By: Gabriela Yareliz
I think we all woke up knowing the world was shifting right beneath our feet.
I woke up to the headline below, and clicked into it wondering if this was real. (A sort of déjà vu for Latin America and those who know its history).
Mandoka, a Venezuelan cookbook author based out of Miami, said she was having champagne with breakfast. She also had a passionate post that articulated a lot of the mixed emotions many Latin Americans have—
Around noon, the President and Secretary of State were still addressing the nation.
After sunset, helicopters were hovering all over the Meatpacking District, the West Side Highway was closed. At that point, Citizen App was telling us:
Then, in SW Brooklyn, swarms of NYPD were centered on the prison near Industry City, in Sunset Park. (Luigi, are you there?)
No one knows what will happen next or how this will unfold. Maduro is no saint, and the Venezuelans have been slaves to a disastrous system, to put it lightly. The U.S. has a way of intervening for its interests and has, at times, failed and at other times, succeeded.
Anti-war demonstrations have begun. Fighting is rampant on social media. Many want to be ideologues or listen to the ideologue, but in the end, that is never the voice that counts. It’s not the voice that should count.
The only voice that matters here is not the politician or socialist, it’s not the superpower, it’s not the military voice or the voice of a person who has benefitted from corruption or the voice of the ones privileged enough to hold views that will never touch him or her— the voice that counts is the one of the person who has been robbed by the whole system of it all. As Mandoka rightly points out, the Venezuelan people have suffered for decades. Suddenly, all eyes are on them. The question then becomes whether the U.S. will do right by them. More importantly, will the Venezuelans achieve what every human is wired for— freedom?
GABRIELA YARELIZ 