The arrest of the president of the Venezuelan Soccer Federation is the more recent milestone in a series of events that show how, no matter the discipline, Venezuelan sports have also been taken over by the national crisis
We’ve seen on social media all kinds of heartwarming videos of neighbors entertaining each other during the quarantine. In Venezuela, the regime only offers militarization in the place of a collective response.
National Assembly deputy Gilber Caro disappeared last December, and almost one month later we finally have news of him. This outrage is actually common for a deputy who endures hell time and time again, with his convictions intact.
The British journalist who wrote the book that inspired the movie Invictus was rejected at the airport by the Venezuelan regime. What if he had been allowed his entry and we’d talk about sports and reconciliation?
One month ago, deputy Gilber Caro, one of the regime’s usual suspects was taken by SEBIN. Since then, neither his family or Voluntad Popular, same party of caretaker President Guaidó, have heard from him. He disappeared. Why?
After Cristal Palacios shared with us her concept of “peace privilege” to explain the inability to understand Venezuela from the comfort of development, Manuel Llorens takes the cue to propose another dimension of the phenomenon: everyone tends to reduce the contemplation of pain.
Following the old Roman custom of bread and circus, the Maduro regime has been menacing the country’s baseball and soccer football teams to support the illusion of normality. But as we just saw in a protest in Maracaibo, the players are refusing to follow orders and are standing with the common people.
Turns out, it’s not only chavistas who remain in denial, who alter and distort reality or have trouble admitting and dealing with facts and existing, real life problems. Now, these problems extend to opposition leaders and citizens, too.
We know what every political prisoner is being subjected to. Unfortunately, Gilber Caro, substitute deputy to the National Assembly, is no exception to the dictatorship’s rulebook of psychological torture, isolation, coercion and an overall unfair process.
We’ve been able to hang on for 19 years in one of the craziest media landscapes in the world. Now, the difficulty level was raised abruptly with the global pandemic. We’ve seen different media outlets in Venezuela (and abroad) cutting personnel to avoid closing shop. This is something we’re looking to avoid at all costs, and it seems we will. But your collaboration goes a long way in helping us weather the storm.