I am Venezuelan. I live in Venezuela and I have lived here all my life. If this sounds like a defense before an attack then it's because it is, since other Venezuelans are wary about other people speaking for us and will immediately jump to insults or dismissal—and I understand, because I am also wary.
This mainly stems from years of apathy from other countries in south america, from years of mockery about the lack of food during our worst crisis, from years of arrogance as we suffered a dictatorship.
“If WE had a Maduro in our country, we would immediately get rid of him” most said, as videos of students defending themselves from the Venezuelan military with worn down cardboard shields were released, alongside videos of students getting run over by Venezuelan military tanks.
When we stayed we were weak idiots who couldn't defend their country and when we left we were treated like a dangerous plague. There was only hatred for us and when there wasn't, there was nothing.
Personally, I am apathetic to what other neighbor countries in south america have to comment about our situation. To be clear, worry over what this means for their homes is completely valid. To tell us how we should feel is another thing.
But even in my indifference I was surprised to find several english speakers insist any Venezuelans expressing complex feelings online about our situation—something more complex than black and white; a common sentiment I've seen echoed is “this invasion is bad, but I'll still celebrate Maduro's capture”—were CIA agents.
I should mention by now the constant dismissal of a dictatorship in our country from mostly english speakers has frustrated a lot of us deeply, so this is just perceived as another way to deny our suffering.
It's so offensive it circles back to being kind of silly, but alright. “All voices should be heard, it's just some voices should be more heard than others,” but alright.
I suppose I'm hoping anybody outside this situation understands why Venezuelans will immediately dismiss anybody who attempts to speak over us and our dictatorship and the current events as if we are not aware of what we're going through or what we could now go through.
Please do not speak over us. We won't listen to you.
Consider following villainsandvictimsalliance as they're also Venezuelan and they're sharing updates about this extremely sensitive situation in our country. Thank you for reading.
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