alright. there's a lot happening right now.
for those who don’t know me, hi, i’m spikermonster, and i’m a venezuelan artist. i’ve been sharing my art on the internet since i was a kid. i was born here in caracas and i’ve never moved out. the only time i’ve ever left the country was in 2001, when i was 9 and my dad took me to disney world.
i’m saying all this because it’s important that people know that i’m someone who actually lives here and has always lived here, so i don’t get anyone in my mentions trying to dismiss anything i say because they think i live in another country or whatever. you might think i don’t owe anyone this much of an explanation, but i feel like i do, because i’ve seen the way americans snarkily dismiss anything venezuelans say about the issue if it’s something they can’t wrap their heads around. they don’t even try to look at it from our perspective. suddenly every venezuelan who speaks up online is secretly a CIA shill. with all due respect you guys are fucking insane. all you’re doing is silencing venezuelan voices and you don’t even realize it. do i blame you for thinking that way? no, i don’t! because the CIA is terrifying and the US sucks, trump sucks, we all know this. but you care WAY more about hating your own country (as valid as your reasons may be) than you do about actually listening to people from other countries. so thanks for making me do all this extra work just to speak about my country.
last night the US military launched airstrikes in venezuela and there were also troops on the ground. i heard the planes and explosions. i’m not able to see the city from my apartment but i could hear everything, the sounds were unmistakable and unlike anything i’d heard before. i was scared shitless. however this is something we’ve been all mentally preparing ourselves for, since as some of you might know, the US had been besieging venezuela for several months via the caribbean sea. still, you might think you’re ready for a moment like this but trust me, you’re truly not, and you realize that real quick once it actually happens.
please know that my family and i are safe. the places that were targeted were specifically military bases and points of interest like that, it wasn’t a random bombing against civilians with lots of casualties or anything. at the time of me writing this post, there’s only one confirmed civilian casualty, and according to some sources it might be around 40, the large majority of which were military. i have not been able to confirm this though. i’m not saying this to downplay the importance of the situation, i just want to get some facts straight because there’s a lot of fearmongering and sensationalism revolving around the issue.
that being said, it was still the single most terrifying thing i’ve lived through. this should’ve never happened. we should’ve never reached a point where a foreign military intervention was needed. yes, needed. because we never would’ve been able to get rid of maduro ourselves, trust me, we’ve been trying for several years. maduro needed to be taken care of. if you don’t know why, i encourage you to do your own research on the venezuelan crisis and how we ended up in a dictatorship (maybe pick up a few pointers so you can recognize that trump himself is becoming a dictator pretty quick, but i think you might’ve noticed already.) now, i’m hearing that this move from the US was apparently not exactly legal but i’m gonna be honest with you: we don’t care. “but they’re just after your oil” we don’t care. we’re just glad maduro is finally out. whatever happens with him now is up to the US. or the UN if it ever decides to stop being useless and step in. i really have no energy in me to think of what this means for the US, all i can think about right now is what’s going to happen with my own country.
btw if you’re an american and posted this meme reacting to current events:
i’m gonna need you to get a grip and sit down because this isn’t about you. this and overdramatic angry apologies on behalf of your government are displays that don't show any solidarity towards venezuelans, because you’re literally just making it all about you. you you you, it's always all about the USA. reel it in and listen to venezuelans for once, my god. get some perspective. why is it always americans trying to make every world issue an american issue. no, the venezuelan military isn’t gonna retaliate against your country because they’re pathetically underequipped. you guys are gonna be fine (in a way, i guess, the US has a lot of other issues to worry about)
so what happens now? i have no idea. i truly have no fucking idea and at this point i’m too exhausted to think about it. i didn’t sleep last night. things might be a bit bad before they can get better, but this? this is a step in the right direction. i know that sounds hard to believe but again you have to understand and see this from a venezuelan perspective. there are plenty of other venezuelans explaining things a lot better than i am, i fear this post might be a bit disjointed because i’m so tired and overwhelmed. so again, please look into what’s happening, do your own research, AND LISTEN TO VENEZUELANS.
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