They Called It Socialism. We Lived a Dictatorship.
When I was 11, in December, 2005, I left my home in Caracas to go to school and never returned. That was the day the Hugo Chávez regime falsely accused my mother of killing the attorney general with a car bomb.
Her real crime? She was a journalist telling the country and world that Chavez was quickly establishing a dictatorship, with the help of the Castro regime in Cuba, in our once-wealthy, once-democratic nation.
My mom went into hiding for a month until she made the painful decision to escape in a boat through Curazao. She did not want to go into exile; at that time, she believed that meant giving up the fight. But she had no choice — the regime had shown they would not need evidence to condemn her to decades in prison, as they had already done to other dissidents.
We rebuilt our lives in Miami while so many were still praising Chávez for “making socialism work.” My mother kept fighting chavismo from exile, and I became an American, losing hope in a free Venezuela, while never forgetting the sadness of having our country stolen.
Eventually, nearly nine million Venezuelans were forced to flee the country we love, as first Chávez and then Nicolás Maduro used our oil wealth to buy the backing of Russia, China, and Iran, establishing a system of tyranny.
For years, as our democracy was destroyed, famous stars used their platforms to whitewash our dictatorship and repackage our suffering as “democratic socialism.” Danny Glover accepted $18 million from Hugo Chávez to produce a propaganda film that was never even made, and no one seemed to bat an eye.
Yet suddenly, everyone claims deep concern over our oil. The hypocrisy is hard to ignore.
The arrest of Maduro has revealed how deeply chavista propaganda has taken hold. From the safety of their own democracies, many now defend our dictator, motivated more by their opposition to Trump and U.S. imperialism than by any real concern for Venezuelans.
But for us, it was the first glimpse of justice we had seen in 26 years, the first moment that made recovery of our motherland feel possible again.
In a misguided attempt to defend the “weak,” many in Western democracies have ended up defending our oppressors instead. Yet these same voices remained silent about our refugee crisis—the largest in the history of our hemisphere—and about the thousands who were killed, jailed, or forced into exile.
Many progressives go on about ‘international law’ and ‘sovereignty,’ while Venezuelans have not seen a glimpse of either for decades.
We, the victims of dictatorships backed by Russia and China, like the Iranians, understand something deeply: our tyrants have never cared about international law. These regimes have been waging war on their own unarmed people for generations. There is nothing peaceful about condemning us to endless cycles of fear, misery, and violence.
Yet this is exactly what those who call themselves “anti-war” demand, shouting over our voices as we try to explain our reality. In the name of peace, they ask us to accept our oppression quietly. In the name of morality, they protect the systems that are killing us.
Our countries were destroyed by dictators backed by Russia and China. But they refuse to listen to anything that might challenge their worldview, even when it comes from those of us who have lived through the consequences.
Venezuela is not at war. It is under a brutal, socialist dictatorship that has been propped up by the global left for decades as my people were killed.
And while Venezuela is not yet free, we have hope for the first time in a very long time. As recent polling from Venezuela shows, the support for Maduro’s arrest and our opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is overwhelming.
Over the coming weeks, Venezuela’s future will be decided, and anyone who cares about democracy should be on the side of the people, not our oppressors.