Clifton Ross recently published his political memoir documenting his conversion from Chavismo to the opposition. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife and co-editor, Marcy Rein, and their two cats.
For decades, the Berkeley campus of the University of California has been a mecca for the American left. So, for it to gather some important voices on Venezuela who are not part of the regime’s propaganda network meant an opportunity to discover the awful truth of a country in crisis. Can it open some eyes?
We are focusing on how long the regime has resisted and how impatient the opposition is on Twitter, while an important threat for the Venezuelan dictatorship emerges: the information on the criminal deeds of Maduro and his cronies coming to the hands of the U.S. from Hugo Carvajal.
In this essay, a veteran of the American Left traces the evolution of the mind frame among activists that links a leftist ruling party with the people, melting both categories into one single blind spot. This is how the Left became unable to see a dictatorship in the Maduro regime.
Instead of a siege from abroad, the Venezuelan people are already besieged by its own government: the Maduro regime has submitted the population to control by hunger, like some totalitarian systems of the past.
The Bolivarian Solidarity Left only cares about the past, about staying in power and about what they believe to be true. Doesn’t matter how many Venezuelans die or suffer under the system they consider ideal.
“Like the state of the economy, politics, the environment (think ‘Arco Minero’), situation of indigenous peoples, the living conditions of the average Venezuelan, the state of Venezuelan journalism is also dire, and getting worse.”
Proyecto Salto helps individuals and entire families leave the country, providing immigrants with resources to start their new life abroad. It’s no easy task, and they need support in order to keep doing it.
The most recent World Happiness Report determines Latin Americans are fairly happier than other regions. However, shouldn’t Venezuelans be the happiest people on the planet due to the fact that we have an entire ministry devoted to it?
The far left in the U.S. still seems to be more worried about protecting its ideological certainties than in listening to Venezuelans’ legitimate grievances.
As part of our lead-up to a World Premiere, Clif describes his tour through regions of Europe where many hope to follow in the footsteps of the Bolivarian Revolution.