welcome back to Venezuela! Yesterday, February 18th, you have caused a great commotion as people flooded the streets and celebrated with fireworks your arrival from Cuba after two months in intensive care for cancer. However, the uncertainty of your health still plagues an entire nation. I must remind you that, once again, you have violated the constitution on January 10th by failing to take the presidential oath publicly in Venezuela. And I would like to ask you, when you entered Caracas from the airport, were you as astonished—or even as aware as I was, when I came back to my country after a three-year absence—to see all of the poverty that still permeates the mountains covered with slums? Perhaps you were too busy planning your next act of injustice against your political opponents. Who’s next? Honestly, I hope you’ve arrived safely to the Military National Hospital, but then again you have the luxury to afford an entourage that keeps you safe from the rampant crime that robs many Venezuelans, rich and poor, from the simple act of making it home safely after a day’s work.
If all of this is your idea of a revolution, then let me ironically congratulate you for maintaining such a vast populace of support yet such a divided and repressed society that keeps political prisoners locked in houses or refuged abroad. Let me criticize your interpretation of socialism as you brainwash “el pueblo” with refrigerators that are no longer packed with food due to shortages across the country. And let me dare you to live, just for a day, the life of a common Venezuelan living in one of the most dangerous capitals in the world, Caracas.
Venezuela has been known for political corruption, but, along with the corruption that now bears the name of “Revolución Bolivariana,” this government punishes those who speak against higher officials and who fight to uphold the few checks and balances that are left, if any. Let me remind you, Mr. President, that you’ve clawed onto power for fourteen years. As your pictures painted across murals tell the story of success, the government reigns through institutional abuses. The Supreme Court interprets the constitution according to the ideology of “Chavismo,” destroying the possibility of judicial independence. The National Assembly grants you broad powers to legislate by decree, which you blatantly use to criminalize several political opponents without actually prosecuting them. These institutions are not for the people; instead, they answer to your demands and supply you with unlimited power.
If you can’t recall any names or think I carry an elusive capitalist agenda, let me remind you of a political prisoner who once was a former Supreme Court Judge: María Lourdes Afuini. According to the Human Rights Watch 2012 Report, Judge Afuini was detained in 2009 on charges of treason for having released Eligio Cedeño, a banker and outspoken opponent of yours. How can this honorable judge be locked in her home or in clandestine jails without any formal trial just because she did her job by freeing a man whose pretrial detention had expired according to Venezuelan law? I won’t even dwell on the charges of human rights abuse that your government has committed against the judge during her pending home arrest that include intimidation and physical rape. It suffices to highlight the fact that her innocence stands undisputed by any court demonstrating the politics of intimidation that your government lashes against any of those who dare to follow the laws or uncover corruption cases. This revolution that thrives on intimidation and uncertainty—expropriations, persecution, charges of corruption, control of every political institution including the military, and censorship of the media—have harmed this country, if not more than, the same way the corrupt governments preceding yours have.
And what about the government’s mismanagement of resources and price controls that, instead of helping the poor, have resulted in food shortages depriving the entire population of the most basic staples such as flour, milk, sugar, and chicken? From east to west and north to south, Venezuela has a diverse flora and fauna from deserts, beaches, mountains, and jungles—all terrain that provides not only oil but also the right conditions for vast agricultural production and burgeoning tourism. Maybe you disagree after having created PDVAL, an organization that has subsidized meals to many of Venezuela’s poorest citizens according to the official government website, but why does my seventy-four-year-old grandma have to wake up at four in the morning, enter the supermarket after standing in line for two hours, and end up buying two pieces of chicken, one pack of sugar, and two bags of powdered milk? The food situation in Venezuela is deplorable and sickening, because our citizens deserve these food staples not only at a low cost but also in enough quantities!
Therefore, I ask you what is the source of this problem? Do not try to blame the capitalist degenerates or the Americans, because PDVAL is in charge of food production and it’s under your jurisdiction. The problem, Mr. President, is your government’s mismanagement of our resources that are benefiting a few but making them dependent on government favors, to secure votes for you during election season. Certainly, it is not a lack of resources, since for generations past our people have been aptly producing what ends up being invisible on the shelves of our supermarkets. Stop preaching conspiracy theories and looking for someone to blame, because you have, unfortunately, nationalized every industry in the country, like the phone industry, water plants, pharmaceutical companies and transportation services—all deplorable, dilapidated, destitute or non-existent.
As you try to move forward with your new term, I know you will fail to make the necessary economic decisions that will favor the “pueblo,” because your thirst for power depends on their dependence on the government. As long as you are in power, my fellow Venezuelans will suffer daily from food shortages, contaminated water sources, lack of basic medical supplies like anesthetics, pain killers, and protective gloves in hospitals, from electrical “apagones” keeping families in the dark, and from prices that, instead of being low, are only controlled to hide the almost thirty percent inflation that alarms even the International Monetary Fund and our allies of MERCOSUR. These are the fruits of your Revolution.
And if repression, persecutions, food scarcity and hunger weren’t enough to threaten the basic survival of Venezuelans, the security situation matches that of Mexico’s, with a war on drugs, or Afghanistan’s, after more than a decade of war. According to insightcrime.org, Venezuela’s murder rate topped more than 70 per 100,000 in 2008 making it the most dangerous country in South America and awarding Caracas the label: murder capital of the world. The amount of guns feeding the organized crime scene continues to be ignored while your government tolerates and even entertains close relationships with terrorist organizations like the FARC of Colombia or the Bolivarian Liberation Forces. A possible explanation to this issue, as illustrated by the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), is the alarming impunity in our prosecution system that, in 2009, filed 91% of murder investigations without the arrests of any suspects. How can we possibly solve the crime problem that keeps every Venezuelan in fear when our streets overflow with guns, when our government stands in solidarity with terrorists, and when our justice system reeks of impunity?
If this is your “Revolucion Bolivariana,” then shame on you! Do not be overwhelmed with the amount of information, do not think this is an exaggeration on my end, and please do reflect on all of these issues that plague the daily life of Venezuelans. This country and its people do not need a radical change of government; they need a progressive road towards an all inclusive, prosperous and safe democracy. They don’t need another oppressive and corrupt regime, but dialogue, checks and balances, and independent institutions are imperative. They need to be able to walk into a fully-stocked supermarket and make it back home safely. Food security and crime shouldn’t be a concern for any country at this time, but it is the reality of your so-called “socialism in the 21st century.” Please, stop inculcating lies in your followers with slogans like “Nation, Socialism or Death” or “Chavez: Venezuela’s heart,” because you can’t hold on to power for much longer or ignore that your own health has set the expiry date of your self-destructive presidency that has torn apart, hungered, and criminalized Venezuela.
Sincerely,
Andrea Cristina Clark Gomez"
