Something very deep has “Glory to the brave people”, Venezuelan anthem, so that its people get excited every time they sing it. Much more so on days like this Saturday, when stanzas like “down with chains” and “the poor man in his hut asked for freedom” resonated from east to west of the country and in corners of half the planet, where the eight million Creoles who fled from Chavismo live.
This October 22nd already marks a new historical milestone of resistance and the fight for freedom thanks to the achievement of the opposition primaries, which exceeded all expectations. Self-managed elections that triumphed against all odds, against the abuses of the regime and against the friendly fire of those who are already playing to collaborate with the Bolivarian revolution. In short, people made the process their own to shout for change.
Popular enthusiasm transformed the difficulties into a citizen feat, which has reached the end thanks to the efforts of the National Primary Commission (CNP), with its president, Jesús María Casal, at the helm, and the persistence of Washington, which imposed as a sine qua non condition for the signing of the Barbados Accords between the government and the opposition.
If Nicolás Maduro wanted licenses to sell his oil at a better price, he was obliged to allow a process that has become a headache for Chavismo, given the direct criticism of the candidates and the growing popular fervor towards the conservative María Corina Machado. Social researchers and foreign agencies have been surprised by the enthusiasm that has aroused in the most popular neighborhoodswhere the leader of Vente Venezuela, always in pristine white, is compared to Commander Hugo Chávez who won his first elections in 1998.
In those same popular neighborhoods of Caracas, the interior of a country destroyed by Chavismo, in the cities spread throughout the world that already host eight million emigrants, the great diaspora of the planet. Even in Barinas, the cradle of the revolution that no longer wants any more revolution. “I have voted for change to end this dictatorship and be able to see our families back. To have the Venezuela that we love so much,” Erasmo Castillo, with three children outside the country, told EL MUNDO.