VenEconomy: The Power of Three Democratic Voices 
 From the Editors of VenEconomy
Latin American Herald Tribune
January 27, 2015

There is nothing more powerful than the voices that are raised to demand freedom and justice for the oppressed peoples, particularly when those voices come from proven democrats of international recognition.

Three former Latin American presidents arrived in Venezuela this week to attend "The Citizen Power and Democracy Today" forum held in Caracas, organized by the leadership of the country’s Democratic Unity (or MUD) opposition party.

These three gentlemen are Andrés Pastrana (Colombia), Sebastián Piñera (Chile), and Felipe Calderón (Mexico), three democrats who, undeterred by all the previous insults coming straight from the mouth of President Nicolás Maduro, came to this country to see and suffer in the flesh the rigors of the so-called "Socialism of the 21st century."

They experienced, for instance, how visitation rights of political prisoners are violated at the Ramo Verde military prison in Miranda state, when both Pastrana and Piñera ran into a military wall that, following the orders of the Office of the Vice-President and without any valid reason, denied them to visit opposition leader Leopoldo López, the mayor of the San Cristóbal municipality in Táchira state (Daniel Ceballos) and other Venezuelans in situation of imprisonment. They witnessed the long and obvious queues of desperate citizens at the doors of supermarkets trying to make it in in order to buy some food. They were struck by all the empty shelves found in grocery stores and retailers everywhere in a country that boasts the "biggest oil reserves in the world." And they attended two "very hard and heartbreaking" meetings where they heard about the experiences of journalists and victims of human rights violations.

And today, as they all have announced to the press, they will strengthen their efforts to take the oppressive reality of the Venezuelan population to the world, in order to achieve the freedom of political prisoners and restore democracy in Venezuela. They are betting on a democratic transition and without borders in Venezuela, and urged citizens to not lower their guard.

Among other guidelines that Calderón says were applied in Mexico in his fight to achieve democracy are: the unity among democrats and civil society; that political actors leave aside their leading role; citizen participation; not using violence but dialogue and demonstrations as a way to convince adversaries, as much as those still undecided for a political side. "While applying convincing strategies of non-violence may not change the heart of an adversary, they will have to change the hearts of the spectators."

And if the statements of Pastrana, Piñera and Calderón were categorical and blunt to describe the critical situation in Venezuela, a letter from Oscar Arias, the former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was simply devastating (http://analitica.com/actualidad/actualidad-nacional/no-hay-conspiracion-extranjera-que-explique-las-colas/).

Among other realities, Arias said in his letter that "in a way, the situation Venezuela is going through not only demonstrates its fiscal deficit, but also its democratic deficit. The public institutions that have been undermined over the years, the entrepreneurship that has been hampered, the opposition that has been taken out of the way, the separation of powers that has been canceled, are forces that would have prevented the country from getting so close to the abyss. A democracy channels popular discontent in an efficient way. A democracy rights the wrongs quickly. Hugo Chávez and Maduro took care of stifling that response capacity. Now Maduro rather clenches his fist with greater force, trying to silence those who speak out."

But, as Piñera summed it up: "The time has come to dream of a free Venezuela, of a democratic Venezuela, and of a Venezuela that is respectful of human rights." Because human rights "are not something that the State grants through bright humor. We are born with them. Nobody gives them to us and no one has the right to take them away from us."

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